Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal is under fire for downplaying the alleged sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women.
This comes after Jayapal was asked about progressive women’s silence on the Israel-Hamas war during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I mean, I don’t, I don’t know that that’s true. I think we always talk about the impact of war on women, in particular,” she said.
“We have to remember that Israel is a democracy. That is why they are a strong ally of ours. And if they 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, I think we cannot say that one war crime deserves another. That is not what international humanitarian law says,” she added.
Jayapal’s remarks caused her constituents to quickly turn against her, with many citing actual data of rape and brutal sexual assault surfacing following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel early in October.
“Hamas terrorists raped Israeli women and girls. The only ‘balanced’ approach is to condemn sexual violence loudly, forcefully and without exceptions. Outrageous for anyone to ‘both sides’ sexual violence,” Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
“Israel did not invade Palestinian homes and rape and sexually violate Palestinian women. Hamas did invade Israeli homes and did rape and sexually violate Israeli women,” New York Rep. Ritchie Torres said. “There is no ‘balance’ or ‘both sides’ or ‘moral equivalence’ here. Period.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Jayapal shot back when she was pressed on accusations of rape by Hamas against Israelis.
“I said it’s horrific, and I think that rape is horrific. Sexual assault is horrific. I think that it happens in war situations. Terrorist organizations like Hamas, obviously are using these as tools,” the Washington Democrat said. “However, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians – 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, three-quarters of whom are women and children.”
