Wednesday 30 Sep 2026
Lebanese and Palestinian activists carry posters of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a protest against her killing in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on May 12, 2022. (Photo/Wael Hamzah/ EPA)
The US Senate has rejected a discharge motion to bring forward a resolution introduced by Senator Chris Van Hollen concerning human rights practices in Israel and the occupied West Bank from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The motion to discharge Senate Resolution 852 failed to attain the necessary majority, with 47 senators voting in favour and 51 opposing it.
Cross-party voting emerged during the ballot, with Democratic Senator John Fetterman voting against the motion, whilst Republican Senator Rand Paul voted in favour.
Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and Dan Sullivan did not cast votes.
The measure, titled the "Israel Human Rights Practices" resolution, directs the State Department to furnish Congress with detailed reporting on human rights conditions throughout the occupied West Bank, specifically regarding the circumstances surrounding the deaths and detention of American citizens.
Accountability demands for American deaths
Addressing the floor prior to the roll call, Van Hollen appealed directly to his colleagues to allow the resolution to advance to a full debate.
"I rise today to call up Resolution 852, a resolution to require the State Department to provide Congress with information on the growing violence and human rights abuses taking place in the West Bank, including against American citizens," he said.
Van Hollen pointed out that nine US citizens have been killed in the occupied West Bank over a four-year period by violent illegal Israeli settlers or members of the Israeli security forces.
"The United States government has repeatedly said that our number one priority overseas is to protect American citizens. And yet, as violent Israeli settlers continue to terrorise civilians in the West Bank, American citizens have been killed time and again, in many cases with the complicity of the government of Israel, the Netanyahu government," he said.
The senator challenged whether American authorities have demonstrated sufficient political will to pursue justice for citizens harmed in the occupied territory.
"How many more Americans must die in the West Bank before this administration takes serious, credible steps to secure accountability?" he asked.
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Source: TRT
