Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar ordered preparations Thursday for possible legal action against The New York Times after the newspaper published an opinion column alleging systematic sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli personnel.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said the article by veteran columnist Nicholas Kristof contained “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press.”
The dispute centers on Kristof’s column, “The Silence in the Face of Rape Against Palestinians,” which alleged that Israeli soldiers, prison guards, Israel Security Agency interrogators and civilians systematically sexually abused Palestinian men, women and minors detained during the war in Gaza. Kristof wrote that the abuse had become “routine operating procedure.”
AFSI Insight
The claims reported by The New York Times may be perceived as either overstated, inadequately substantiated, or completely slanderous. We say they are all three. This article constitutes a “blood libel,” and the New York Times has transgressed the boundaries of journalism, engaging in anti-Israel activism. The depths to which they have descended should not astonish anyone. Israel is justified and opens up a new frontier in addressing this issue directly because failure to do so will allow allegations from this so-called “paper of record” to serve as a persistent propaganda weapon against Israel if they remain unchallenged.