US senator calls for State Department report on West Bank violence

US Sen. Chris Van Hollen called Tuesday on the Senate to advance a resolution requiring the State Department to provide Congress with information about violence and alleged human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank, including incidents involving American citizens.

Van Hollen made the remarks on the Senate floor while seeking to discharge S. Res. 852 from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The resolution, introduced by Van Hollen and a group of senators, requests information on Israel's human rights practices under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

"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," Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen said nine US citizens have been killed in the West Bank over four years by “violent 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 terrorize 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 questioned whether the US government had done enough to pursue accountability for Americans killed or detained in the West Bank.

“How many more Americans must die in the West Bank before this administration takes serious, credible steps to secure accountability?” he said.

Van Hollen argued that the treatment of American citizens should prompt broader scrutiny of conditions facing Palestinians who do not hold US citizenship.

“If American citizens can be killed, harmed, or locked up with impunity, imagine what the conditions are for Palestinians in the West Bank who don't hold an American passport, including Palestinian children,” he said.

He also pointed to comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing concern about escalating settler violence in the West Bank.

“Concern is not enough when nine American citizens have been killed,” Van Hollen said. “Concerns are not enough when we have American citizens in military detention.”