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Israel announced on Thursday that it plans to sue The New York Times over an article accusing the country of widespread sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar instructed their offices to begin legal proceedings for defamation against the publication.
Their statement condemned the article written by Nicholas Kristof, a well-known opinion columnist, calling it “one of the most grotesque and false stories ever published about Israel in the modern media,” and claimed that the newspaper had backing for these allegations. The report was based on testimonies from 14 individuals in the West Bank, claiming they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or security personnel.
The article depicted a pattern of extensive sexual violence by Israeli soldiers, settlers, interrogators from the Shin Bet internal security agency, and prison guards, involving men, women, and children.
The New York Times responded by dismissing the threat of legal action, asserting that the claim was baseless. Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for the newspaper, described such threats as a “predictable political tactic” aimed at silencing independent journalism that challenges a particular narrative.
Kristof’s article specifically noted that there was no proof that Israeli officials had ordered such rapes. The Israeli foreign ministry accused Kristof of relying on unverified sources linked to Hamas and alleged the article was timed to sabotage an Israeli report on Hamas’s sexual violence during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel—published on the same day.
Since the Hamas attack, thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank have been detained by Israeli forces. The U.S. has strong protections for journalistic freedom, requiring proof of malicious intent and factual falsity for libel cases. Despite this, President Trump and his supporters have filed multiple lawsuits against media outlets, some settling to avoid further consequences.
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