Israel will slap the New York Times with a lawsuit over a recent “hideous and distorted” article that accused Israeli soldiers and their dogs of raping Palestinian prisoners, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.
The Jewish state announced the legal action just days after the so-called Newspaper of Record published a column, penned by Nicholas Kristof, that detailed the alleged horrific widespread rape of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli prison guards and soldiers.
“They defamed the soldiers of Israel and perpetuated a blood libel about rape, trying to create a false symmetry between the genocidal terrorists of Hamas and Israel’s valiant soldiers,” Netanyahu said as he vowed harsh legal action against the paper.
Columnist Nicholas Kristof penned the incendiary New York Times article. Getty Images for Concordia Summit
“Under my leadership, Israel will not be silent. We will fight these lies in the court of public opinion and in the court of law. Truth will prevail.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it was initiating the defamation lawsuit, describing the NYT report as “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press.”
The incendiary article, which cited accounts from 14 former Palestinian prisoners, claimed that sexual torture was baked into Israel’s forces.
It alleged, too, that Israeli troops even train their dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners.
The column cited accounts from 14 former Palestinian prisoners.
The column, which quickly went viral, sparked widespread outrage — with some experts and Jewish groups ripping the piece as Jew-hating propaganda and “blood libel.”
Some 200 protesters gathered outside the New York Times building in Midtown Thursday evening for an hour-long demonstration calling on the Gray Lady to “stop the anti-zionist libels.”
“I believe in ending hatred,” said protester Sherrill Mane, who was born and raised in New York. “I believe in journalism that is fact-based, and not this nonsense, with sources that are not credible, disparaging all Jews. This kind of stuff is dangerous.”
The article was published by the outlet just one day before the release of a two-year probe detailing evidence of widespread sexual abuse against Israeli civilians during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.
The Times, for its part, defended Kristof amid the raging backlash.
Benjamin Netanyahu speaking during an interview on 60 Minutes. 60 Minutes
“Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades and is widely regarded as one of the world’s best on-the-ground reporters documenting and bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones,” a Times spokesperson said.
“He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of the Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies.”