45 Senate Democrats tell Netanyahu to halt E1 tenders and settler violence

Forty-five members of the Senate Democratic caucus wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 26 August asking him to curb settler violence in the West Bank, stop new settlement approvals and finish investigations into the deaths of nine U.S. citizens killed since 2022 by settlers or Israeli security forces. The letter was led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Adam Schiff and Senator Cory Booker. Independent Senator Angus King of Maine signed. Only two Senate Democrats stayed off the page.

A second letter, sent on Friday and led by Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, focused on the E1 corridor east of Jerusalem. Israel's Construction and Housing Ministry published a tender on 18 August for seven residential compounds totalling 1,234 units, with bids due by 19 October. The Gallego letter, signed by 29 Democrats including Schumer, Dick Durbin, Tim Kaine and Elizabeth Warren, said building in E1 would cut East Jerusalem from Ramallah and Bethlehem and move the map further from a two-state outcome.

The 26 August text is broader. It cites a rise in fatal settler attacks, mass arrests by Israeli forces and assaults on mosques. It asks Netanyahu to set up a credible way to investigate violations and to make clear that the government will not tolerate violence by its own citizens. It also asks Israel to prevent new unauthorised outposts and to start removing those already standing. The senators noted that President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have publicly opposed both settler violence and annexation steps.

Senators Chris Van Hollen, Tim Kaine and Bernie Sanders announced a separate 502B privileged resolution on 27 August that would force the State Department to report to Congress on West Bank violence, the nine American deaths, and the detention of Palestinian children. Eight colleagues joined them, including Jeff Merkley, Mazie Hirono and Elizabeth Warren. The resolution is due when the Senate returns.

Israeli officials say the president and the prime minister have condemned attacks on Palestinians. The E1 tender is a planning document, not a completed neighbourhood. Construction in that strip has been frozen, announced and frozen again for three decades because it sits on the land that would link a future Palestinian state to East Jerusalem. A 1,234-unit tender with an October bid date is the most concrete move in years.

Schumer's signature is the political fact that will travel. He has been one of Israel's most consistent votes in the Senate. A letter that carries his name, Schiff's and Booker's, and almost the entire caucus, is a signal to Netanyahu that the Democratic side of the aisle is no longer willing to treat E1 and settler killings as background noise. It is also a signal to the White House: the senators wrote as if Trump's and Rubio's public lines could be used as leverage, not as a shield.

What happens next is procedural. The tender clock runs to 19 October. The privileged resolution needs floor time. Netanyahu has not issued a detailed public reply. The nine American families named in the letter still do not have closed cases. Those three clocks will tell whether Friday's paper changes anything on the ground.