Israeli PM Netanyahu initiating defamation lawsuit against New York Times over controversial ‘dog rape’ story
The Israeli government will initiate a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times over columnist Nicholas Kristof’s contentious "dog rape" story, the Israel Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.
Kristof penned the controversial piece headlined, "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians," that features men and women alleging "brutal sexual abuse at the hands of Israel’s prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators." Many critics blasted it as "propaganda" and poked holes in the reporting, specifically a claim that dogs have been trained to sexually assault Palestinians.
"Following the publication by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times of one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times," the Israel Foreign Ministry wrote on X.
"Today I instructed my legal advisers to consider the harshest legal action against The New York Times and Nicholas Kristof," Netanyahu wrote on X. "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. 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."
The New York Times did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment but issued a lengthy statement Wednesday evening defending the story.
"Nicholas Kristof’s deeply reported piece of opinion journalism starts with a proposition to readers: ‘Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape.’ He draws together on-the-record accounts and cites several analyses documenting the practice of sexual violence and abuse conducted by various parts of Israel’s security forces and settlers," Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander wrote.
Stadtlander continued, "The accounts of the 14 men and women he interviewed were corroborated with other witnesses, whenever possible, and with people the victims confided in — that includes family members and lawyers. Details were extensively fact-checked, with accounts further cross-referenced with news reporting, independent research from human-rights groups, surveys and in one case, with U.N. testimony. Independent experts were consulted on the assertions in the piece throughout reporting and fact-checking."
The Times has now issued multiple statements standing by the piece. Kristof's column has faced widespread scrutiny.
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pushed back against The New York Times after he was quoted appearing to validate explosive allegations of systemic sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners.
"To try to make sense of what I found, I called up Ehud Olmert, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2009," Kristof told readers. "Olmert told me he didn’t know much about sexual violence against Palestinians but was not surprised by the accounts I had heard."
Kristof went on to quote Olmert, who said, "Do I believe it happens? Definitely. ... There are war crimes committed every day in the territories."
However, Olmert took exception to the placement of his quote, which was placed toward the bottom of Kristof's report.
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"Mr. Kristof's article includes claims of extraordinary gravity: that Israeli authorities have directed the rape of children, that dogs have been used as instruments of sexual assault, that systematic sexual torture is state policy. I did not validate these claims," Olmert said in a statement obtained by The Free Press.
"I have no knowledge supporting these claims as I said to Mr. Kristof. Therefore, the positioning of my quote after pages of such allegations misrepresents my views."
Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., also called out the Times.
"WTF @nytimes!" Gottheimer wrote on X. "Nick Kristof amplifies proven Hamas-affiliated sources and their propaganda, while the NYT continues to gloss over the systematic sexual violence, rape, and mutilation Hamas committed on October 7, now fully documented in the new Civil Commission report.
"We should expect better from the paper of record, particularly with allegations as serious as these. It’s almost as if the NYT is on Hamas’ payroll," the Democratic lawmaker added.
Fox News' Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.