Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that his government will file a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times over an opinion column alleging widespread sexual violence against Palestinian detainees.
Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar jointly ordered the initiation of the lawsuit in response to a May 11 article by columnist Nicholas Kristof titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians."
The prime minister's office called the piece "one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press," according to The Guardian.
Netanyahu stated he had instructed his legal advisers "to consider the harshest legal action" against both the newspaper and Kristof, adding that Israel would "fight these lies in the court of public opinion and in the court of law."
The Article's Allegations
Kristof's column detailed interviews with 14 Palestinians who said they experienced sexual violence at the hands of Israeli soldiers, prison guards, settlers, and interrogators from the Shin Bet internal security agency.
The article described alleged abuses, including rape, sexual assault with objects, and attacks involving dogs. Kristof acknowledged in his piece that "there is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes" but cited a United Nations Commission of Inquiry report that found sexual violence had become "standard operating procedure" of Israeli Security Forces toward Palestinians.
The columnist reported locating victims through inquiries among lawyers, human rights advocates, aid workers, and ordinary Palestinians.
His article referenced a March 2025 UN report concluding that Israel has "increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination."
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor was also cited as finding that Israel uses "systemic sexual violence" widely implemented as part of state policy, the Washington Examiner reported.
Israeli Government Response
The Israeli Foreign Ministry initially condemned the article as "blood libel" on May 11, before escalating to the lawsuit announcement. Israeli officials accused Kristof of defaming Israeli soldiers and attempting to create "false symmetry between the genocidal terrorists of Hamas and Israel's valiant soldiers."
It remained unclear where the lawsuit would be filed, what damages would be sought, or whether Israeli state institutions or individual officials would be listed as plaintiffs.
The Times defended its reporting, with the newspaper stating that Kristof had traveled to the region to "report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse." The publication dismissed as false any claims that it would retract the article, as per The Journal.
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