Turkish President Recep Erdoğan speaks after a signing ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, Sept. 4, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Murad Sezer)
After the death of an anti-Israeli activist with U.S. and Turkish citizenship during a protest in Samaria on Friday, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, called for Islamic countries to unite against Israel.
“The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Islamic countries,” Erdoğan said, adding that recent improvements in relations with Egypt and Syria are aimed at “forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of [Israeli] expansionism.”
“His comments came after the death of a young woman, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi – a Turkish-born U.S. citizen – during a protest in the town of Beita in central Samaria (the northern West Bank) on Friday.
Eygi died after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers, according to Palestinian reports.
The IDF has so far only confirmed that soldiers fired a small number of bullets at a “main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them,” amid a riot that saw Palestinians throw stones and burn tires.
“A claim that a foreign citizen was killed by gunfire in the area is being investigated. The details of the incident and the circumstances of her being hit are under investigation,” the IDF added.
Eygi (26) had been studying at the University of Washington, where she was a known left-wing activist and organizer of protests against the Gaza War.
She was in Beita while taking part in a volunteer program by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group that has been linked to terror organizations.
ISM in the past has recognized “the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence and occupation via legitimate armed struggle.”
According to an Israeli court ruling from 2012, ISM “abuses the discourse on human rights and morality to blur the severity of its actions which manifested de facto as violence,” adding that the group’s activists “provided financial, logistic and moral aid to terrorists.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reacted to the death of the U.S. citizen by saying, “We deplore this tragic loss,” offering his “deepest condolences” to the family of Eygi.
When asked by reporters if the incident would lead to U.S. action against Israel, Blinken said: “First things first – let’s find out exactly what happened and we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.”
“When we have more info, we will share it, make it available and, as necessary, we’ll act on it,” he said. “I have no higher priority than the safety and protection of American citizens wherever they are.”
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller added that the department was “urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death and will have more to say as we learn more.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry called the incident a “murder committed by the Netanyahu government.”
“Israel is trying to intimidate all those who come to the aid of the Palestinian people and who fight peacefully against the genocide. This policy of violence will not work,” the statement read, also accusing the State of Israel of committing “crimes against humanity.”
