Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday ordered a defamation lawsuit to be filed against the New York Times after a journalist published an opinion piece alleging Palestinian prisoners were raped and sexually abused by Israeli prison guards and soldiers. The opinion article, titled “The silence that meets the rape of Palestinians,” was published by columnist Nicholas Kristof on May 11 and detailed interviews with Palestinians who alleged there existed “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children.” “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.”
Today I instructed my legal advisers to consider the harshest legal action against The New York Times and Nicholas Kristof. 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…— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 14, 2026
