SENATE RESOLUTION 852--REQUESTING INFORMATION ON ISRAEL'S HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES PURSUANT TO SECTION 502B(C) OF THE FOREIGN ASSISTANCE ACT OF 1961

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Record: Senate Floor
Section type: Floor speeches
Chamber: Senate
Date: September 14, 2026
Congress: 119th Congress
Why this source matters: This section came from the Senate floor portion of the record.

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Bills and resolutions: S.Res. 852 (119th Congress)
Committees: Committee on Foreign Relations, Committee on Foreign Affairs

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Senate Resolution 852--requesting Information On Israel's Human Rights

PRACTICES PURSUANT TO SECTION 502B(C) OF THE FOREIGN ASSISTANCE ACT OF

1961

Mr. VAN HOLLEN (for himself, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Markey, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Welch, Mr. Heinrich, Ms. Warren, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Smith, Mr. Lujan, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Coons, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Mrs. Shaheen, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Whitehouse) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

S. Res. 852

Whereas protecting and supporting United States citizens

abroad is one of the foremost responsibilities of the United

States Government;

Whereas, since January 2022, at least nine United States

citizens have been killed by violent Israeli settlers or

Israeli security forces in the West Bank, including Omar

Assad, Shireen Abu Akleh, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad

Khdour, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, Amer Rabee, Sayfollah Kamel

Musallet, Khamis Ayyad, and Nasrallah Abu Siyam;

Whereas the killings of these Americans in the West Bank

have been met by a lack of accountability from the Netanyahu

government and an inability to secure justice by the United

States Government;

Whereas, in January 2022, Omar Assad, a 78-year-old United

States citizen, was stopped at a checkpoint in his village of

Jiljilya, dragged by Israeli soldiers from his car, and left

lying on the ground outside with his hands bound behind his

back, gagged, and blindfolded, where he died of a stress-

induced heart attack;

Whereas, in May 2022, Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-

American journalist, referenced by some as the “voice of a

generation”, was shot in the head and killed near the Jenin

refugee camp by Israeli security forces while she wore a vest

clearly marking her as a journalist;

Whereas, in January 2024, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, a 17-year-

old American boy, was shot in the head and killed, reportedly

by an Israeli settler, an off-duty Israeli police officer,

and an Israel Defense Forces soldier, while driving east of

Ramallah;

Whereas, in February 2024, in circumstances similar to

Tawfic Abdel Jabbar's killing, Mohammad Ahmad Alkhdour,

another 17-year-old American boy, was shot twice in the head

while driving, reportedly by Israeli forces, near the town of

Biddu;

Whereas, in September 2024, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-

old American raised in Seattle, was shot in the head by an

Israeli soldier from a distance of 200 meters;

Whereas, in April 2025, Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee, a 14-

year-old boy from New Jersey, was shot and killed at the

entrance to Turmus Ayya by Israeli security forces, with

reports suggesting he was shot a total of 11 times by two

different guns;

Whereas, in July 2025, Sayfollah Kamel Musallet, a 20-year-

old American from Florida who was visiting family in the West

Bank, was beaten to death by violent Israeli settlers during

a settler attack on the town of Sinjil, where eyewitness

accounts report that settlers and Israeli forces impeded

ambulance access for more than two hours;

Whereas, on July 15, 2025, Ambassador Mike Huckabee called

the killing of Mr. Musallet a “criminal and terrorist act”

and stated “there must be accountability”;

Whereas, in August 2025, Khamis Ayyad, a 40-year-old

Palestinian-American and father of five, died of smoke

inhalation after violent Israeli settlers set homes and cars

on fire during an attack on the village of Silwad;

Whereas, in February 2026, Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a 19-year-

old American born in Philadelphia, was shot and killed in the

West Bank village of Mukhmas, near Ramallah, by violent

Israeli settlers during an attack on Palestinian farmers;

Whereas, in August 2026, Khamis Rabee Jabara, an 82-year-

old Palestinian American, was hospitalized after Israeli

soldiers used a flashbang grenade against him and then

confiscated bystander footage of the incident in the village

of Turmusayya;

Whereas the Israeli government has failed to address this

pattern of violence against Americans in the West Bank and

hold perpetrators accountable;

Whereas United States Federal agencies, including the

Department of Justice and the Department of State, have

either failed to open their own independent investigations

into these killings or have not provided substantive

information on the status of existing investigations;

Whereas, in February 2025, Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old

American boy from Florida, was arrested and held in pre-trial

detention for nine months where he was denied any contact

with his family until his release on Thanksgiving Day 2025;

Whereas the United States Embassy officials and lawyers who

met Mohammed in person told his family that he lost close to

one-quarter of his body weight, contracted scabies, and was

beaten and tortured during his imprisonment;

Whereas, in June 2026, Sama Safi, a 20-year-old

Palestinian-American student, was detained in a series of

raids targeting students at Birzeit University, and she

remains in detention in an Israeli military prison;

Whereas, in July 2026, Adam Wajeh Abdelfattah Karakrah, a

16-year-old Palestinian-American boy, was arrested, and

moments before he was set to be released after his family

paid bail, the Israeli authorities decided to hold him for an

entirely new case, and he remains in pre-trial detention in

an Israeli military prison;

Whereas hundreds of Palestinian children are detained and

prosecuted in the Israeli military court system each year

while Israeli children in the West Bank are subject to

Israeli civil law;

Whereas, according to the Public Committee Against Torture

in Israel, “since October 7, 2023, living conditions in

Israeli prisons and military detention camps amount to

torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” and

dozens of Palestinian detainees have died while in Israeli

Prison Service custody and at least 44 in military camps.

“Human rights organizations have documented widespread

abuses, including physical beatings, sexual violence,

harassment, and threats—pointing to systemic and deliberate

mistreatment. In military camps, detainees have reportedly

been held in outdoor cages, blindfolded and handcuffed around

the clock, forced to kneel for extended periods, and

subjected to punishment for the slightest acts of

disobedience.”;

Whereas, according to public reporting, Palestinian

prisoners held in the Sde Teiman military prison were

subjected to widespread physical and mental abuses, including

one prominent incident caught on video of Israeli soldiers

sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner;

Whereas, as of December 2025, the Israel Prison Service

reported holding 351 children;

Whereas, since October 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have

barred the International Committee of the Red Cross from

visiting any Palestinian detainees in Israeli places of

detention;

Whereas, since 2000, Israeli military authorities have

detained, interrogated, prosecuted, and imprisoned

approximately 13,000 Palestinian children, according to

public estimates;

Whereas, according to the United Nations Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, from October 7, 2023

through October 16, 2025, more than 1,000 Palestinians—

including 210 children—were killed in the West Bank,

including East Jerusalem, by settlers, Israeli security

officers, or jointly by settlers and the military;

Whereas, in 2025, the Israeli government approved 54 new

official settlements, established 86 new outposts, and

advanced the planning of 27,941 settlement housing units by

the Higher Planning Council—each marking a new record high,

according to Peace Now;

Whereas, according to the United Nations Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there were 1,828

settler attacks against Palestinian residents resulting in

bodily injury or property damage in 2025, and those attacks

included the slaughter or theft of livestock, the destruction

or uprooting of thousands of olive trees, and the

destruction, confiscation, or theft of water pumping

equipment;

Whereas, between 2005 and December 2025, more than 93

percent of 1,685 police investigations into settler violence

in the West Bank concluded without an indictment, according

to Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, and only 6.7

percent concluded with an indictment, and only 50 cases, or

three percent of the total investigations monitored, ended

with full or partial convictions;

Whereas there have been no convictions for the deaths of

any Palestinian civilians killed in the West Bank by Israeli

settlers since 2020, and there has been only one indictment

against a settler on a charge of killing a Palestinian in

that same timeframe since 2019;

Whereas The Platform, a coalition of 13 Israeli human

rights groups, reports that “the military's deliberate

failure to stop settler incursions into Palestinian lands and

communities combined with minimal enforcement by the police,

prosecution, and judicial system; the lack of effective

investigation and accountability; and the public and

political support for violent settlers by ministers and

Members of Knesset, demonstrate that, in practice, settler

violence is state-backed”;

Whereas, in its annual report for 2025, the Rossing Center

for Education and Dialogue documented 155 cases of attacks

against Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem, including 61

physical attacks on Christians, 52 attacks on church

properties, 28 cases of harassment, and 14 instances of

defacing public signs, and reported that “the current

government in particular has been criticized for failing to

reduce crime, and instead turning `violence into a political

instrument ... an opportunity to advance a broader political

agenda' ”; and

Whereas there has been a sharp rise in violent Israeli

settler attacks against Christian communities in the West

Bank: Now, therefore be it

Resolved,

SECTION 1. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON ISRAEL'S HUMAN RIGHTS

PRACTICES.

(a) Statement Requested.—The Senate requests that the

Secretary of State, not later than 30 days after the date of

the adoption of this resolution, submit to the Committee on

Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign

Affairs of the House of Representatives, pursuant to section

502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.

2304(c)), an unclassified statement regarding Israel's human

rights practices that has been prepared in collaboration with

the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights,

and Labor and the Office of the Legal Adviser at the

Department of State.

(b) Elements.—The statement submitted under subsection (a)

should include—

(1) 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,

including the killings of—

(A) Omar Assad;

(B) Shireen Abu Akleh;

(D) Mohammad Khdour;

(E) Aysenur Ezgi Eygi;

(F) Amer Rabee;

(G) Khamis Ayyad;

(H) Sayfollah Kamel Musallet; and

(I) Nasrallah Muhammad Jamal Abu Siyam;

(2) a description and assessment of the killings described

in paragraph (1), including—

(A) the status of any ongoing investigations by the United

States or Israeli authorities into the killings;

(B) all credible evidence identified or obtained by the

Department of State, the Department of Justice, or other

United States officials, including all information provided

to United States officials by representatives of the

Government of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, or

nongovernmental organizations;

Department of State, the Department of Justice, or other

United States officials pertaining to the identities of

individuals considered potential suspects in the killings and

the security force units to which such individuals belong, if

applicable;

(D) details of any steps taken by Israeli authorities to

investigate the killings and to hold accountable those

responsible, and details of any diplomatic communications by

United States officials requesting such action by such

authorities;

(E) the declassification of any prior assessments made

about any of the killings; and

(F) any other information related to the killings;

(3) a determination of whether there is credible

information about—

(A) the identity of the individuals responsible for any of

the killings described in paragraph (1) or the Israeli

security force units to which such individuals belong; and

(B) whether such units would be implicated by section 620M

of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d) or

section 362 of title 10, United States Code;

(4) an assessment on any United States citizens currently

held in Israeli prisons, including—

(A) a list of all United States citizens held in Israeli

prisons; and

(B) a description of each case, including why they are

being held, if United States Embassy officials have visited

them in prison, the conditions they are being held in, any

credible reports of mistreatment, and whether they have been

charged with a crime;

(5) a description and assessment of the human rights

situation concerning Palestinian children in Israeli military

detention in the West Bank, including—

(A) how many children are detained under Israeli military

law;

(B) under what charges such children are detained;

attorney;

(D) whether such children experience any forms of

mistreatment, including torture;

(E) at which detention facilities have any gross violations

of internationally recognized human rights occurred, and the

identity of any individuals or Israeli security force units

responsible for those violations or located at or operating

in those facilities; and

(F) how Israel's juvenile detention standards for

Palestinians compare to United States juvenile Federal

performance-based detention standards;

(6) a description of the steps that the United States

Government has taken—

(A) to promote respect for and observance of the human

rights of United States citizens and Palestinian children as

part of the Government of Israel's activities in the West

Bank;

(B) to mitigate the risk of violence by Israeli security

forces and Israeli settlers to United States citizens and

Palestinians in the West Bank;

accountable the individuals responsible for the killings

described in paragraph (1) and, as applicable, to identify

the security force units to which such individuals belong;

(D) to investigate and hold accountable the individuals and

units described in subparagraph (C); and

(E) to discourage any practices that are inimical to

internationally recognized human rights; and

(7) any other information that the Secretary of State

considers relevant to this request or otherwise relates to

the commission of gross violations of internationally

recognized human rights by Israel.

Rights Defined.—In this section, the term “gross violations

of internationally recognized human rights” has the meaning

given that term in section 502B(d)(1) of the Foreign

Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2304(d)(1)).

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Senate Resolution 852--requesting Information On Israel's Human Rights

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