Nine American citizens have been killed in the West Bank since 2022. Israel has not indicted a single person for any of it. The Trump administration, which lifted sanctions on violent settlers on its very first day back in office, has reportedly not opened an investigation into a single killing since 2025. Nineteen Democrats have now decided to put that in writing.
The Letter Nobody in This Administration Wants to Read
A group of 19 Democratic senators and representatives sent a letter to Todd Blanche, Marco Rubio, and Scott Bessent this week demanding answers about what the US government is actually doing about Americans being killed by Israeli settlers and security forces in the occupied West Bank. The Guardian obtained the letter. It is not gentle.
Signed by Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Adam Schiff, Patty Murray, and fifteen others, the letter accuses the Trump administration of creating what it calls 'a climate of impunity and unbridled violence' that endangers both Palestinians and US citizens. It demands specific answers by August 17th. It demands the restoration of sanctions. It demands independent US investigations into the deaths of nine American citizens. The administration has until now offered none of these things.
Day One Decision, Years of Consequences
Here is the sequence of events worth understanding. On the first day of Trump's return to office, the administration rescinded sanctions that had been imposed on more than 30 settlers and organizations linked to violence in the West Bank. That was a choice. A deliberate, first-day-back-in-office choice.
The Democrats' letter argues that choice had a predictable effect. 'Ending sanctions against those individuals and entities associated with West Bank extremism sent a clear message,' they write. 'Settlers can use violent and deadly force with impunity against Palestinians and Americans while seizing land and no one will face consequences.' According to the letter, UN figures show 1,835 attacks on Palestinian communities and property during 2025 alone, the highest number since records began. The current pace in 2026 is reportedly higher still.
Trump promised last year that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. The letter points out, with what reads like exhausted precision, that 'violent settlers and the Netanyahu government have proceeded to rapidly extend Israeli control over civilian populations in the region.' A promise is a promise, apparently, until it isn't.
The Americans Who Died, Named
The letter lists them by name, which seems like the bare minimum and yet somehow feels like more than this administration has managed. Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish American activist. Fourteen-year-old Amer Mohammed Rabea. Seventeen-year-olds Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour. Twenty-year-old Sayfollah Musallet. Nine names total, nine American citizens, zero indictments from Israel, zero investigations opened by the Justice Department since 2025.
The Justice Department, the lawmakers note, 'has the authority to independently investigate the killing of Americans abroad.' It has reportedly chosen not to use that authority. That is a decision too.
Even the Christian Village Isn't Safe
The letter goes out of its way to point to attacks on Taybeh, described as 'the last entirely Christian village in the West Bank.' This is not a coincidence. The administration is full of evangelical Christians, and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, is one of them. After an earlier attack on Taybeh, Huckabee called it 'an act of terror' and pledged that those responsible would be prosecuted. According to the Guardian's reporting on the letter, no one has been arrested in connection with those crimes.
Huckabee, for what it is worth, has long supported Jewish settler claims on the land. The man the administration sent to hold Israel accountable is someone who ideologically backs the settlers doing the attacking. This is not a bug.
Americans Detained, Medication Denied
The letter also raises the detention of US citizens by the Israeli military. It highlights 20-year-old Sama Safi, whose access to vital medication was allegedly interrupted after her arrest. It raises the case of Mohammed Ibrahim, detained for nine months while he was 15 years old. The lawmakers urge the administration to secure Safi's immediate release and push for an end to what they call 'unjust and arbitrary detentions.'
The town of Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian community where the majority of residents hold US citizenship, gets specific attention too. The letter cites repeated attacks there, including the burning of a family home belonging to American residents from Massachusetts and Washington state. American citizens. American homes. Burned. No arrests.
The Dingo Take
You are supposed to believe this administration cares about American citizens. It says so constantly. 'America First' is practically tattooed on the operation. And yet nine Americans are dead in the West Bank, the Justice Department has opened zero investigations, Israel has filed zero indictments, and the very first act this administration took regarding the region was to lift sanctions on the people doing the killing. That is the record. Read it slowly.
The response from Rubio, Blanche, and Bessent to this letter will almost certainly be some variation of nothing, because acknowledging the letter seriously would require acknowledging that the policy framework is indefensible. It would require explaining why American citizens killed abroad don't merit the investigations that American law explicitly allows. It would require squaring Trump's 'no annexation' promise with the fastest settler expansion on record. These are not explanations this White House is prepared to give.
Whatever you think about the broader conflict, the specific question of what the US government owes its own murdered citizens is not complicated. The answer should not depend on the ethnicity of the victim or the identity of the country that killed them. Warren and her colleagues are asking for investigations, sanctions, and answers by August 17th. Watch what happens. The silence, if it comes, will tell you everything.
Comments