US Senate Blocks Report on West Bank Violence

On September 29-30, the US Senate voted down a measure that would have obligated the State Department to produce, within a month, a report detailing deaths and rights conditions in the West Bank, following the killing of nine American citizens there since 2022 by Israeli settlers or security personnel, the resolution's sponsors said.¹²³⁶

The vote

The measure, put forward by Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, was defeated in a 47-51 tally, the Guardian reported. Had the report not been produced, it could have led to limits on American aid to Israel, according to Arab News, Al-Monitor and Reuters.¹²⁴⁵

Every Republican senator voted against the resolution except Rand Paul of Kentucky, who voted in favour, while every Democrat backed it except John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who voted against, according to Arab News, Al-Monitor and Reuters.²⁴⁵

Nine Americans killed

Van Hollen said the deaths of nine American citizens in the West Bank over roughly four years had not produced accountability from either government. Among the cases the Guardian highlighted was that of Sayfollah Musallet, 20, from Tampa, who died in July 2025 after Israeli settlers assaulted him, with a single-source account describing settlers encircling him for over three hours while preventing an ambulance from reaching him. Khamis Ayyad, 40, from Cicero, Illinois, died from inhaling smoke weeks afterward when settlers torched vehicles and houses, according to the same source. Other cases named included Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour, shot dead in 2024, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi and Amer Rabee, shot 11 times in 2024, according to the Guardian.¹

Van Hollen said: "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."⁷

Rising settler violence

Multiple outlets reported that attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank have surged this year. According to a UN report cited by the Guardian, there were 1,732 recorded settler attacks resulting in injury or property damage during the year ending October 2025. Human Rights Watch found that settler violence and expanding settlements had uprooted roughly 5,900 people across 107 Palestinian communities since January 2023, and that displacement in just the first four months of 2026 exceeded the total for 2025, per the Guardian's single-source account. The same source reported that Israeli settlement growth has driven upward of 36,000 Palestinians out of their homes.¹

Arab News, Al-Monitor and Reuters noted that Israel has held the West Bank under occupation since 1967, and that international law—per the UN and most nations—deems its settlements there unlawful. Those same outlets reported that no country has received more total US foreign aid since World War Two than Israel.²⁴⁵

Political shift among Democrats

According to Responsible Statecraft, 46 out of 47 Democratic senators backed the measure—an unprecedented level of support for this kind of vote—pointing out that a comparable Sanders resolution in 2024 had gone down 72-11. Sanders introduced a comparable resolution on Gaza in January 2024, which received 11 votes, according to the Hill.⁸⁷

Sanders told the Senate: "Enough is enough. The United States cannot continue to bankroll this violence and look the other way, whether in Gaza or in the West Bank," and said, "It's time to end our complicity." Kaine described conditions in the territory as "pretty dire," noting that Israeli media and human rights groups had recorded "significant public instances of attacks on Palestinian communities on the West Bank, for which there has been no accountability."⁷

Montana Republican Steve Daines called on fellow senators to defeat the resolution, stating, "I urge my colleagues to vote no on this resolution so we can stand with our ally Israel as they beat back the scourge of Iranian-backed terrorism." The Guardian pointed out that a separate Sanders effort to halt arms sales to Israel drew 18 votes in November 2024, and that by April 2026, 40 of 47 Democrats opposed a $295 million bulldozer deal, with 36 Democrats voting against a $152 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs.³¹

Wider backdrop

The vote came against the backdrop of the Gaza war, in which tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, and a war with Iran that Arab News, Al-Monitor and Reuters described as unpopular with Americans frustrated by higher energy prices. Surveys referenced by the same outlets suggest Republicans under Donald Trump risk losing control of Congress in the November 3 midterms, while Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition may also lose power in Israel's October 27 election.²⁴⁵

Analyst John Ramming Chappell said it was "remarkable that nearly every Democratic senator voted to scrutinize Israel's human rights record."⁸