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Fetterman Sole Dem Against Investigating His Constituent’s Killer

Despite support from other Democrats, the Senate voted 51-47 against a resolution to force U.S. probes on killings of Americans in the West Bank.

Every Democratic senator except Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman voted on Tuesday for a measure seeking to hold accountable Israeli soldiers and settlers who have killed U.S. citizens in the West Bank. The vote stood as a sign of how much the party’s position on Israel has shifted in the last two years.

Fetterman, who takes a hard pro-Israel line, was the lone holdout in his party despite having one of his constituents being the most recent Palestinian American killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers.

Near unanimous Democratic support, however, was not enough to secure passage of the measure, with the Senate voting 51-47 against advancing the resolution. The measure would have required the  State Department to report on whether it is investigating the killings of nine U.S. citizens by Israeli security forces or settlers since 2022.

Although the resolution was crafted to focus on victims most sympathetic to U.S. elected officials — American citizens slain at the hands of the right-wing Jewish settlement movement — it still drew nearly universal opposition fromSenate Republicans. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only member of the GOP to vote in favor of it.

The most recent U.S. citizen killed by settlers in the West Bank was a 19-year-old from Philadelphia. Though local Pennsylvania officials called for an investigation, neither Fetterman nor his Republican counterpart from Pennsylvania, Sen. Dave McCormick, voted for the Senate measure.

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The resolution’s sponsor, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said last week that he has struggled to get information from both the Biden and Trump administrations about whether they are pursuing justice for U.S. citizens killed in the West Bank.

“The Biden administration did not do enough to secure justice, and the Trump administration has not done enough,” he said. “And if we can’t get accountability and justice for American citizens, imagine how hard it is for Palestinian families who don’t have a U.S. passport to get justice and accountability when they are killed or their villages get razed.”

Setting Up an Embargo

Van Hollen’s measure would have required the State Department to report on whether it or the Justice Department are........

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