New York Times columnist reported testimonies revealing systematic sexual violence against Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces.
Key Takeaways
- New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reported accounts sexual violence by Israeli soldiers, prison guards and settlers.
- The report cited UN findings and human rights organizations documenting what they described as systemic abuse against Palestinians.
- Israel’s prison service rejected the allegations, while Netanyahu dismissed accusations of sexual violence as “baseless.”
Systematic Abuse
In a lengthy opinion investigation published by The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof detailed testimonies from Palestinians recounting widespread sexual violence committed by Israeli soldiers, prison guards, settlers and interrogators.
Kristof, a longtime war correspondent and senior opinion columnist at The New York Times, wrote:
“It’s a simple proposition: Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape.”
“There is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes,” Kristof wrote, but added that Israeli authorities have built “a security apparatus” in which sexual violence has become, according to a UN report, one of Israel’s “standard operating procedures.”
Accounts from Palestinian Detainees
Kristof said he interviewed 14 Palestinian men and women who described sexual assaults by Israeli security personnel or settlers.
Among them was Palestinian journalist Sami al-Sai, who said he was assaulted by prison guards after his detention in 2024.
“They were all hitting me, and one stepped on my head and neck,” al-Sai told The New York Times.
He said guards stripped him and assaulted him with objects while laughing.
“It was extremely painful,” he said. “I was praying for death.”
Kristof also described the testimony of a Palestinian farmer who was repeatedly assaults with a metal baton after he sought to file a complaint against prison guards.
“Now you have even more to put in your complaint,” one guard told him.
The farmer later withdrew permission to publish his name after, he said, Shin Bet officials warned him not to speak publicly.
Women, Children and Gaza Prisoners
The New York Times report also included the testimony of a Palestinian woman arrested after October 2023, who said Israeli soldiers threatened to rape her and members of her family.
She told Kristof she was repeatedly stripped, beaten and groped by guards.
“They had their hands all over my body,” she said.
A Gaza journalist similarly described abuse in detention, telling The New York Times: “No one escaped sexual assaults.”
Kristof also interviewed Palestinian boys who said rape threats were routine during detention.
One 15-year-old detainee recalled guards saying: “Do this or we’ll put this stick up your butt.”
Human Rights Findings
Kristof cited reports by the United Nations, B’Tselem, Save the Children, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
A Euro-Med report described Israeli sexual violence against Palestinians as “systematic” and part of an “organized state policy.”
B’Tselem documented what it called “a grave pattern of sexual violence,” while Save the Children reported that more than half of surveyed Palestinian children detained by Israel said they witnessed or experienced sexual violence.
Israel’s prison service rejected the allegations.
According to The New York Times, a prison service spokesperson said it “categorically rejects the allegations” and claimed complaints are examined by relevant authorities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced accusations of sexual violence by Israeli forces as “baseless accusations.”
‘Giving Permission to Rape’
Kristof argued that impunity has enabled the abuse to continue.
He referenced the 2024 case of a Palestinian prisoner from Gaza who was reportedly hospitalized with severe rectal and internal injuries after alleged abuse by Israeli reservists. Although several soldiers were initially detained, the charges were later dropped.
Netanyahu celebrated the dismissal of the case as the end of a “blood libel.”
Sari Bashi, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, told The New York Times:
“Rampant sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners is a thing; it’s been normalized.”
She added: “I don’t see evidence that it has been ordered. But there’s persistent evidence that the authorities know it’s happening and are not stopping it.”
After the charges against the reservists were dropped, Bashi said:
“I would say that dropping the charges — that’s giving permission to rape.”
Kristof concluded that because the United States continues to financially and militarily support Israel, Washington bears responsibility for addressing the allegations.
“Yet our American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security establishment,” he wrote, “so this is sexual violence in which the United States is complicit.”
(NYT, PC)
Remember, there is *no* such thing as an israeli civilian.
In order to receive permission to publish his brief account, Kristof (or his editors) found it expedient to begin by falsely attributing sexual crimes to the Palestinian fighters of Oct. 7th. Some things never change. But some things do. One of them is the overall attitude of corporate news outlets, which gradually and belatedly are beginning to acknowledge the scale of Israel’s barbarity. This turnabout is due entirely to the poll numbers reflecting widespread majority disgust in the United States toward Israel. They are shocked and sobered by this sea change and feel they must maintain a degree of contact with the sentiments expressed in survey after survey. Profits are at risk.
Israhell should be totally dis-associated from the United States’ tax base, as ALL taxpaying Americans are supp orting Israhell’s criminal activity against innocent Palestinians!!!