Israeli authorities are preparing to take legal action against The New York Times over a report alleging widespread sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, AFP reported.
Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered “the initiation of a libel suit against The New York Times,” according to a joint statement issued by their offices.
It said the lawsuit is being brought “following the publication of one of the most vile and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times, which also received support from the newspaper.”
The Foreign Office dismissed the report after publication, saying that Kristof based it “on unverified sources linked to Hamas-linked networks”.
She also accused the newspaper of deliberately timing the publication to “undermine” an independent Israeli report on sexual violence committed by Hamas during its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which was published the same day.
Israeli forces have detained thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank since the 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war.
What was in the NYT report?
A report by The New York Times claims that sexual violence against Palestinian detainees by Israeli prison guards, soldiers, settlers and investigators is widespread.
The investigation, released Monday, draws on testimony gathered in the occupied West Bank from 14 men and women who said they were sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the Israeli security forces.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry strongly rejected the Times report, calling it part of a “false and well-organized anti-Israel campaign.”
Israeli forces have detained thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that launched the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
A report by Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for The Times, described “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, Shin Bet internal security agency interrogators and, above all, prison guards.”
According to the report, “there is no evidence that Israeli leaders ordered the rape.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry described it as one of the most vile and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel.
The report also referred to a United Nations document released in March last year that described sexual violence as part of what it called Israel’s “standard operating procedures.”
Among the testimonies cited, one detainee said he was sexually assaulted with a rubber baton, while another described being left in excruciating pain after a female guard allegedly squeezed his genitalia.
