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Senate Blocks Van Hollen West Bank Rights Resolution, 51-47
(MENAFN) The US Senate on Wednesday blocked an effort to force a vote on a resolution demanding answers about human rights conditions in Israel and the occupied West Bank, falling four votes short with a 47-51 tally.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen sought to pull S. Res. 852, the "Israel Human Rights Practices" resolution, out of the Foreign Relations Committee. The motion to discharge it failed. Sen. John Fetterman voted against it, and Republican Sen. Rand Paul voted for it. Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy and Dan Sullivan did not vote.
The measure would direct the State Department to give Congress information on the human rights situation in the West Bank. That includes the circumstances surrounding the deaths and detention of American citizens.
Ahead of the vote, Van Hollen urged fellow senators to move the measure forward.
"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 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 also questioned whether Washington has done enough to hold anyone accountable 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.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen sought to pull S. Res. 852, the "Israel Human Rights Practices" resolution, out of the Foreign Relations Committee. The motion to discharge it failed. Sen. John Fetterman voted against it, and Republican Sen. Rand Paul voted for it. Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy and Dan Sullivan did not vote.
The measure would direct the State Department to give Congress information on the human rights situation in the West Bank. That includes the circumstances surrounding the deaths and detention of American citizens.
Ahead of the vote, Van Hollen urged fellow senators to move the measure forward.
"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 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 also questioned whether Washington has done enough to hold anyone accountable 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.
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