Far-left US pundit who rolled eyes at hostage’s sister axed by The Hill
Briahna Joy Gray, who has denied Oct. 7 rape claims, was responding after interviewee told her to ‘believe women’; says firing part of outlet’s pattern of ‘suppressing speech’
Far-left commentator Briahna Joy Gray, who has repeatedly sought to cast doubt on the sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women during the Hamas-led terror onslaught, announced Friday that she has been fired from The Hill where she co-hosted its morning news talk show “Rising.”
The announcement came after Gray went viral Wednesday when she was caught aggressively rolling her eyes and cutting off Yarden Gonen, the sister of hostage Romi Gonen, who urged her to believe Israeli women’s accounts of sexual assault during the October 7 onslaught.
“I really hope that you specifically will believe women when they say they got hurt,” Gonen said at the interview, to which Gray responded with an exaggerated eye roll.
“Okay, thanks for joining. Stick around,” Gray said.
During the conversation, Gray tried to goad Gonen into discussing the political aspects of a potential truce and hostage deal, to which the interviewee refused.
Anti-Israel TV presenter FIRED, 2 days after shocking disrespectful exchange with the sister of an Israeli hostage.
The Hills’ Briahna Joy Gray sparked outrage for her interview with Yarden Gonen, the sister of Israeli hostage Romi Gonen live on air on the ‘Rising.’
During… pic.twitter.com/z5j5p9igPs
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) June 7, 2024
“I really see that you want to talk political things, and this is not my profession. I’m saying right now that we have an Israeli deal on the table, and we are waiting for Hamas to say yes,” Gonen said, to which Gray replied: “Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case, I wish that it were.”
Gray claimed the decision of her firing was politically motivated, charging that The Hill “has a clear pattern of suppressing speech, particularly when it’s critical of the state of Israel.”
Israel is waiting to hear Hamas’s official position on its latest proposal for a deal, announced by US President Joe Biden last week, though officials in the terror group have reiterated their insistence that any agreement must guarantee an end to the war, a demand Israel has repeatedly ruled out.
Gray also brought up an argument that the September 11 terror attacks were launched as a result of US support for Israel after Gonen warned of fresh attacks if the country did not stand up to terrorism.
“If the world won’t help us, we will see 9/11 [for a] second time in the US as well, because we can already see in the United States, in Michigan, rallies, that [with calls of] ‘death to America,'” Gonen said.
Chants of “death to America” were heard at a Quds Day rally in Michigan in April.
Gray responded, saying she wanted to “push back” against the idea that there was a threat of terror in Michigan and that a “rationale” for 9/11 “was America’s support for Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine.”
In a post on X announcing her sacking, Gray said it was “only a matter of time before they fired me,” referencing left-wing Jewish journalist Katie Halper, who was fired from the morning show in 2022 after labeling Israel an apartheid state.
It finally happened. The Hill has fired me.
There should be no doubt that @RisingTheHill has a clear pattern of suppressing speech — particularly when it's critical of the state of Israel.
This is why they fired @kthalps, & it was only a matter of time before they fired me.… pic.twitter.com/lLqgWjgOIV
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) June 6, 2024
Gray, who served as national press secretary for the 2020 presidential campaign of progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders, has utilized her prolific presence on social media platform X to deny the atrocities of October 7 and downplay the accounts of survivors who witnessed gender-based violence.
A self-styled progressive, Gray has employed the claim that some rape victims’ reluctance to come forward indicates they were not attacked while failing to address the fact that the majority of the victims were killed on the day of the attack, as indicated in the association’s report.
In March, Amit Soussana became the first freed hostage to publicly come forward and recount that she was sexually assaulted in captivity.
Earlier that month, the United Nations published a report indicating that rape and gang rape likely occurred during the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught, and said that there is “clear and convincing” evidence showing that hostages were raped while being held in Gaza and that those currently held captive are still facing such abuse.
