A group of 29 Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), signed onto a letter on July 24, calling on the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of State to lead an independent investigation into the events surrounding the death of U.S. citizen Saifullah Musallet in the West Bank earlier this month.
Musallet, 20, a Florida-born American of Palestinian descent, was visiting the West Bank with his brother at the time of his death.
“Shortly after, a violent confrontation developed in the area involving Palestinians and Israeli civilians, which included vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes, and rock hurling,” the Israeli military stated.
The Israeli military did not specifically identify Musallet in its July 11 statement, but said it was aware of reports that one Palestinian civilian was killed and others were injured during the altercation, and said the incident was “being looked into” by the Israel Security Agency and Israeli police.
The Epoch Times is unable to independently verify the events surrounding Musallet’s death.
According to a statement released by his family, Musallet was attempting to protect his family’s land near the Sinjil community. The family alleged that a group of people brutally beat Musallet and then prevented paramedics from reaching him for several hours.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has requested that the Israeli government investigate the incident.
The letter from the Senate Democrats now calls on the U.S. government to investigate the matter directly.
In their letter, the senators said a U.S. investigation should examine the allegations that the perpetrators prevented Musallet from being safely evacuated for medical treatment. They also brought up the deaths of six other Americans in the West Bank since 2022.
“The Netanyahu government has failed to hold anyone accountable for any of these seven killings of Americans and the United States government has failed in its responsibility to protect American citizens overseas and demand justice for their deaths,” the lawmakers wrote.
They called on the State Department and Justice Department to respond within two weeks and brief lawmakers on actions that they are taking to bring accountability and protect Americans from future harm in the West Bank.
The Epoch Times reached out to the State Department and Justice Department for comment on the letter from the Senate Democrats. A State Department spokesperson responded to say, “We generally do not comment on congressional correspondence.”
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Israel has exercised varying degrees of control over the West Bank since seizing the territory during the 1967 Six-Day War. While many proponents of Palestinian statehood see the territory as a core component of a potential future state, Israeli settlements have continued to expand into the territory in the decades since, and have been a recurring flashpoint in the long-running Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
