Israeli Foreign Ministry said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar instructed the launch of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times following the publication of an article by columnist Nicholas Kristof, Anadolu reports.
In a statement shared on US social media company X by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Israeli officials described the article as “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press.”
The ministry also accused the newspaper of backing the article and said legal action would be initiated against The New York Times.
The announcement came after Kristof published an opinion piece titled The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians, alleging that Palestinian detainees had been subjected to widespread sexual violence by Israeli prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators.
Kristof said he interviewed 14 Palestinian men and women who described sexual assaults and other abuse during detention or attacks by Israeli forces and settlers.
