"The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" is an opinion piece published in The New York Times on May 11, 2026, in which journalist Nicholas Kristof recounts interviews detailing alleged widespread sexual abuse committed by Israeli prison guards, soldiers, settlers, and interrogators against Palestinians, especially those in Israeli custody. The premise of the article, which cites reports on sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians during the Gaza war by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and B'Tselem, is that there is a disparity in how allegations of sexual violence are treated when the victims are Palestinian as opposed to when the victims are Israeli. Kristof relied on direct interviews with 14 Palestinians, including nonviolence activist Issa Amro and journalist Sami al-Sai, who reported having been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of Israeli forces.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the article "Hamas propaganda" and "one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press" and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa'ar announced legal action against The New York Times for libel. The Times said such legal action would be "without merit".

The piece elicited strong reactions from supporters of Israel, including protest outside The New York Times Building on May 14. In response to critics of his piece, Kristof called on Israel to permit the Red Cross and lawyers to visit Palestinian detainees. Critics on the opposite side of the aisle also questioned why the story was published in the opinion section, arguing this constitutes a double standard with regard to coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in The New York Times, as articles alleging sexual abuse against Israelis haven been published in the news section.

On May 21, Kristof and NYT Opinion head Kathleen Kingsbury responded to questions regarding the article. The same day, the New York Times Opinion and The New York Times accounts on video-sharing networks posted a video with Kristof presenting material from his May 11 column, recordings of interviews with Palestinian survivors of sexual assault by Israelis, and videos and photos of Palestinians being subjected to sexual assault, one of which settlers posted to social media.

On May 29 the National Jewish Advocacy Center approached the Times requesting access to Board of Directors records on this article. The Times did not respond. In September 2026, in partial response to this lack of action, shareholders filed a lawsuit requesting that the Times release internal records regarding decisions about their Gaza coverage, amid claims that the Times violated its own editorial policies in its coverage. In particular it claims that bias concerns were not addressed and not brought to the attention of the leadership, and when it was, appropriate action was not taken.

Background

Sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians during the Gaza war

Yuli Novak, Israeli human rights activist and executive director of B’Tselem, writes that "abuses in Israeli custody have long been reported by former detainees, lawyers, doctors and journalists, and documented by human rights organizations." In 2025, the United Nations Human Rights Council published "More than a human can bear": Israel's systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023, which described sexual violence against Palestinians as "standard operating procedures" and "a major element in the ill treatment of Palestinians." In 2025, too, there was media coverage of Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi's resignation and arrest after leaking CCTV footage of at Sde Teiman detention camp, which was shown on Israeli television on Channel 12. In April 2026, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor published a report entitled Another genocide behind walls: Sexual violence in Israeli prisons and detention centres and engineered impunity documenting sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians during the Gaza war. The January 2026 report Living Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps from B'Tselem also documented sexual violence as a torture method used against Palestinians in Israeli custody.

Coverage of Israel and Palestine in The New York Times Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously threatened to sue The New York Times in August 2025 over an article about starvation in Gaza, but did not follow through.

Content

Kristof writes that there is a disparity in how allegations of sexual violence are treated when the victims are Palestinian as opposed to when the victims are Israeli, and that there shouldn't be. He opens the piece with: "It’s a simple proposition: Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape."

Sourcing

Reports cited In his opinion piece, Kristof cited previous reports of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians during the Gaza war, including the 2025 report from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the April 2026 report from Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the January 2026 B'Tselem report, and the February 2026 Committee to Protect Journalists report.

Palestinian testimonies Kristof wrote that, "this article is based on conversations with 14 men and women who said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces", and that he had also spoken to family members, investigators, officials and others." Among the witnesses who agreed to be named were Sami al-Sai, a freelance journalist; Issa Amro, a Palestinian nonviolent activist; Suhaib Abualkebash, a farmer in the Jordan Valley; and Mohammad Matar, a Palestinian official.

Kristof wrote that Issa Amro told him "he had been sexually assaulted by Israeli soldiers and that he believed this was common but underreported because of shame." He also shared the testimony of Sami al-Sai, a Palestinian reporter who described experiencing sexual assault from a group of Israeli prison guards.

Israeli testimonies Kristof also cited Israeli American human rights lawyer Sari Bashi, Israeli lawyer Ben Marmarelli, and Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel (2006–2009).

Exposure of children to sexual violence Kristof wrote too that Save the Children "commissioned a survey last year of children ages 12 to 17 who had been in Israeli detention; more than half reported witnessing or experiencing sexual violence."

Sexual violence against journalists in detention He also wrote that a survey from the Committee to Protect Journalists found that, of 59 Palestinian journalists who had been released by Israeli authorities since the October 7 attacks, "three percent said they had been raped, and 29 percent said they had endured other forms of sexual violence."

Kristof also wrote that Israel welcomed the UN report documenting sexual assaults against Israeli women by Palestinians, but rejected a call in the same report for an investigation into Israeli sexual assaults against Palestinians.

On US support for Israel, Kristof wrote that "American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security establishment, so this is sexual violence in which the United States is complicit."

Canine rape Kristof reported that a journalist detained by Israel in Gaza in 2024 said that, while stripped naked, handcuffed, and blindfolded, he had been raped by a dog "with encouragement from a handler in Hebrew". Kristof wrote that there had been other reports from Palestinian prisoners and human rights groups that police dogs have been trained to rape prisoners.

Reception

Israeli government responses In a May 12 post on X, formerly Twitter, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the article "Hamas propaganda" and "one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press". The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has alleged that Kristof was a "propagandist" who was "part of a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign aimed at placing Israel on the UN Secretary-General's blacklist." Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter said "the only clear crime on display here is the violation of journalistic standards by Mr Kristof and his paper."

On May 12, Kristof responded to the reaction to his piece, calling on Israel to permit Red Cross and lawyer visits to Palestinian security detainees:I appreciate the intense interest in my column. For skeptics, why not agree on Red Cross and lawyer visits for the 9,000 Palestinian "security" prisoners? If you think these abuse allegations are false, such monitoring visits would be protective. So why not?On May 14, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar published a statement saying The New York Times had published "one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press" and that they had ordered the "initiation of a defamation lawsuit". A spokesperson for The New York Times published a statement in support of Kristof, commending his reporting and source verification process, saying the threatened legal action would be "without merit" in a statement that read:The Israeli Prime Minister has threatened to file a libel lawsuit against The New York Times regarding Nicholas Kristof's deeply reported opinion column on sexual abuse by Israel's prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators. This threat, similar to one made last year, is part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting and stifle journalism that does not fit a specific narrative. Any such legal claim would be without merit. According to Yuli Novak, the Israeli government backlash against Kristof's article addressing the sexual torture of Palestinian prisoners is meant to "raise the cost of speaking out" about such abuses.

On 15 May, the Israeli government issued a report attempting to discredit Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Palestinian NGO that was among the sources cited in the article.

Media and popular responses

Statements that sexual violence against Palestinians in Israeli custody had been known Historian Omer Bartov told Democracy Now that, though he was glad to see it published in The New York Times, this has been well known in Israel and that it had "become the policy of the country: to abuse, to humiliate, to rape—systematically" which Bartov said was "part of what happens when a society becomes a genocidal society." Al Jazeera Arabic said Kristof had broken the barrier of silence regarding sexual assault in occupation jails. Yuli Novak, Israeli human rights activist and director of B'Tselem, also noted that abuses of Palestinians in Israeli custody had been documented for a long time.

Accusations of blood libel The article has drawn furious reaction from Israeli politicians and media. Echoing accusations from the Israeli government, the American Jewish Committee called the allegation that Israel trains dogs to rape prisoners a “modern-day blood libel”. Yuli Novak has called such accusations a "familiar charge" and argued that the pro-Israeli backlash was manufactured to deter further coverage, "controlling what can be seen, who can be heard, and whose pain is allowed to enter the public realm."

Criticism of article sources