Senate blocks discharge of West Bank Americans report that names NJ teen Amer Rabee

On Sept. 29, 2026, the U.S. Senate rejected 47–51 a motion to discharge S.Res. 852, a 502B(c) request for a State Department report on nine Americans killed in the West Bank since 2022 — including Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee of New Jersey. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim both voted Yea; Kim cosponsored.

WASHINGTON — New Jersey’s senators wanted the paperwork. The Senate said no.

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, at 6:32 p.m. ET, the Senate rejected a motion to discharge S.Res. 852 from the Committee on Foreign Relations. Official tally: 47 yeas, 51 nays, 2 not voting (Sens. Bill Cassidy and Dan Sullivan). The question was not a cut in aid. It was whether to force an unclassified State Department statement — within 30 days — on Israel’s human-rights practices under section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2304(c)).

Both of New Jersey’s senators voted Yea: Cory Booker and Andy Kim.

What S.Res. 852 asked for

Introduced Sept. 14, 2026, by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) with Sens. Tim Kaine and Bernie Sanders among the original submitters, the resolution requests that the Secretary of State submit to the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees an unclassified statement prepared with the Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor bureau and the State Legal Adviser.

Among the elements the resolution says the statement should include: “all credible information” State has concerning the alleged killing of U.S. citizens by the Israel Defense Forces, other Israeli security forces, or Israeli settlers since January 1, 2022, naming nine people, including Amer Rabee; a description and assessment of investigation status by U.S. or Israeli authorities; information on U.S. citizens held in Israeli prisons; and assessment language on Palestinian children in military detention and broader West Bank human-rights conditions.

The whereas clauses state that since January 2022 at least nine U.S. citizens “have been killed by violent Israeli settlers or Israeli security forces in the West Bank,” and that those killings “have been met by a lack of accountability from the Netanyahu government and an inability to secure justice by the United States Government.” Some individual case descriptions in the text use the word “reportedly.”

The New Jersey name on the list

The introduced text is explicit on the New Jersey link:

“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;”

Seventeen months earlier, on April 11, 2025, Booker and Kim sent President Donald Trump a joint letter on Rabee’s death. They wrote that Rabee “grew up in Saddle Brook, New Jersey,” that his family moved to Turmus Ayya — “a town in the West Bank with a large Palestinian American community” — and that “Over 80% of Turmus Ayya’s residents are American dual citizens.” They said two other American citizens were injured in the incident, including 14-year-old Ayoub Ijbara, “born in New Jersey” and then “reported to be in critical condition,” and 15-year-old Abdulrahman Shihada.

They asked the administration for a “timely, independent and transparent” U.S.-led investigation, high-level pressure on Israeli and Palestinian Authority counterparts to cooperate, and embassy support for the families. Copies went to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, FBI Director Kash Patel, Special Envoy Steven Witkoff, and Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

Van Hollen’s Sept. 29, 2026 statement after the vote lists Andy Kim (D-N.J.) among cosponsors of the resolution. Booker appears on the official roll call as a Yea vote; Van Hollen’s published cosponsor list in that release does not name Booker.

How the vote broke

Nearly party-line. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) voted Nay. Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) voted Yea. Cassidy and Sullivan did not vote.

Failure of the discharge motion leaves S.Res. 852 in Foreign Relations. It does not, by itself, order State to produce the 30-day statement.

Doubt angle — report request vs. “accountability,” and what is still open

• What the vote actually blocked: A privileged information resolution under 502B(c) — a demand for an unclassified State statement — not a statute cutting security assistance. Calling the result a block on “accountability” tracks Van Hollen’s framing; calling it a block on a report tracks the bill text. Both are accurate; they are not the same claim.
• What doesn’t fully fit yet: The resolution asserts a pattern of killings and “lack of accountability,” while several case sketches inside it still say “reportedly.” The Senate record here is a vote on whether to force State’s paper — not a judicial finding on any one death, including Rabee’s.
• Who benefits / who loses: Families and sponsors lose the 30-day congressional reporting vehicle. The State Department under the current administration avoids that mandated unclassified submission calendar. Van Hollen and cosponsors keep the political record of who voted to demand answers. Opponents keep the resolution bottled in committee. New Jersey’s senators can point to Yea votes and the 2025 letter — and still cannot point, from the primary records Jersey Intel reviewed for this report, to a completed public U.S. investigative report on Rabee answering that letter.
• Still unanswered in the public record reviewed: Status of any U.S.-led investigation into Rabee’s killing after the April 11, 2025 Booker-Kim letter; what State or Justice has told the family on the record; whether a House 502B vehicle exists; medical outcome for Ayoub Ijbara beyond the 2025 letter’s “critical condition” line.

Quiet secondary (start-only tweet; not primary voice): @RT_Breaking_ status 2105145536865095695 — local sources/SOURCE-TWEET.txt.