by Andrew Bernard
Sen. Tim Kaine urged “Israeli leaders to take firmer action to curtail illegal settlements in the West Bank, prosecute violent settlers and protect Palestinian residents as well as American citizens living in or visiting the West Bank.”
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| Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) questions U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin during a hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on June 2, 2026. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. |
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced their intention on Thursday to introduce a resolution demanding that the State Department report on “violent Israeli settlers” in Judea and Samaria.
Kaine said that the “Israeli government’s lack of response to this violence” was “unacceptable” and threatened “the long-term safety and security of the entire region.”
“The violence committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank is reaching an unprecedented level, and as a result more and more Americans and Palestinians are being killed and injured,” Kaine stated.
“Friends need to listen to each other, and my colleagues and I have repeatedly urged Israeli leaders to take firmer action to curtail illegal settlements in the West Bank, prosecute violent settlers and protect Palestinian residents as well as American citizens living in or visiting the West Bank,” he stated.
The text of the resolution, which would require the secretary of state to submit a report to Congress about Israel’s human rights practices and information about nine U.S. citizens killed in Judea and Samaria since 2022, includes a lengthy preamble accusing Israel of human rights abuses.
“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,” the resolution says, quoting a report from a coalition of Israeli human rights groups.
Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) joined the trio as co-sponsors of the resolution.
The resolution comes a day after Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) led 45 of the 47 Democrats in the Senate in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to curb “fatal violence by settlers.”
The letter alleges that there has been a recent “surge in violence on both sides” but focuses on the “large-scale response by Israeli security forces, mass arrests of Palestinians and reported attacks by settlers on mosques.”
“Incidents of fatal violence by settlers have reportedly already surpassed 2025 levels and continue to increase,” the senators wrote.
“We write particularly on behalf of American citizens who have been killed or threatened in such violence,” they said. “Many of us have heard first-hand from their families and other constituents who have themselves been threatened without cause by settlers.”
Sanders, one of Israel’s fiercest critics in the Senate, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), one of its staunchest defenders, were the only two members of the Democratic caucus who did not sign the letter.
Israeli officials have long disputed reports from the United Nations and human rights groups purporting to show disproportionate violence from Israeli settlers directed towards Palestinians.
They argue that data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs falsely attributes Palestinian attacks on Israelis as “settler violence,” among other errors.
The issue of alleged violence in Judea and Samaria has gained greater attention in the United States after a lengthy confrontation between the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli civilians at the house of a Palestinian-American in the Arab village of Qusra earlier in August.
The resolution from Van Hollen, Kaine and Sanders is privileged under the Foreign Assistance Act. After it is formally introduced, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has 10 days to consider it, after which it can be brought to the Senate floor for a vote.
Andrew Bernard
Source: https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/van-hollen-kaine-sanders-to-introduce-resolution-on-violent-israeli-settlers
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