The US Senate on Tuesday blocked a resolution that would have required President Donald Trump’s administration to produce a report on the killing of nine Americans in the occupied West Bank and on Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children held in military detention.
The measure failed by 47 votes to 53 after Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, brought it to the floor. The vote largely followed party lines, though Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, supported the resolution. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote against advancing it.
Van Hollen used the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to force the vote. The law allows an individual member of Congress to seek a formal State Department report on the human rights practices of a country receiving US security assistance.
The resolution sought such a report on Israel. It referred to a 'lack of accountability' by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an 'inability to secure justice' by the US government.
In a post on X, Van Hollen wrote: 'Violence is raging in the West Bank, & despite the deaths of nine Americans, the wrongful detention of even more, & the daily torment of Palestinians, we have no accountability from the U.S. or Israeli govt'
The vote highlighted divisions in the Senate over US policy towards Israel and the West Bank. Supporters of the measure sought an official accounting of the American deaths and of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. The Senate’s decision left Van Hollen without the support needed for the State Department investigation he sought.
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