By James E. Jennings
ATLANTA, USA | 9 September 2024 (IDN) — “Horror, horror, horror! Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope!” That’s how William Shakespeare described the foul act of murder in his classic play Macbeth.
The news September 6 of the killing of a 26-year-old Turkish-American woman named Aysenur Ezgi by an Israeli soldier should wake Americans up to the crimes being committed every day on the West Bank with official US support.
The beautiful, idealistic young American woman who joined other protesters was unarmed. Her only crime was passionately advocating peace. But now she’s dead shot in the head by an Israeli sniper.
The evidence shows that Aysenur was targeted by an IDF sharpshooter who obviously aimed to kill her, according to eyewitnesses. It happened just after she engaged with others in a prayer vigil and protest of the IDF’s ongoing campaign of senselessly killing Palestinian civilians on the West Bank.
Don’t expect the US government or US media to criticize Israel, even when Israeli troops have murdered her. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, “Just wait and see” what the Israeli military report says, knowing that over the years the IDF has convicted only 1% of soldiers accused of the execution style killing of unarmed civilians.
Senior CBS correspondent Elizabeth Palmer went to the scene and asked the international group of protesters about the killing, complaining among other things to the eyewitnesses, that Aysensur had no experience, and, by implication, no right to be there.
“Did she know that this is a war zone and how dangerous it is?” as if to blame the murder on the victim, not the perpetrator. To one of the group, she said in an insulting voice that, “Essentially they (the protestors) are being human shields.” To his credit, the group organizer said “No! —They are participating in the struggle for liberation!”
Murder is a horror and sacrilege anywhere, but somehow is especially cruel in the Holy Land, and doubly evil when the one murdered is attempting to bear witness and advocate peace in the spirit of the Beatitudes.
Over the decades, killing unarmed civilians has become a repetitive pattern for Israel’s racist, hyper-politicized military and security establishment, who often shoot first and ask questions later, if at all, as is proven by the lopsided casualty figures.
The Associated Press reports that 623 Palestinians were killed on the West Bank since 7 October 2023 compared to 16 Israel soldiers killed. Those one-sided numbers tell all you need to know about what’s happening—the brutal, armed suppression of an entire native civilian population in order to protect colonialist settlers.
While the world watches Gaza and Lebanon, Israel has imposed an unprecedentedly devastating war on the West Bank. The combined result is bloodshed in the Holy Land exceeding that of even the bloodthirsty Assyrians of three thousand years ago.
The killing of innocent civilians has continued for 335 days in Gaza with over 40,000 deaths there in less than a year.
Increasingly in the occupied Palestinian territory the IDF is using the unheard-of tactic of sending tanks, jet planes, drones, and heavily armed cadres against civilians in Palestinian villages and towns on the West Bank, as if there were an insurrection, which is not true.
These savage acts are followed by collective punishment, with bulldozers destroying streets, water, sewer, and electricity services.
Subsequently soldiers search for youths they think may be involved in local resistance organizations and arrest some; but others they kill on sight, whether armed or not. They have collected many of their names from social media, but killing youths for their political opinions or merely on the suspicion of possibly being a member of a resistance organization, violates every principle of international law and does not justify murder most foul.
Israel’s troops have long used similar tactics, beginning in 1967, years before HAMAS’ evil attack of October 7, 2023. Now, however, they have intensified greatly, becoming more destructive than even during the two Palestinian intifada uprisings.
One reason for the IDF’s killing spree and its associated tank-and-bulldozer rampage throughout the Palestinian territories is believed to be that it will support further settler colonization of the area, another violation of international law and of long-held UN and US regulations.
When will it stop? Nearly a million Israeli citizens are in the streets protesting the Likud government’s failure to end the war and secure the return of the hostages, yet somehow the killing goes on.
What might Shakespeare say today when the Israeli leader, Netanyahu, killer of tens of thousands of innocents in Gaza and the Palestinian West Bank, boasts openly about his “achievement” of mass murder? Even more galling is the fact that in the United States, the murderer was welcomed enthusiastically by Congress and invited to the White House.
No decent society can call itself civilized under such conditions. What could possibly justify bombing your peaceful next-door neighbors’ towns, homes, schools, hospitals, roads and water supplies?
Israel’s policy of deliberate carnage on the West Bank is still murdering people month by month, while the IDF’s bombs and missiles continues to commit certifiable genocide in Gaza.
*James E. Jennings, PhD is President of Conscience International www.conscienceinternational.org and Executive Director of US Academics for Peace. He delivered aid to Gaza’s hospitals from 1987-2014, including during the 2009 “Cast Lead” bombing and periods of Israeli, PLO, and HAMAS control. [IDN-InDepth News]
Photo: Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was taking part in a protest against Jewish settlement expansion in the town of Beita, in the occupied West Bank. Source: International Solidarity Movement.