Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to sue The New York Times and journalist Nicholas Kristof for defamation over an article that alleged Israeli soldiers, prison guards and settlers had used widespread sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu instructed his legal advisers “to consider the harshest legal action” against the paper.
“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 in a statement.
Kristof, a veteran journalist, reported the story from the occupied West Bank.
“We will fight these lies in the court of public opinion and in the court of law. Truth will prevail,” Netanyahu said, though he did not clarify when or where the lawsuit would be filed. He has threatened to sue the newspaper before and did not follow through.
The United Nations and rights groups say they have documented the use of sexual violence by both Israel and Hamas since the militant Palestinian group’s assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Times did not immediately respond on Thursday to a request for comment on Netanyahu’s threat.
In a statement on Wednesday that followed criticism from Israeli lawmakers, the newspaper defended Kristof’s article, which includes testimony by a Palestinian saying he was raped by a dog. Israel rejects this.
“The accounts of the 14 men and women [Kristof] interviewed were corroborated with other witnesses, when possible, and with people the victims confided in – that includes family members and lawyers,” newspaper spokesman Charlie Stadtlander wrote, adding that “details were extensively fact-checked”.
In his article, Kristof, who writes for the newspaper’s opinion section, wrote: “(Our) American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security establishment, so this is sexual violence in which the United States is complicit.”
