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Herald Correspondent

The shooting to death of a 26-year-old American-Turkish activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, by Israeli forces during a peaceful protest against illegal Israeli settlements is a desperate attempt by the occupying force to silence the media and activists, Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dr Tamer Almassri has said.

Eygi was shot in the head in the village of Beita, Nublus, against illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

In the past 50 years, Israel has built illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where more than 700 000 Jews now live, with the extremist and fascist Israeli government proposing to completely annex the West Bank.

Amb Almassri said the heinous crimes against activists and journalists were aimed at silencing the voice of truth and to cover up the crimes of occupation against Palestinians, and to isolate them from the rest of the world.

“The Israeli policy of shoot to kill under the instructions of the military commanders and high level political leaders has turned its soldiers into mere machines to kill Palestinians,” he said.

“This policy should be condemned and the perpetrators of these crimes should be brought to justice.

“The State of Palestine holds the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for this heinous crime, which serves as evidence of Israel’s predetermined plans, designed to escalate the already volatile regional situation further and create a smokescreen to hide Israel’s supremacist Jewish settler-colonialism in the occupied Palestinian territories and extension of its failed genocidal war.”

Before the killing of Eygi, American activist Rachel Corrie and American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, were also assassinated by Israeli forces.

Despite demanding freedom of speech, assembly and media freedom from other countries, the US has not raised even a finger at the brutal, cold-blooded killing of journalists and activists by the Israeli army.

Since October last year when Israel launched a vicious war against Palestine, about 116 journalists and media officials are part of the nearly 41 000 Palestinians killed and over 90 000 others injured.

The number of journalists killed so far is the highest since 1992 when the Committee to Protect Journalists (CJP) started gathering data.

Ambassador Almassri said he is disturbed by the international community’s silence towards the crimes committed against Palestinians by Israeli forces.

He called on the International Criminal Court, along with international human rights and humanitarian organisations, to take immediate action to protect Palestinians.