Key Points

An opinion piece appearing in the leading English national daily New York Times (NYT) has drawn significant flak over its string of explosive allegations about Israel’s widespread use of sexual abuse against Palestinians. The article, published on Monday, 11th May, 2026 in the opinion section by author Nicholas Kristof, claims that sexual violence against Palestinians by Israeli security forces and settlers is widespread, under-reported, and carried out with impunity.

In the opinion article titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians," the author wrote that Palestinian detainees have reported being subjected to horrific acts, including guards inserting batons or other objects into their rectums during beatings and interrogations, gang rapes, the blackmail of a female detainee, and sexual threats and abuse against children. The article includes testimonies from Palestinians survivors who were subjected to rape and other sexual abuse.

One of the most damning allegations made was that the Israeli prisoners guards have trained police dogs to rape prisoners, with a statement including from a survivor who underwent the alleged abuse. 

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The column has become a center of backlash, as Israeli officials, experts and, authors criticize that the author has used unverified claims and that the article is more of a “baseless investigative write-up” rather than an opinion piece. 

The Israeli Government's Response

The Israeli government has expressed its condemnation of the newspaper’s opinion piece, calling it “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press.” The state’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement posted on X, wrote: “In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused.”

“Today, the @nytimes chose to publish one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press,” they wrote. “In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused.”

The Foreign Ministry continued, “Israel – whose citizens were the victims of the most horrific sexual crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, and whose hostages were later subjected to further sexual abuse – is portrayed as the guilty party. This publication is no coincidence. It is part of a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign aimed at placing Israel on the UN Secretary-General’s blacklist.”

“Israel will fight these lies with the truth – and the truth will prevail,” the statement concluded.

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Ever since the onset of Israel’s conflict in Gaza, instances of sexual violence conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli prison guards have surfaced repeatedly. 

Speaking to the Times of Israel, the Israel Police Service (IPS) has dubbed the allegations false and reiterated that detainees are treated in accordance with the law. “The allegations raised are false and entirely unfounded,” the IPS tells The Times of Israel. “The Israel Prison Service is a security organization that operates in accordance with the law and under the strict oversight of numerous official inspectors. 

“All prisoners are held in accordance with the law, while safeguarding their basic rights and under the supervision of a professional and skilled prison staff,” the prison service stated. 

In the opinion piece, Kristof drew a parallel between Israeli officials’ denial of allegations of sexual violence against Palestinian and Hamas’s denial that its militants had raped Israeli women during the October 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel. “The horrific abuse inflicted on Israeli women on Oct. 7 now happens to Palestinians day after day,” he wrote.

Nadav Pollak, a Middle East studies lecturer at Reichman University in Herzliya, strongly criticised the column, calling it a “blood libel.” “Any actual case that happened needs to be investigated by Israel, and those that commit crimes need to be arrested and face justice in court, but Kristof here intentionally tries to create a distorted reality, like this is common practice by Israel and compares it to Hamas,” Pollak wrote.

Pollak added, “The New York Times, of course, ran with this blood libel, comparing Israel to Hamas sexual attacks against Israeli hostages.”

Online comments

Casting harsh judgement over the opinion piece, English commentator for GB News, Josh Howie took to X and expressed his disapproval over NYT’s evident hate towards Jews. “The New York Times, winner of a record 145 Pulitzers, has staked its near two century reputation on a dog physically being able to put its doggie dick, into a human bottom. That is how much it hates Jews,” he wrote.

Critics have opined that the write-up is almost entirely based upon verbal accounts given to the author by the alleged victims, whose integrity seems questionable at best. Adopting a sarcastic tone, Canadian professor and author Gad Saad addressed author Nicholas Kristof in a X post and mocked him basing his opinion piece entirely upon unverified verbal accounts. “Dear "@NickKristof , a guy I know told me that he knows someone who told him that the Jews are developing a squirrel rape vaccine. The vaccinated squirrels are trained to rape keffiyeh-wearing protesters. Please reach out to me. This is big. I’m hoping to soon go on @TuckerCarlson ’s show to expose the raping Jew-squirrels,” the post read.

To bolster his claims made in the article, Kristoff also cited a 2025 report by the United Nations, wherein it was reported that Israel had adopted a “systematic” use of sexual violence and abuse and other gender-based violence against Palestinians since October 7th, 2023. Additionally, Kristoff quoted an April 2026 report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a fierce Israel-critic advocacy group, which concluded that Israel employs “systematic sexual violence” that is “widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.” 

The article has also sparked response from Jewish Civil Groups, who have called for a protest against NYT for spreading “dog-rape libel” and “other racist antizionist conspiracies” outside the newspaper’s headquarters in Manhattan. 

The New York Times has come forward in defence of Kristof.

Clarifying that the opinion article is not being retracted, a NYT spokesperson stated that the Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer prize winning journalists who has a repertoire for reporting sexual violence for decades. The spokesperson also added that the author had traveled to the region to collect first-hand accounts from Palestinians who suffered the abuse.

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