Israeli PM and Foreign Minister Sa'ar instructed initiation of defamation lawsuit following opinion piece on alleged sexual abuse of Palestinians.
6:56 PM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government announced Thursday it will file a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times in response to an opinion column by journalist Nicholas Kristof alleging widespread sexual abuse targeting Palestinian prisoners.
Kristof's column, published Monday and headlined "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians," was based on interviews with 14 men and women who said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces. The journalist noted he was unable to corroborate some accounts of abuse.
In one account detailed in the column, a Palestinian freelance journalist told Kristof that when detained in 2024, a group of guards threw him to the ground, pulled down his pants and underwear, and one guard raped him with a rubber baton. A Palestinian woman separately told Kristof she was repeatedly subjected to sexual assault.
Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, described the allegations as reflecting "a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards."
Netanyahu's office called the column "one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel." In a statement Thursday, the office said Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar "have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times."
Netanyahu posted on social media that his legal advisers will "consider the harshest legal action against The New York Times and Nicholas Kristof."
Israeli officials condemned the Times for publishing the report. Critics blasted the column as "propaganda" and questioned aspects of the reporting, specifically claims about dogs being trained to sexually assault Palestinians.
The New York Times defended Kristof's reporting on Wednesday night, according to reports, though the full statement was not detailed in available accounts.
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