{"id":110479,"date":"2026-05-12T16:53:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/110479\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T16:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:53:26","slug":"blood-libel-israel-rejects-nyt-column-alleging-widespread-rape-of-palestinian-inmates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/110479\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Blood libel’: Israel rejects NYT column alleging widespread rape of Palestinian inmates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli authorities on Monday denounced as a \u201cblood libel\u201d a New York Times opinion story alleging widespread rape of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, noting that it relied on sources that have alleged ties to the Hamas terror group or have praised it.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, The New York Times chose to publish one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press,\u201d the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to the column<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused,\u201d it said, noting the Hamas terror group\u2019s sexual crimes<\/a> against Israelis on October 7, 2023, and against hostages abducted during that attack throughout their subsequent captivity.<\/p>\n

The ministry also claimed Kirstof\u2019s column was \u201cpart of a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign aimed at placing Israel on the UN Secretary-General\u2019s blacklist.\u201d UN chief Antonio Guterres in August placed<\/a> Hamas \u2014 and put Israel \u201con notice\u201d of being placed \u2014 on the UN\u2019s \u201cblacklist\u201d of countries and groups credibly suspected of committing patterns of sexual violence in armed conflict.<\/p>\n

Kristof acknowledged the Foreign Ministry\u2019s reaction, sharing it on X with the caption \u201cCritical take from Israel\u2019s Foreign Ministry on my column about sexual assaults of Palestinian men, women and children,\u201d and offering an un-paywalled link to the piece.<\/p>\n

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The column, entitled \u201cThe Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,\u201d which appeared on Monday, alleged \u201ca pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children \u2014 by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the cases Kristof cited was the alleged 2024 sexual abuse of a Gazan inmate at the Sde Teiman prison, which led to the arrest of several reservist guards and the subsequent storming of the base by a right-wing mob. The charges against the suspects were dropped<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Kristof also quoted testimony from Palestinians who said they\u2019d been regularly stripped naked in prison and groped, forcibly penetrated with various objects, or been mounted and raped by specially trained dogs. The latter claim, circulating in anti-Israel media for some time, has recently been amplified by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, which was also a key source for Kristof\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

The Israel Prison Service, responding to a request for comment on the column, said: \u201cThe allegations raised are false and entirely unfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tJournalist Nicholas Kristof speaks during the Goalkeepers Conference, on September 20, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israel Prison Service is a security organization that operates in accordance with the law and under the strict oversight of numerous official inspectors,\u201d the IPS told The Times of Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll prisoners are held in accordance with the law, while safeguarding their basic rights and under the supervision of a professional and skilled prison staff,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Israel highlights photo of NGO leaders with Hamas officials<\/p>\n

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter also responded to the article, posting a short video statement to X and charging that Kristof and the Times \u201ccount on you not pulling the curtain back on their lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be clear: Any complaint of unlawful conduct by Israeli authorities should be submitted to investigative bodies and, as is customary in a democratic society, those complaints will be reviewed thoroughly,\u201d Leiter said.<\/p>\n

But the ambassador continued: \u201cWhose evidence is Mr. Kristof leaning on to wield his accusations? A principal NGO quoted in Mr. Kristof\u2019s piece is Euro-Med Monitor. Sounds impartial, right? Balanced, so stately.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut lo and behold, its leaders Ramy Abdu and Mazen Kahel have been repeatedly found to have links to Hamas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The @nytimes<\/a> and @NickKristof<\/a> count on you not pulling the curtain back on their lies.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t buy into their blood libels \u2013 watch and find out who\u2019s really behind this narrative. pic.twitter.com\/Rf94hYlIFw<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter (@yechielleiter) May 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Leiter highlighted a photo from 2011, in which Abdu and Kahel could be seen posing in a group photo directly behind senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, whom Israel has since killed.\n<\/p>\n

The photo was originally posted to Facebook in 2012, and was credited in Leiter\u2019s video to NGO Monitor, a pro-Israel watchdog whose website<\/a> also shows a photo of Abdu alongside Hamas official Osama Hamdan in 2013.<\/p>\n

Euro-Med itself has shared conspiracy theories about the October 7 attack, alleging the crime scene was \u201cdoctored\u201d and that some of the Palestinians seen dead in Israeli territory with assault rifles after the attack were in fact civilians whose killing had been a war crime.<\/p>\n

The NGO has also described the people taken hostage by Hamas during the attack as having been \u201carrested and moved to the Gaza Strip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tMazen Kahel and Ramy Abdu, among the leadership of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor NGO, are seen posing with Hamas officials, including Ismail Haniyeh, in Gaza, in 2011. (NGO Monitor)<\/p>\n

In his column, Kristof also cited personal accounts from Palestinian journalist Sami al\u2011Sai and Hebron-based activist Issa Amro, as well as 12 other unnamed men and women who said they\u2019d been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or security forces.<\/p>\n

The columnist said he \u201cfound these victims by asking around among lawyers, human rights groups, aid workers and ordinary Palestinians themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many cases it was possible to corroborate the victims\u2019 stories in part by talking to witnesses or, more commonly, to those whom the victims had confided in, such as family members, lawyers and social workers; in other cases it was not possible, perhaps because shame left people reluctant to acknowledge abuse even to loved ones,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPalestinian activist Issa Amro speaks to Israeli activists in the West Bank city of Hebron, on December 2, 2022 (AP Photo\/Maya Alleruzzo)<\/p>\n

Kristof acknowledged: \u201cSome may wonder whether Palestinians fabricated accusations of sexual assaults to defame Israel,\u201d but he added: \u201cTo me that seems far-fetched, because none of those I interviewed sought me out or knew who else I was speaking to, and they were reluctant to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Named sources\u2019 stories have gotten more lurid over time<\/p>\n

In a series of posts on X, the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting challenged Kristof\u2019s journalism, noting that the most explosive accounts came from unnamed sources, while the stories of those named had grown \u201csteadily more lurid over time, with dramatic new details added years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

The watchdog noted that Sami al-Sai had taken to social media on October 8, 2023, to praise the Hamas onslaught one day after it occurred, and that he\u2019d eulogized the leader of a West Bank terror cell as \u201cour martyred prince.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also noted that about a year ago Sai spoke to Israeli human rights group B\u2019Tselem about his alleged assault, but did not mention several specific, graphic details that he provided to Kristof, including being sodomized with a carrot, having his genitals grabbed by a female guard, and discovering \u201cother people\u2019s vomit, blood and broken teeth\u201d in his skin.<\/p>\n

1\/
The @nytimes<\/a> just published one of the most serious sets of allegations imaginable against Israel \u2013 claims of systematic sexual violence, including a bizarre story about carrots and trained rape dogs. We checked the sources.<\/p>\n

What we found is journalistic malpractice. ???? pic.twitter.com\/vBbLy0Lp0J<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

It also pointed out that Issa Amro, who\u2019d told Kristof in 2024 that he\u2019d been assaulted on the day of the Hamas attack, had earlier told The Washington Post he\u2019d been \u201cthreatened with sexual assault\u201d on that day, not that he\u2019d been assaulted.\n<\/p>\n

Kristof\u2019s column was published the same day as a 300-page study <\/a>produced by the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, an Israeli NGO established to document the October 7 atrocities.<\/p>\n

The report, based on 430 formal and informal interviews and more than 10,000 photographs and video segments, detailed 13 types of sexual violence committed by the Hamas-led invaders during the attack and against hostages, including rape, gang rape, sexual torture and mutilation, executions linked to sexual violence, postmortem sexual abuse, and sexual assaults carried out in the presence of family members, among other acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale, coordination, and repetition of the conduct demonstrate a widespread and systematic attack against civilians in which sexual violence was deliberately used as a method of terror,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

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