Senate Defeats Effort To Require Report on Israeli Killings of US Citizens in the West Bank

On Tuesday night, the Senate voted against advancing a resolution that would have required the State Department to produce a report on the killing of US citizens by Jewish settlers and Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. An effort to discharge the resolution failed 47-51 , with just one Republican — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — voting in favor of the measure and one Democrat — Sen. Jon Fetterman (D-PA) — voting against it.

While the vote failed, Responsible Statecraft noted that it received far more support than a similar resolution introduced in January 2024, which failed 72-11. People light candles during a vigil in memory of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American who was killed during an Israeli raid, outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 16, 2022. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma The new resolution was led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and received a total of 25 cosponsors.

“In just over four years, nine American citizens have been killed on the West Bank by violent Israeli settlers or members of the Israeli security forces, and there has been zero accountability,” Van Hollen said in a speech on the Senate floor before the vote, according to The Hill . The nine US citizens who have been killed by settlers and Israeli security forces include Omar Assad, Shireen Abu Akleh, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, Amer Rabee, Sayfollah Kamel Musallet, Khamis Ayyad, and Nasrallah Abu Siyam.

The resolution invoked Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act, a provision allowing either chamber of Congress to demand a State Department report on the human rights practices of a country receiving US military aid. It would have forced Secretary of State Marco Rubio to submit to Congress, within 30 days, a report on what information is available about the killings of the nine US citizens, the status of US and Israeli investigations into the killings, the number of US citizens currently held in Israeli prisons, the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons, and a description of the steps the US government has taken to reduce violence in the West Bank.

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