Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to sue the New York Times for defamation over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed entitled “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” according to the Israel Foreign Ministry.
“Following the publication by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times of one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times,” the ministry wrote on X on Thursday.
Kristof’s column alleges that Palestinians are regularly abused in Israeli prisons, reporting 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.” He also noted that there is no evidence the alleged behavior is ordered by Israeli leadership.
Later Thursday, New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha shared a statement to TheWrap that Netanyahu’s threatened legal action is “part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting and stifle journalism that does not fit a specific narrative.”
“Any such legal claim would be without merit,” Rhoades Ha said. Read her statement in full below:
“The Israeli Prime Minister has threatened to file a libel lawsuit against The New York Times regarding Nicholas Kristof’s deeply reported opinion column on sexual abuse by Israel’s prison guards, soldiers, settlers, and interrogators. This threat, similar to one made last year, is part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting and stifle journalism that does not fit a specific narrative. Any such legal claim would be without merit.
“Nick’s column starts with a proposition to readers: ‘Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape.’ Nick writes about the brutal sexual assaults against Israeli women during the Hamas-led attack on Israel. He then chronicles 14 on-the-record victim accounts and cites eight independent human rights reports documenting the practice of sexual violence and abuse conducted by various parts of Israel’s security forces and settlers. Nick has covered sexual violence for decades, and is widely regarded as one of the world’s best on-the-ground journalists in documenting and bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones.
“The accounts of the men and women he interviewed were corroborated with witnesses, whenever possible, and with people the victims confided in, including family members and lawyers. Details were extensively fact-checked, with accounts further cross-referenced with news reporting, independent research from human-rights groups, surveys and in one case, with U.N. testimony. Independent experts were consulted on the assertions in the piece throughout reporting and fact-checking.”
The Thursday update came after the paper had already twice defended the Monday piece, calling it both “deeply reported” and “extensively fact-checked.”
“Nicholas Kristof’s deeply reported piece of opinion journalism starts with a proposition to readers: ‘Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape,’” a Times spokesperson shared on Wednesday. “He draws together on-the-record accounts and cites several analyses documenting the practice of sexual violence and abuse conducted by various parts of Israel’s security forces and settlers.”
“The accounts of the 14 men and women he interviewed were corroborated with other witnesses, whenever possible, and with people the victims confided in – that includes family members and lawyers,” they continued. “Details were extensively fact-checked, with accounts further cross-referenced with news reporting, independent research from human-rights groups, surveys, and in one case, with U.N. testimony. Independent experts were consulted on the assertions in the piece throughout reporting and fact-checking.”
That statement came after the IFM first condemned the coverage on Tuesday: “The biased NYT piece relies on unverified sources tied to Hamas-linked networks. The main source: EMHRM, whose founder Ramy Abdu has documented ties to senior Hamas leaders. This isn’t journalism. It’s Hamas propaganda, a distortion of the truth and the facts all serving an anti-Israel agenda.”
“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 stated following the initial criticism. “He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies.”
Kristof has also acknowledged the outcry himself, writing on X, “I appreciate the intense interest in my column. For skeptics, why not agree on Red Cross and lawyer visits for the 9,000 Palestinian ‘security’ prisoners? If you think these abuse allegations are false, such monitoring visits would be protective. So why not?”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the New York Times’ response to Netanyahu’s legal threat.