Moment that got The Hill’s Briahna Joy Gray fired as she rolls her eyes at Hamas hostage’s sister live on air
POLITICAL commentator Briahna Joy Gray has lost her job at The Hill after getting caught on camera rolling her eyes at the family member of an Israeli hostage.
Gray's guest was the sister of a victim of the October 7 attack that kicked off the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Palestine, last year.
Gray's questionable behavior was toward Yarden Gonen, the sister of Romi Gonen, who was kidnapped by Hamas on the first day of the war last year.
Yarden appeared on The Hill's YouTube show, Rising, earlier this week to be interviewed by Gray and her co-host, journalist Robby Soave.
Romi was last seen on video as she was dragged away by Hamas militants on October 7, and released hostages have confirmed seeing her in captivity.
“And this is only the things that happened to my little sister on Oct. 7, and from then, we don’t know what else," Yarden said during the interview.
Gray attempted to push Yarden to discuss the politics behind the war, but the guest tried to refocus the conversation on the reason she came on air.
“I am here to talk about my sister; Please, help me spread her story. Help me make people understand what she is going through as a woman in 2024,” she said.
Near the end of the interview, Gonen addressed Gray directly, saying, “I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt,” referring to the sexual violence that many Israeli hostages have reported experiencing while in captivity.
It was after this comment that Gray reportedly rolled her eyes in what many saw as a sign of disrespect to her guest.
She then abruptly ended the interview, cutting off Yarden's final comments with a "thank you for coming" that drowned out the guest's parting words.
A DEBATE OVER THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Gray announced her firing from the political news site on Thursday in a post on the social media site X.
“It finally happened. The Hill has fired me,” Gray .
“When Hamas is talking about eliminating Israel, it’s not talking about killing all the Jews,” she reportedly said.
“It’s about eliminating the idea of a Jewish state — ending a Jewish state, ending an ethno-nationalist state and having a state more like what we have in the United States of America.”
Insurgent tactics being used by Hamas
By Jessica Baker
HAMAS fighters are said to be avoiding sustained battles with Israeli forces as they close in on Rafah, instead relying on improvised bombs and ambushes to hit targets.
Israel claimed in December that Hamas was using recordings of children screaming to lure its troops into death traps.
In acts described as "psychological warfare" against Israeli soldiers, Israeli spokesman Avi Hyman said Hamas terrorists set up scenarios which would make Israeli troops think they had come across hostages.
They rigged buildings with devices which played sounds of children screaming, enticing soldiers to enter, then ambushed them, he said.
Israel's military claimed terrorists had stuffed bombs into children's backpacks and attached explosives to dead bodies so anyone who attempted to move those killed would be injured.
And rubble caused by ongoing airstrikes in the Gaza Strip was said by experts to have provided Hamas with a cover to hide its militants, snipers, and explosives.
The group's 311-mile maze of tunnels allows them to cover vast amounts of ground and come up under rubble to attack, the experts said.
Former said Hamas was using the method to weaken the Israeli army's advantages with its superior technology.
He said: "The IDF leadership understands that engaging in combat within densely populated urban areas and venturing underground will strip the Israeli military of most of its technological advantages, including advanced surveillance systems, sensors, and communications equipment.
"That would offer Hamas an edge both above and below ground."
Gray, who was press secretary for Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign in 2020, doubled down on her comments after the talk.
“This is the most Islamophobic, racist audience I’ve ever seen,” Gray told the moderator off-screen, according to the New Republic.
“It’s disgusting. I hope someone drops a bomb on this entire building.”
The Pro-Israel watchdog StopAntisemitism named Gray the “Antisemite of the Week” on May 17 thanks to the comments, launching a campaign to get Gray fired from The Hill.
VIEWERS OFFENDED
Several people were offended by Gray's actions.
“The Hill’s @briebriejoy rolling her eyes and sighing after Yarden Gonen, sister of a hostage in Gaza, asking her to believe rape victims," wrote Hen Mazzig, the founder of the Tel Aviv Insitute.
“No low this person won’t sink to, truly disgusting,” he added.
"Being callous to a relative of a hostage isn’t a free speech issue. She has a right to say what she wants but that doesn’t mean there will be no consequences for bad behavior," one commenter said in response to a New York Post article on the news of her firing.
"Disrespect and free of speech are two totally different things..And the Hill firing her is their way of expressing their freedom of speech through code of conduct..." another added.
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Representatives from The Hill confirmed that Gray had left the organization in a statement to .
The Hill did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The U.S. Sun.