(WatchDogReport.org) – On December 4, CNN host Dana Bash clashed with Democratic Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal over the lack of condemnation against Hamas for the use of rape against Israeli women and children during the October 7 attacks. After asking about the issue, Bash told Jayapal she has noticed that many progressive women are “downright silent” about the Palestinian terrorist group’s use of rape as a weapon.
The radical leftist Democrat suggested her claims weren’t valid, arguing that she and many other progressives have condemned Hamas’ treatment of girls and women. However, she quickly tried to turn the discussion back to Israel, pointing out that the Israeli government is a democracy and a strong ally of the United States that has to comply with international law. Jayapal added that, on a moral matter, no one can say that a war crime “deserves another.”
After Bash pushed back and told Jayapal she was asking a question about Hamas instead of Israel, the Democratic leader said she had already answered her question and said people should be “balanced” about criticizing Palestinians. Jayapal claimed that the United States needs to remember that the Israeli armed forces have killed fifteen thousand “innocent Palestinians” in air strikes, and noted that most of the victims have been women and children.
The CNN host replied that while the situation in Gaza is “horrible,” Israeli soldiers aren’t assaulting Palestinian women in the way Hamas has done. Jayapal responded that she doesn’t want the discussion to turn into the “hierarchies of oppression,” as she noted that atrocities have been committed “on both sides.”
Over the last few weeks, many progressive and feminist organizations have been widely criticized for refusing to condemn Hamas’s brutal violence against women and children, or for speaking out against it just recently. One of these was the United Nations Women Twitter account, which published its first post condemning the Palestinian terrorist group’s attack on Israel and treatment of women on December 2, nearly two months after the terrorist strike.
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