Israel to sue NY Times over Palestinian prisoner rape allegations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his country’s foreign ministry said Thursday they will sue The New York Times, accusing the outlet of defamation after it published a column alleging that Israeli prison guards sexually abuse and assault imprisoned Palestinians.

“Today I instructed my legal advisers to consider the harshest legal action against The New York Times and [columnist] Nicholas Kristof,” Netanyahu wrote on the social platform 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.”

The prime minister added that “Israel will not be silent” under his leadership and that the truth “will prevail.”

The foreign ministry said in its own statement that the column showcased “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.”

Kristof’s column, titled “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” published Monday, chronicles accounts from 14 Palestinian men and women, including freelance journalist Sami al-Sai, who said they were........

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