By Andrew Perez, reposted from Zeteo, September 24, 2026
New polling shared exclusively with Zeteo finds bipartisan supermajority support for an effort by Democratic senators to require the State Department to investigate the killings of Americans and increasing Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 15 Americans in the West Bank since 2003. Nine Americans have been killed since 2022.
Twenty-four Democratic senators, led by Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, are pushing a privileged resolution that would require Donald Trump’s State Department to report to Congress on the killings of Americans in the West Bank since 2022, as well as on “the human rights situation concerning Palestinian children in Israeli military detention in the West Bank.”
“Protecting and supporting United States citizens abroad is one of the foremost responsibilities of the United States government,” the resolution states.
It names the nine Americans killed since 2022: Omar Assad, Shireen Abu Akleh, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, Amer Rabee, Sayfollah Kamel Musallet, Khamis Ayyad, and Nasrallah Abu Siyam. It spells out how they were killed or how they were believed to have been killed, by Israeli soldiers or violent settlers.
Signatories on Van Hollen’s resolution include progressives Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ed Markey, but also moderate Democrats like Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Jeanne Shaheen, and Jack Reed. The senators can force a vote on the measure before the Senate goes on recess for the month of October, potentially as early as Friday.
A survey of likely voters from the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, conducted by Data For Progress and shared with Zeteo, finds strong support for the resolution and its goals.
Per the poll, 80% of likely voters say the U.S. should investigate any death of an American citizen in a region of conflict overseas to learn whether another country was involved in their killing, while 72% of likely voters say they support Congress requesting a human rights report regarding Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
When it comes to the West Bank, most voters say they haven’t heard a lot about the deaths of American citizens there over the last four years. But when they’re told that Israel’s military and Israeli settlers have been accused of killing nine Americans over that time, 85% of voters, including a whopping 86% of Republicans, say the U.S. should launch independent investigations.
Told that some U.S. senators have proposed that the State Department conduct reviews of cases in which American citizens are believed to have been killed by the Israeli military or Israeli settlers, 84% of voters, including 82% of Republicans, support the idea.
Similarly, 84% of voters believe the U.S. government should take action to hold the Israeli government accountable if the State Department were to find Israel’s government contributed to those Americans’ deaths.
Measures this group of voters would support include enacting sanctions against Israeli government officials and violent Israeli settlers; restricting economic support to the Israeli government; restricting trade with some Israeli companies; ending military assistance to Israel; and banning Israeli government and military personnel from entering the U.S., or arresting them if they do.
Additionally, 76% of voters say they support the U.S. government holding the Israeli government accountable if the State Department were to find a pattern of human rights violations in how Israel treats Palestinians.
The IMEU poll adds to a mountain of evidence demonstrating how far public opinion has shifted on the topics of Israel and Palestine, as a result of Israel’s livestreamed genocide in Gaza.
Two-thirds of voters, including a majority of Republicans, say the U.S. should hold Israel to the same standards as any other country that receives U.S. assistance. Only a quarter of voters believe the common argument that Israel is being unfairly singled out for criticism compared to other countries.
Andrew Perez, is a senior politics editor at Zeteo
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