Politics
American woman killed in West Bank while protesting Israeli settlements
UPDATE (Sept. 7, 2024; 8:50 a.m. ET):This post has been updated to include a statement from Aysenur Egzi Eygi’s family.
A 26-year-old American woman who was reportedly protesting the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank was killed on Friday, prompting an outcry from human rights groups and a White House request for an investigation.
The International Solidarity Movement said the woman, Aysenur Egzi Eygi, was an activist with the group, which supports Palestinian resistance against Israeli oppression.
Eygi, a dual American-Turkish citizen, was in the West Bank town of Beita for a weekly demonstration against the expansion of settlements when the Israeli army “intentionally shot and killed” her, ISM said in a statement. A protester who witnessed the shooting also told The Associated Press that Israeli soldiers killed the woman. Two doctors said she was shot in the head, the AP reported.
The Israel Defense Forces told NBC News that it “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity” who was throwing rocks. It also said that the details and circumstances of a foreign national’s death as a result of shots fired were “under review.”
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said in a statement that they were “aware” of Eygi’s death and are “urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death.”
Eygi’s family said in a statement that she was “killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter,” and urged the Biden administration to launch an independent investigation into her death.
“We welcome the White House’s statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate,” they said, adding: “We call on President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary of State Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties.”
With much of the attention focused on Gaza since Oct. 7, Israeli forces have “unleashed a brutal wave of violence against Palestinians” in the West Bank, Amnesty International reported in February. In the past week, the IDF has conducted a devastating “security operation” in the West Bank, focusing on the city of Jeninwhich houses a large refugee camp. Israel said it killed 14 militants, including the head of Hamas’ presence in Jenin, in the operation. Reuters reported that a total of 21 people were killed in Jeninincluding a 16-year-old girl whose father reportedly said she was shot dead by an Israeli sniper while she was looking out the window of her home. The Israeli military said earlier this week that it was looking into reports of her death.
Eygi is the 18th protester killed in Beita — located about 40 miles north of Jerusalem — since 2020, according to ISM. American activist Rachel Corrieanother ISM volunteer, was engaging in a peaceful protest against the demolition of homes in Gaza in 2003 when the Israeli Defense Forces crushed her with a military bulldozer. (The IDF saidthe soldier operating the bulldozer hadn’t seen her, and that Corrie was responsible for her death for not moving out of the way. Her parents have disputed the military account of her death.) Last month, another U.S. volunteer with ISM was also reportedly shot in the leg by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned extremist settler violence in the West Bank, and the Biden administration has ordered multiple rounds of sanctions on extremist individuals and organizations, and settler outposts. Pro-Palestinian activists and allies, as well as the United Nations’ top courtview Israeli settlements in the West Bank as a violation of international law.
Despite finding Israeli settlements “illegitimate,” pro-Palestinian activists say the Biden administration has not sufficiently pressured the Israeli government against supporting the expansion of settlements on the West Bank. Three extremist settlers who were targeted by U.S. sanctions told the AP in June that those sanctions had little impact on them.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing
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Politics
Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.
President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.
In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.
Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.
Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.
“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.
Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.
“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.
He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”
Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.
“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”
The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.
In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.
“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.
He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”
The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.
“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.
Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.
“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.
He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”
While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.
“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”
Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.
Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.
“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.
He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”
Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.
The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.
Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.
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