OMM Redaksiyası
The US Senate has rejected a motion to advance a resolution concerning human rights practices in Israel and the occupied West Bank, according to the text of the Senate vote.
The motion sought to discharge S. Res. 852, introduced by Senator Chris Van Hollen, from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It failed to secure the required support, with 47 senators voting for it and 51 voting against.
Senator John Fetterman voted against the motion, while Republican Senator Rand Paul supported it. Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and Dan Sullivan did not vote.
What the resolution sought
The proposed “Israel Human Rights Practices” resolution called on the State Department to provide Congress with information about human rights conditions in the West Bank, including the circumstances surrounding the deaths and detention of US citizens.
Before the vote, Van Hollen urged senators to support the measure, saying it would require the State Department to report on “the growing violence and human rights abuses taking place in the West Bank, including against American citizens.”
Van Hollen said nine US citizens had been killed in the West Bank over four years by what he described as “violent Israeli settlers” or members of the Israeli security forces.
Van Hollen questions accountability
The senator said the US government had repeatedly identified protecting American citizens overseas as its top priority. He alleged that American citizens had been killed while violent Israeli settlers continued to “terrorize civilians” in the West Bank, in some cases with the complicity of the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Van Hollen also questioned whether the US government had done enough to seek 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.
