The bullets Israel used to shoot me and kill Ayşenur Eygi in Beita was funded by the US taxpayer

I was shot by the Israeli army less than a month before my Turkish-American colleague Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi was killed.

The gun Israel used was manufactured in the United States of America, the bullet paid for by my own taxes. 

Both of us posed no threat. In my case, I was running away with my back turned. In Ayşenur's case, as per protocol, she had stationed herself out of harm's way or any heightened risk. For her awareness, she was shot in the head. Despite my escape, I was shot in the upper thigh and hospitalised for days.

Ayşenur's murder was funded by the American taxpayer — this simply must end. Israel has unleashed its murderous solipsism and unleashed hell on the Palestinians and anyone who stands in their way.

Seventeen Palestinian residents of Beita have been killed at the same weekly demonstration that Ayşenur and I attended. 693 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, alongside the over 41,615 Palestinians slaughtered by Israel's genocidal assault in Gaza. 

During my time as an American activist with the non-violent, Palestinian civil protection organisation Faz3a, and Ayşenur Eygi's time at the International Solidarity Movement, we were stationed in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra. Every week, the Israeli army came to harass, intimidate, and shoot at Palestinians. 

Illegal Israeli settlers came to attack both Palestinians — who they see as subhuman — and international activists — who they view with violent contempt — there to provide a protective presence. 

Through the power of our passports and our phones, we hoped to document their crimes and provide a buffer between Palestinians and Israeli forces. 

But as we've seen over the last year, the blood of non-Israelis is not only meaningless, it is praised and humoured. International outrage is either non-existent or fleeting to the point of insult, allowing the American-funded Israeli occupation to beat and kill us with impunity. 

Whilst I was there, I witnessed volunteers being attacked with metal pipes, wooden bats, and rocks that have broken hands, split heads open, causing irrevocable trauma and physical injury. For their sumud, Palestinians have had their cars burnt in settler pogroms, houses razed by the Israeli army, and family members murdered by both. 

US tax dollars fund and enable Israel's genocide

At the Beita demonstration where both Ayşenur and I were shot, Palestinians aim to walk back to the land that was stolen by the Israelis, from which the Ivatar settlement was illegally built. 

After Jummah prayer follows chants and quickly escalates with the violence initiated by Israel. This looks like tear gas and live rounds shot towards the crowd.

Every time they shoot an international volunteer their go-to response is that it was a mistake or unintentional, even when the proof of the bullet going straight through my leg or Ayşenur's head shows an apparent different outcome. 

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As a US citizen and a victim of Israel's state-sanctioned violence, I'm all too aware of my country's complicity in this genocide. We fund Israel's weapons, supply the arms, and repeat Israel's lies.

From Biden's repetition of the beheaded babies myth to the New York Times manipulated claims of "mass rape", the US has blatantly promoted Israel's onslaught.

We witnessed a painful example of this when Biden himself condoned the murder of Ayşenur Eygi, parroting the Israeli army's lie that the bullet — which hit Aysenur square in the head — ricocheted off the ground and hit her "unintentionally". 

Every time there's a massacre in Gaza or ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, we watch and listen to the US press secretaries and national 'security' advisers tell us that either "they're establishing the facts" or, worse yet, "allowing Israel to complete an internal investigation."

Nothing ever happens. For over 200 days, Zeteo's Prem Takker pressed the US on Israel's killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was shot 335 times. At every point, the US press secretary deflected or denied, with their eventual answer being "Israel says it had no tanks in the area." No one was ever held accountable. Like Hind Rajab, no one was brought to justice for Ayşenur's murder. 

Israel's gleeful policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and US complicity must end now. If it doesn't, what is left of our humanity?

As Israel indiscriminately bombs Lebanon, we've seen the so-called liberal international order crumble beneath our feet — the rubble of Beirut and Gaza a symbol for the death of our morality.

We have an opportunity to pressure the United States to stop this. None of us are useless, all of us can do something. Even the smallest of acts matter.

Whether that's persuading our friends to join the solidarity movement, debate, boycott Israeli goods, donate, or read, we need to keep pushing to keep Palestine and the oppressed Arab world into the spotlight, to expose those who support Israel's occupation as war criminals. 

As we approach one year of genocide in Gaza, with the region teetering on the brink of all-out war, action is needed now more than ever. Action is the very least we can do, and what my friend, the activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi would have wanted. 

Daniel Santiago is a Filipino-American activist and teacher from New Jersey. 

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff, or the author's employer.