Peter Oborne
Not so long ago, a friend took me to Beita, the Palestinian village where Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot dead by an Israeli sniper on September 6.
It should have been an easy journey, but for the fact that to get there, you have to pass through Huwwara, the site of a notorious settler pogrom, as burnt-out buildings testified.
Armed settlers dominated the streets, with snipers in hidden vantage points looking on. If you are Palestinian you will be stopped and questioned by an Israeli soldier pointing a gun at you.
Once through the checkpoint we turned left and drove up the hill to Beita, where my friend pulled up outside a children’s park.
No children were there. Swings, slides and sandpits had all been abandoned.
“It used to be so pleasant to come here,” said my friend. “It’s impossible now because of settler attacks.”
We walked through the park, from where we had a fine view across a valley to the settlement on top of the hill opposite.
“Don’t go any closer,” said my friend. “The military to be sure will be watching us. They might shoot.”
Deliberately targeted
The settlement, named Evyatar (translation: God is great), was founded by the radical settler movement Nachala.
Backed by funding from the United States, Nachala’s ambition is for Israel to annex both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
In early 2021, the settlers illegally occupied the hill opposite Beita, known to locals as Jabal Sabih. They built 50 permanent structures, including a playground, a synagogue, a religious study hall, a grocery store, a power grid and fully paved roads.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s security minister and head of Israel’s far-right Jewish Power party, visited Evyatar in June 2023 in a show of support.
Operating with the tacit consent of the Israeli military, Nachala seized about 1,000 dunams (10.76 million sq ft) of land, which had belonged to Palestinians since time immemorial.
Every Friday (sometimes more often), the youth of Beita come out to protect their land. They throw stones and set tyres alight, but they don’t pose any serious danger to well-armed Israeli soldiers.
Since March 2020, 17 of them have been killed. Many others have been injured.
On September 6, 26-year-old American-Turkish citizen Eygi became the latest to die after she joined these protests.
Those who witnessed the shooting say she was deliberately targeted with a shot in the head. All witnesses agreed she was nowhere near any violence at the time she was killed.
As clashes developed, Eygi moved away to a safe place. One anonymous witness, interviewed for Zeteo, said: “As Aysenur went down the hill, she helped a 62-year-old volunteer who had difficulties walking. She was nervous for her. They hid behind an olive tree, believing they were in a secluded area. They believed they were safe.”
It was at this point that Aysenur was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper.
In cold blood
The circumstances are hauntingly similar to the killing of another international activist, Tom Hurndall, shot in the head in Rafah by an Israeli army sniper in April 2003.
As with Eygi, the Israeli sniper was approximately 150m away. In the case of 22-year-old Hurndall, ballistics experts were adamant that at that distance, there could have been no doubt about the intent to kill.
On Monday evening, I rang up Tom’s mother, Jocelyn Hurndall.
Hayb pleaded a rather dubious defence of ‘disregard’. He argued that his intention was to shoot Hurndall’s earlobe and not to blow his brains out
She told me how the killing of Eygi had brought Tom’s death back to her.
Both were targeted in cold blood. She recalled the lies told by the Israeli army after Tom was killed. They seem to be lying again over Eygi, saying that troops were firing “at an instigator of violent activity” when she was killed.
Jocelyn Hurndall told me that “the soldiers knew what they were doing when they shot Tom”.
She recalled how it was impossible to get then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to condemn the Israelis for killing her son.
Redolent of the silence from US President Joe Biden - apart from a White House statement that said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of a US citizen.
The Hurndall family conducted its own thorough investigation, with the aid of Israeli lawyers. Though Blair refused to get involved, Labour MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Burden, were active in their cause.
As a result of their efforts, the Hurndall case is the only example where Israel was forced to open a full military inquiry. For the first and only time, an Israeli soldier was indicted and successfully prosecuted for manslaughter.
The Hurndall family were clear in their belief that the soldier, Taysir Hayb, should have been prosecuted for murder.
‘Peaceful resistance’
As I left Beita with my guide, I paused at a wall which commemorated the men - “the guardians of the mountain” - who had been shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
My guide was insistent that none of them was armed.
One was a 41-year-old water engineer, Shadi Alshurfa, who was shot dead while dealing with the village water main.
“We only use peaceful resistance,” my guide told me. “We never use firearms. We have come to terms with ourselves about the idea of death.”
The guide told me that the entire community became involved when the protests were at their height.
“Barbers would come up in the morning and shave the protesters. Women melted down their gold to finance the protests. We paid for it all ourselves. It cost 40,000 shekels a night paid for out of our savings.”
On September 6, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi became the 16th guardian of the mountain to die at Beita. All the evidence suggests that she was murdered by an Israeli soldier in cold blood.
Jocelyn Hurndall does not believe there can be justice. She said on X that the killing of Eygi was “an opportunity for Biden to publicly condemn the shooting of an American and to try to change the US’ unconscionable support for Israel.
“It may be conducting a process but it’ll be dishonest, there’ll be no statements from any eyewitnesses except from the IDF.”
The American president told the world earlier this year: “If you harm an American, we will respond.”
Let’s see if he keeps his word.
(Peter Oborne won best commentary/blogging in both 2022 and 2017, and was also named freelancer of the year in 2016 at the Drum Online Media Awards for articles he wrote for Middle East Eye.)
