Netanyahu Considers Suing New York Times Over Column Alleging Rape of Palestinian Prisoners

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is considering suing The New York Times and one of its journalists over a column that alleged Israeli soldiers raped Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu wrote in a May 14 post on X that he had instructed his lawyers to look into taking action against The New York Times and the piece’s author, Nicholas Kristof, an opinion columnist at the newspaper.

“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.

“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.”

He did not say where or when the lawsuit would be filed.

Kristof’s piece, “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” had claimed that Israeli soldiers, prison guards, interrogators, and settlers had used sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners.

The Epoch Times contacted Kristof for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

A New York Times spokesperson, Danielle Rhoades Ha, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the threat of a lawsuit “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 that Kristof writes about the sexual assaults against Israeli women during the Hamas terror attack on Israel and then chronicled “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.”

Rhoades Ha said the accounts of the men and women Kristof interviewed were corroborated and details “extensively fact-checked.”

“Independent experts were consulted on the assertions in the piece throughout reporting and fact-checking,” she said.

Israel Condemns Newspaper

In a May 14 post on X, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) criticized the piece as “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press.”

The MFA also recently accused the newspaper of deliberately publishing the piece the day before Israel’s Civil Commission published its findings on Hamas’s use of sexual violence during the deadly terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and afterwards.

In a May 12 post on X, the MFA said that months ago, the Civil Commission had approached The New York Times with the report, saying that the newspaper “said it was not interested.”

“This comprehensive and well-documented report was published this morning by CNN and other international outlets,” the MFA said.

“Aware of the report and its release date, the night before its release the NYT ran a shameful attack on Israel, belittling Hamas’ sexual crimes.”

Responding to the statement, Stadtlander said via the newspaper’s PR account that the accusations were false and that The New York Times “never passed on the Civil Commission report and wasn’t told about its completion or the timing of its release.”

Stadtlander said that once the report was published, the newspaper covered the findings, and said that the commission’s work “also had no bearing on Nicholas Kristof’s opinion column or its publication timing.”