The New York Times is standing by Nicholas Kristof’s article detailing how Palestinians are regularly abused in Israeli prisons after sharp criticism and calls for the column to be retracted.
Kristof’s story – titled “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians” – details how Palestinian men and women held in Israeli prisons are facing “brutal sexual abuse at the hands of Israel’s prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators.” The story was met with a wave of backlash, but the Times is standing behind the story and writer.
“There is no truth to this at all,” Charlie Stadtlander, a New York Times spokesperson, said of the retraction rumors. “Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades, and is widely regarded as one of the world’s best on-the-ground reporters documenting and bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones. He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies.”
https://t.co/860eTKMugW pic.twitter.com/xsqFyP3ptS
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) May 12, 2026
Among the many dissenters of the story was the Israel Foreign Ministry. They were quick to post to their own social media accounts decrying the story and Kristof for turning “the victim into the accused.”
“In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused,” the Israel Foreign Ministry said on X. “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.”
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. Israel – whose…
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) May 11, 2026
The statement continued: “This publication is no coincidence. It is part of a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign aimed at placing Israel on the UN Secretary-General’s blacklist. Israel will fight these lies with the truth – and the truth will prevail.”
Kristof himself responded on Tuesday to the outcry and asks for the Times to retract the story.
“I appreciate the intense interest in my column,” Kristof wrote. “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?”
The post NY Times Stands by Pulitzer Winner’s Column on Palestinian Rape in Israeli Prisons: ‘No Truth’ to Retraction Rumors appeared first on TheWrap.
