CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday interviewed Diana Buttu, former legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization, concerning the current conflict between Hamas and Israel. The interview got a bit…uncomfortable…as Tapper challenged Buttu on some of her responses.

Here is an excerpt:

TAPPER: Why is Hamas launching rockets into Israeli population centers and are any other Palestinians trying to stop them from doing so? BUTTU: Well Jake, I think it’s important to lay out the sequence of events. There’s been a collective punishment that’s been imposed on the West Bank ever since the three Israelis had gone missing. And since that time the Israelis have been placing a blockade and siege on the Gaza strip and then later bombing the Gaza strip. So this is not coming out of a situation of nothing. Now in order to stop it, there have been attempts by the president to broker a cease fire. He’s called the United States, indicating that he wants a cease fire to be taken into effect, but Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it absolutely clear that he does not want to have a cease fire. So given this sequence of events, I’m afraid that we’re actually going to see things get worse in the short time.” TAPPER: Okay. I’m glad you got out your talking points there. Let’s get back to my question. Why is Hamas launching missiles into population centers of Israel? And are any other Palestinians trying to stop them from doing so?

Tapper further pressed Buttu on her response to reports of civilians being used as human shields:

TAPPER: Israeli government officials say they are trying desperately to avoid civilian casualties, and there are reports of the spokesman of Hamas – we actually have the video of him – going on Palestinian television urging people to serve as human shields, staying in their homes, even if the IDF is warning people in those homes – because they’re Hamas officials’ homes – that they’re going to be destroyed, they’re telling them to stay there. Do you at all find that reprehensible, using women and children to be human shields to protect these homes? BUTTU: Jake, I haven’t seen that video but if that were the case that would be reprehensible. I think that the bigger picture is that this isn’t the case. What we have seen over the course of the past couple of days, more than 80 Palestinians killed, the population of the Gaza strip – 43% of it is under the age of 14, and we’ve seen that half of the people who have been killed are women and children. The idea that Palestinians use their children as human shields is racist and reprehensible. And the idea that the Israelis are somehow spewing this and we’re to believe it is also racist. TAPPER: Diana, it’s not racist that we have video of the Hamas spokesman on television telling people to stay in their homes, that it’s an effective way to make sure, to fight off the Israelis. That’s not racist, that’s just a fact.

Watch the full exchange below, video via Washington Free Beacon.

[Featured image: CNN video]



