Senate blocks Van Hollen resolution on West Bank violence report by 51-47

The US Senate on Tuesday voted 51-47 to block a resolution sponsored by Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, that would have required the State Department to report to Congress on violence in the West Bank, including the killings of nine American citizens by Israeli settlers or security forces since 2022. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman voted against it; Kentucky Republican Rand Paul voted for it.jpost.com+1

The vote matters because it marks a procedural defeat for Democrats seeking accountability over the deaths of US citizens in the West Bank, and because the resolution, had it advanced, would have forced the State Department to assess whether Israel's actions meet the legal threshold of a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights under US arms-transfer law.theguardian.com

What the resolution would have required

Van Hollen's resolution would have given the State Department 30 days to report to Congress on the killings of nine American citizens and on wider human rights conditions in the territory, including Israel's detention of Palestinian children. It would also have required the State Department to report on the status of US citizens held in Israeli prisons or military detention, and on whether the State Department or the Justice Department is investigating the killings.

Van Hollen forced the vote under section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act, a law that lets senators demand human rights reports on countries receiving US military aid. The measure drew 24 Democratic sponsors, including Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the foreign relations committee. The vote was on discharging the resolution from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Nine Americans have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 2022. The most recent include Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old from Tampa, Florida, beaten to death by Israeli settlers in July 2025 while visiting family in the village of Sinjil, and Khamis Ayyad, a 40-year-old father of five from Cicero, Illinois, who died of smoke inhalation after settlers set fire to cars and homes in Silwad. Two 17-year-olds, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour, were shot dead in separate incidents in early 2024.

The nine American citizens killed

Also on the list are Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old raised in Seattle, shot in the head by Israeli troops; Amer Rabee, a 14-year-old from New Jersey, shot 11 times; the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, killed in 2022; and Omar Assad, an elderly man who died after Israeli soldiers bound and gagged him. Van Hollen said none of the cases has ended in accountability from either the Israeli or US government.

Human Rights Watch reported in August that settler attacks, together with a rapid expansion of settlements, had fully or partly displaced 107 Palestinian communities, about 5,900 people, since January 2023. The group cited UN figures showing more Palestinians were displaced in the first four months of 2026 than in all of 2025. A UN report from March covering the 12 months up to October 2025 documented 1,732 settler attacks causing injuries or property damage.

Rising settler violence figures

That same UN report determined that Israel's settlement expansion had forced more than 36,000 Palestinians from their homes. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The UN and most countries consider settlements there illegal under international law governing military occupation; Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed rather than occupied. Violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the territory has risen sharply this year.

Republicans argued the resolution was aimed at cutting security aid to Israel. Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines said on the Senate floor that the sole objective was not justice or accountability for Americans but to cut off security aid to Israel. Van Hollen countered that it was long past time to examine human rights in the West Bank, saying it is our responsibility to ensure recipients of US taxpayer dollars act in line with our laws and our values.

The vote came weeks before US midterm elections on November 3, in which polls show Trump's Republicans could lose their congressional majorities. Netanyahu faces an election in Israel on October 27, which public opinion polls show his right-wing coalition could lose. In August, 45 Democratic senators signed a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to act to protect Americans in the West Bank.

Democrats have shifted on Israel votes over recent years. When Sanders first forced a Senate vote on blocking arms sales to Israel in November 2024, 18 senators backed him. In April of this year, 40 of the 47 Democrats voted to block a $295m sale of bulldozers to Israel, and another 36 voted to block a $152m sale of 1,000lb bombs; both failed because every Republican voted against them.

Van Hollen said after the vote that the United States must do more, and asked colleagues on the floor what would justify a report from the state department if the killing of nine Americans did not. The next scheduled political events bearing on this policy are the US midterm elections on November 3 and the Israeli election on October 27.