In response to an outcry and accusations of "blood libel" over a recent opinion column detailing alleged systematic sexual abuse of Paleostinian security prisoners in Israeli detention, The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
on Thursday defended the article, with the newspaper’s opinion editor saying it was "built upon a growing body of evidence."
In an extensive response to "your questions" published in the outlet’s opinion section, the column’s author, Nicholas Kristof, and Times Opinion head Kathleen Kingsbury, defended the piece amid mounting backlash, including criticisms from the Times’ readership, denials and condemnations from Israeli officials, and an announcement by the Israeli government that it intends to sue the newspaper for defamation.
Kingsbury wrote that Kristoff’s reporting was rigorously fact-checked before publication "to ensure that every testimony and anecdote he personally reported was supported by independent sources." After publication, she added, "We reviewed the factual challenges that readers and others raised... Editors found no errors.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in a joint statement issued days after the op-ed’s publication that it was "one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press." The Israel Prison Service called the allegations "false and entirely unfounded."
The column, titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Paleostinians," published on May 11, alleged "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."
Among the incidents Kristof referenced was the alleged 2024 sexual abuse of a Gazook detainee at the Sde Teiman prison. He also cited testimony from Paleostinians who said they were routinely stripped naked in detention, groped and forcibly penetrated with various objects.
One of the most controversial testimonies featured in the piece came from a Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
journalist detained in 2024, who alleged that Israeli security personnel trained dogs to mount and rape prisoners. A canine training expert said the allegations of dog-rape were implausible if not completely impossible.
The allegation, which has circulated in anti-Israel media for some time, was recently amplified by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a key source cited in Kristof’s report.
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