A resolution requesting information on Israel's human rights practices pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. Res. 852 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 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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IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

September 14, 2026

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

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RESOLUTION

Requesting information on Israel's human rights practices pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

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; (C) Tawfic Abdel Jabbar; (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; (C) all credible information identified or obtained by the 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; (C) whether and when such children are allowed access to an 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; (C) to urge Israeli authorities to investigate and hold 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. (c) Gross Violations of Internationally Recognized Human 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)). <all>