Pramila Jayapal downplays Hamas’ rape of civilian women, claims Israeli retaliation is ‘war crime’

During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, host Dana Bash asked the “Squad” member regarding Israel’s war against Hamas, "I want to ask you about sexual violence, and it’s kind of remarkable that this issue hasn’t gotten enough attention globally. Widespread use of rape, brutal rape, sexual violence against Israeli women by Hamas. I’ve seen a lot of progressive women, generally speaking, they’re quick to defend women’s rights and speak out against using rape as a weapon of war, but downright silent on what we saw on October 7, and what might be happening inside Gaza right now to these hostages. Why is that?"

Jayapal claimed she didn’t “know if that’s true” because “we always talk about the impact of war on women in particular.”

Jayapal was one of the few members of Congress who skipped a showing of the footage terrorists took on GoPro cameras and other devices of the atrocities they committed against civilians on October 7.

During the interview, instead of condemning Hamas, Jayapal pivoted to attacking the Jewish state saying, “…if they (Israel) do not comply with international humanitarian law, they are bringing themselves to a place that makes it much more difficult strategically for them to be able to build the kinds of allies, to keep public opinion with them, and frankly morally, we cannot say that one war crime deserves another. That is not what international humanitarian law says.”

Bash replied, “With respect, I was just asking about the women and you turned it back to Israel. I’m asking you about Hamas.”

Jayapal claimed she condemned rape as “horrific,” even though she did not previously say so during the interview, and then again defended the terrorist organization and attacked the Jewish state saying, "We have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians. Fifteen thousand Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes, three-quarters of whom are women and children."

"And it’s horrible," Bash replied. "But you don’t see Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian women."

Jayapal responded, "I don’t want this to be the hierarchies of oppression," Jayapal said.

During the interview, Jayapal also falsely accused Israel of “indiscriminately” targeting civilians and committing war crimes, while downplaying Hamas using civilians as human shields. She also refused to acknowledge that Hamas ended the ceasefire and argued that Israel should stop defending itself against terrorists.

The interview came after Jayapal spent the week meeting with Jewish leaders in Seattle, attempting to do damage control for her ongoing demonization of Israel and the support for terrorists which has earned her the nickname of “The spokesperson for Hamas.”

In response to the backlash, Jayapal claimed in a statement: “I have continued to condemn the attack, reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself, and called for the immediate release of all hostages. However, in the 14 days since the resolution was introduced, Israel’s bombings of Gaza have killed more than 5,800 Palestinians, almost half of whom are children.”

Earlier on Sunday, Yoni Saadon, a survivor of the Nova Music festival told the UK’s Sunday Times that he saw Palestinians gang-raping a woman, who begged to be killed. "I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or 10 of the fighters beating and raping her. She was screaming, ‘Stop it already! I’m going to die anyway from what you are doing, just kill me! When they finished, they were laughing, and the last one shot her in the head.”

A worker at the Shura military morgue told the Washington Post, “We saw many women with bloody underwear, with broken bones, broken legs, broken pelvises," adding that when opening body bags, “They were all young women. Most in little clothing or shredded clothing and their bodies bloodied, particularly round their underwear, and some women shot many times in the face as if to mutilate them."

Earlier this week, the official UN Women X account was slammed for finally condemning the Hamas massacre in Israel for the first time and the terrorist group's treatment of women, almost two months after the attacks occurred.

"The View" co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin last week also called out feminist organizations for ignoring the rape of Israeli women during the Hamas massacre. "The fact that sexual violence was used against Israeli women, and the major women’s groups in this country have not come out and denounced it. This weekend, Sheryl Sandberg put out a gripping video calling for it. That violates every rule of warfare. It is the height of immorality and the fact that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment has been silent, the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has been silent, and the international MeToo movement has been silent.”