Senator Van Hollen urges Senate to advance resolution on West Bank report — Anadolu Agency

US Senator Chris Van Hollen urged the Senate to advance a resolution that would require the State Department to provide Congress with information on violence and alleged human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, including those involving US citizens.

Resolution in the Senate

Van Hollen spoke in the Senate, seeking to bring S. Res. 852 out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The document, introduced by the senator together with a group of colleagues, calls for information on Israel's observance of human rights pursuant to Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

As Anadolu Agency reports, Van Hollen said that nine US citizens have died in the West Bank over the past four years. According to him, they were killed by Israeli settlers, whom he described as violent, or by members of the Israeli security forces.

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Question of accountability

The senator questioned whether the US government had done enough to ensure accountability for the deaths or detention of Americans in the West Bank. He said that violent Israeli settlers are terrorizing civilians and that, in many cases, the deaths of US citizens occurred, according to him, with the complicity of the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Van Hollen also stressed that cases involving Americans should prompt broader attention to the situation of Palestinians in the West Bank, including children. He mentioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio's concerns over escalating settler violence and said that concern alone is not enough, particularly when US citizens are in military detention.