J Street Statement on 47 Senators Voting to Investigate Human Rights Conditions in the West Bank

Washington, DC – Following tonight’s vote on the 502B resolution introduced by Senator Chris Van Hollen, which was supported by 46 of 47 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus and one Republican, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami issued the following statement: 

“The families of the nine Americans killed in the West Bank since 2022 deserve answers. And those who killed them must be investigated and held accountable. We applaud the senators who voted to demand that the State Department investigate the killings of American civilians, along with the status of human rights conditions, in the West Bank. 

Tonight’s vote also sends a clear message that the Democratic Party will no longer accept the impunity enjoyed by settler terrorists in the West Bank – and that concern over that impunity is beginning to cross the aisle. 

Settler violence terrorizes Palestinian families and has claimed the lives of 18 Palestinians this year alone. Israel’s security establishment continues to issue urgent warnings that this violence also undermines Israel’s security. Demanding that Israel comply with international human rights law and hold Jewish terrorists accountable is therefore not an effort to undermine its security, but to uphold it. 

We want to see Israel’s government live up to the democratic and Jewish values upon which the country was founded. Its far-right government today is betraying those values. We hope tonight’s vote serves as a wake-up call and helps end the scourge of settler violence.”