Israel: NYT printed ‘one of the worst blood libels ever’

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has accused The New York Times of publishing “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press”.

“In an unfathomable inversion of reality and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused,” the ministry posted on X, referring to the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist who wrote “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians”.

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

The opinion piece alleged that, despite the absence of evidence, the Jewish state uses sexual violence against Palestinians as part of its “security apparatus”. It cited the conspiracy theory that Israeli guards train dogs to sexually assault terrorist prisoners.

The piece prompted sharp criticism from analysts, academics and former officials, who accused Kristof of relying on unsubstantiated claims and inflammatory rhetoric.

In his column, Kristof acknowledged that “there is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes” and said he had relied on conversations with 14 individuals who “said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces”.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Kristof’s article was “part of a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign” aimed at placing Jerusalem on the UN secretary-general’s blacklist of parties responsible for sexual violence in conflict.

“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,” the ministry posted.

“Israel will fight these lies with the truth, and the truth will prevail,” it added.

In the two-and-a-half years since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, Israel has presented extensive evidence that terrorists subjected women and girls to sexual violence during the massacre and later in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

According to an April 2026 report by Boundless, a US-based think tank focused on Israel and antisemitism, only 49% of the US population agreed that Hamas committed acts of sexual violence on October 7 and that video and photographic evidence exists.

Critics also accused The New York Times of publishing the column at a particularly inflammatory moment, as Israel’s Civilian Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children was releasing a major report on sexual violence during the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and against hostages held in Gaza. They argued that the timing risked shifting attention away from documented Hamas atrocities just as the commission’s findings were being made public.

As if that were not enough, The New York Times also drew criticism this week over a separate article on Israel’s Eurovision campaign, which framed the country’s promotion of its contestants as a political “soft power” effort.
Critics argued that the article singled out Israel for conduct common among Eurovision participants, while acknowledging there was no evidence that Israel had used bots or covert tactics to manipulate the vote and that contest rules did not set a spending limit on government promotion. The criticism came amid broader claims that Israel’s strong public vote in recent Eurovision contests was somehow unfair, despite the contest’s voting system allowing viewers to vote for favoured entries within the rules.

with additional material by JWire