Israel Plans to Sue NYT Over Article Detailing Sexual Abuse of Palestinians |
Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.
Israel has announced that it will sue The New York Times and reporter Nicholas Kristof over a recent article called “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” which documents systemic sexual abuse by Israeli soldiers and settlers.
In a social media post on May 14, Israel’s foreign ministry stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar “have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit” against The New York Times. The post decried the article, published on Monday, as “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press.”
Netanyahu also weighed in, stating, “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,” Netanyahu continued. “We will fight these lies in the court of public opinion and in the court of law.”
Kristof’s article details 14 Palestinians’ experiences of sexual violence at the hands of Israeli soldiers and settlers, and argues that sexual violence against Palestinians is systemic and a part of Israeli state policy.
Israeli Officials Denounce NYT Report on Systemic Sexual........