Dozens of pro-Israel activists took part in a protest on Thursday outside of the New York Times building in New York City, as anger over the paper’s coverage of the rape of Palestinians in Israeli prisons continues to simmer.
A video shared on X showed pro-Israel activists holding banners calling to “end Jew hatred” and claiming anti-Zionism was killing Jews.
The activists called for the dismissal of veteran New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof.
Kristof’s story contained harrowing testimonies of the rape of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers, which included accounts of prisoners being mounted by dogs, penetrated by carrots, and rectums torn by batons.
Israeli influencers and politicians responded to the accounts by claiming that the New York Times was perpetuating a blood libel – or an antisemitic canard, used to justify the slaughter of Jews in Europe during the medieval and early modern era.
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The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that it would sue the New York Times after the paper doubled down on its defence of the report.
The rape of Palestinians is widely documented by human rights groups and accounts of sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners have been verified by Middle East Eye.
Israeli media personalities have openly made light of the use of dogs in the rape of Palestinians, while attempts by prosecutors to pursue charges against Israeli soldiers accused of rape sparked huge outcry, ultimately leading to their release.
Israel to sue New York Times over article describing its rape of Palestinians
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In the aftermath of the abuses, many Israelis took part in “right to rape” protests in support of the accused soldiers.
Israeli authorities made one arrest in connection with the case in November, of a military prosecutor accused of leaking footage showing the rape of a Palestinian detainee.
Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the Israel army’s chief military advocate, staged a fake suicide while allegedly trying to dispose of a phone containing incriminating evidence.
The Israeli army launched a criminal investigation into the leak.
In March, the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found evidence of the systematic use of sexual violence by Israeli officers against Palestinians since the start of the genocide in Gaza.
The commission said it had documented cases of rape and sexual assault of male detainees, “including the use of an electrical probe to cause burns to the anus, and the insertion of objects such as fingers, sticks, broomsticks and vegetables into the anus and rectum”.
