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Democratic US Sen. John Fetterman joined nearly every Republican senator on Tuesday in voting against a resolution that would have required the Trump administration to produce an unclassified report on Israeli abuses in the illegally occupied West Bank, including the imprisonment and killing of Palestinian Americans.
The resolution, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), narrowly failed 47-51, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joining every Democrat except Fetterman in supporting the measure. Van Hollen and other supporters of the resolution lamented the failed vote but celebrated the historic support it received as public opposition to Israeli atrocities — and US funding of Israel’s military — continues to grow.
“Tonight, 47 senators supported my resolution to get accountability for the nine Americans killed on the West Bank and for Palestinians who face injustices daily,” Van Hollen wrote in a social media post. “That’s more support than we’ve ever had in this fight. Republicans blocked us, but we won’t stop until we get justice.”
In 2024, just 11 senators — all members of the Democratic caucus except Paul — backed a similar resolution led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“Listen to the American people: NO MORE MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL,” Sanders wrote in response to Tuesday’s vote.
If passed, Van Hollen’s resolution would have required the US State Department to issue a report within 30 days on Israeli human rights practices in the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced a historic level of violence by Israeli settlers and soldiers this year.
The resolution, which invoked Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, specifically called on the Trump administration to provide “all credible information of which the Department of State is aware concerning the alleged killing of United States citizens by the Israel Defense Forces, other Israeli security forces, or Israeli settlers since January 1, 2022,” as well as “an assessment on any United States citizens currently held in Israeli prisons.”
Under the Foreign Assistance Act, a failure to produce the required report would have resulted in a freeze on some US military assistance to Israel.
Josh Ruebner, policy director at the IMEU Policy Project, said that while the resolution “narrowly failed” due to near-unanimous Republican opposition, “make no mistake: this is historic.”
The resolution’s text highlights the case of Sama Safi, a 20-year-old Palestinian American student with a chronic health condition who was abducted by Israeli forces during a West Bank raid in June and has reportedly been detained without charge for months.
On Tuesday morning, Zeteo highlighted the case of Abdalkareem Issa Ahmed Safi, “an American teenager with Texas roots” whom Israeli forces snatched “from his family’s West Bank home in the middle of the night” in late June. Zeteo noted that he is the third young American known to be “languishing in Israeli prison.”
“Only one Republican voted to even somewhat hold Israel accountable for acts like this,” Zeteo’s Prem Thakker wrote late Tuesday.
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