‘Should Make Every Human Being Sick!’ CNN’s Dana Bash Condemns Hamas Use of Sexual Violence Against Israeli Women

CNN’s Dana Bash introduced a segment on her show on Monday with a question: “What’s worse, to get kidnapped, to be raped, or to get shot?”

It was a quote from former Israeli hostage Talia Biner, who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th while she was at the Nova music festival. Bash was covering the news that Vice President Kamala Harris was holding an event to highlight the use of sexual violence by Hamas after many have attempted to discredit those who witnessed and survived it. Harris planned to deliver remarks and screen Sheryl Sandberg’s documentary, Screams Before Silence.

Bash showed a clip from the documentary featuring Israeli survivor Amit Soussana before an interview with guest Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). Their conversation touched on the persistent denialism surrounding the sexual violence committed by Hamas:

Bash: Look, Amit’s story should make every human being sick. Sexual violence… We know that Sheryl Sandberg documented those horrific stories so that the world could bear witness, ice out denialism. And yet denialism still exists. How do you combat that?

Wasserman Schultz: Well Dana, thanks for shining a spotlight on this. The primary way that we combat it is by doing exactly what you and I are doing here, and that’s making sure that we can shine a spotlight on the sexual and gender-based violence that Hamas perpetrated on its victims on October 7th, and that very likely, we know, are continuing to perpetrate that sexual violence.

And Sheryl Sandberg’s film is searing. But I’m really proud of the Vice President and the Second Gentleman [Douglas Emhoff] for using the White House’s platform to make sure that the world knows that Hamas used sexual violence and continues to use it as a weapon of war, is violating women, Israeli women. And I hosted a forum at the with the Second Gentleman on Capitol Hill a few months ago, and the Israeli police came and showed us videos that were taken by Hamas terrorists themselves, engaging in the kind of sexual violence that Sheryl’s film shows — cutting off the breasts while raping their victims, and firsthand accounts from first responders as well as others and Israelis who were hiding from Hamas terrorists. The denialism is outrageous. We have to make sure that we knock it down.

Watch the video above via CNN.