The Israeli government has said it is taking the extraordinary step of suing The New York Times after the newspaper published an article detailing rape allegations by Palestinian detainees against Israeli forces.

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office made the announcement three days after the release of the article by longtime New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, which was based on the accounts of 14 male and female Palestinian victims.

The report added to a growing body of evidence of systematic Israeli sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees, whose numbers have soared since October 7, 2023. That evidence has been documented by rights groups and media, including Al Jazeera.

Israel had previously condemned The New York Times report as “blood libel”, but went further on Thursday, saying Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar “have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times”.

It further called the report “the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper”.

For its part, The New York Times and Kristoff have stood by the article, with a spokesperson on Wednesday calling the report a “deeply reported piece of opinion journalism”.

“The accounts of the 14 men and women he interviewed were corroborated with other witnesses, whenever possible, and with people the victims confided in – that includes family members and lawyers,” the spokesperson, Charlie Stadtlander, said in a statement on X.

“Details were extensively fact-checked, with accounts further cross-referenced with news reporting, independent research from human-rights groups, surveys and in one case, the UN testimony,” it said. “Independent experts were consulted on the assertions in the piece throughout reporting and fact-checking.”

The newspaper did not immediately respond to the Israeli government’s announcement on Thursday of its intention to sue.

Further details of the Israeli government’s planned lawsuit were not immediately available. While a foreign government can technically sue a US media company, the prospect raises several legal questions, particularly over jurisdiction.

If the suit is brought in a US court, it is likely to face a steep legal climb. US media has broad constitutional protections, particularly when challenged by government authorities.

Last year, Netanyahu said he was “looking at whether a country can sue The New York Times” newspaper last year, following a report on starvation in Gaza amid Israel’s genocide.

The Israeli prime minister, who faces elections later this year, on Thursday said he wanted the lawsuit to send a message beyond its legal scope.

“Under my leadership, Israel will not be silent,” he said in a post on X. “We will fight these lies in the court of public opinion and in the court of law.”

Allegations of double standard

The New York Times has also faced opposing criticism of giving more credence to allegations of sexual abuse by Palestinian groups than to allegations made by Palestinians.

In particular, critics have questioned why Kristof’s article was published under the “opinion” section, when stories on alleged abuses against Israelis have been published as “news”.

That included a December 28, 2023, report detailing allegations of a pattern of sexual abuse during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on southern Israel. The integrity of the report and reporters involved have been heavily questioned, including, reportedly, from within the newspaper’s own newsroom.

In the months after its publication, 50 journalism professors called on the newspaper to investigate the piece. The Times has stood by its reporting.

On Tuesday, the newspaper also published a piece in its news section on an Israeli civil commission report that claimed sexual abuse on October 7 was “organised and patterned”.

In a statement in December, Reem Alsalem, UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said Israel has not responded to requests for access (PDF) for an international independent commission to investigate sexual abuse allegations against both Israelis and Palestinians.

Kristof’s article cited a report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, presented to the UN Human Rights Council last year that Israel’s security apparatus had become a system under which sexual violence is “standard operating procedures” and “a major element in the ill treatment of Palestinians”.

It also pointed to a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report that found nearly a third of Palestinian journalists detained by Israel had faced sexual violence.

The accounts included that of Sami al-Sai, a 46-year-old Palestinian freelance journalist, who said he was sexually assaulted with a rubber baton and carrot while in Israeli detention in 2024.

Other Palestinians detailed abuses by Israeli settlers, who often operate with the protection of Israel’s security forces.

Mohammad Matar, a Palestinian official, recounted being stripped and poked with a stick as settlers joked about raping him.

“For six months, I couldn’t speak about it, even to my family,” he said.