Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities plans to file a defamation lawsuit in opposition to The New York Occasions in response to an opinion column alleging widespread sexual abuse concentrating on Palestinian prisoners.
The column, by journalist Nicholas Kristof, cites interviews with 14 women and men “who mentioned that they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the safety forces,” however notes Kristoff was unable to corroborate some accounts of abuse.
Israeli officers condemned the Occasions for publishing the report. Netanyahu’s workplace referred to as it “some of the hideous and distorted lies ever printed in opposition to the State of Israel.” In an announcement Thursday, the workplace mentioned Netanyahu and Overseas Minister Gideon Sa’ar “have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit in opposition to The New York Occasions.”
Netanyahu posted on X that his authorized advisers will “contemplate the harshest authorized motion in opposition to The New York Occasions and Nicholas Kristof.”
The Occasions on Wednesday evening defended Kristof’s piece, calling it a “deeply reported piece of opinion journalism.”
“The accounts of the 14 women and men he interviewed have been corroborated with different witnesses, every time potential, and with folks the victims confided in — that features relations and attorneys,” mentioned Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Occasions. “Particulars have been extensively fact-checked, with accounts additional cross-referenced with information reporting, unbiased analysis from human-rights teams, surveys and in a single case, with U.N. testimony. Unbiased consultants have been consulted on the assertions within the piece all through reporting and fact-checking.”
It’s unclear if litigation shall be filed in the US or Israel, or who the plaintiffs shall be.
A authorities itself can’t sue for defamation in the US, in response to Rodney Smolla, a First Modification scholar and former president of the Vermont Legislation and Graduate Faculty. If Netanyahu or one other authorities official have been to deliver the go well with, Smolla mentioned they’d seemingly have a troublesome hill to climb.
“I believe on the finish of the day, courts would say this [article] is insufficiently concentrating on Netanyahu, and to permit him to sue is simply too perilously near permitting a go well with by the federal government itself,” Smolla mentioned.
The New York Occasions may rely on a special landmark case during which it was concerned. In New York Occasions v. Sullivan, the Supreme Courtroom restricted the power of public officers to sue for defamation, in response to Nadine Strossen, a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Strossen mentioned the plaintiff, whether or not Netanyahu or another person, must present “that there was intentional or reckless falsity, that they knew or had nice motive to know that what was being mentioned was false.”
“It might probably’t be a matter of opinion or of study or of perspective. It needs to be objectively falsifiable,” Strossen mentioned.
Yale Legislation professor Jed Rubenfeld additionally famous the Sullivan case, saying “I believe there may be in all probability zero probability of the go well with succeeding.”
“If you happen to write your criticism of a authorities impersonally with out naming specific people, who you are saying are accountable for regardless of the misconduct or crimes are….then you definately’re inside your First Modification rights,” Rubenfeld mentioned.
Public figures within the U.S. have sued for tens of millions over information protection they thought of unfair or defamatory, however at trial they’re required to point out that the reporter or writer acted with precise malice — the data that statements have been false, or reckless disregard for the reality.
President Trump has lately wielded lawsuits over protection he hasn’t favored as leverage to extract tens of millions in pretrial settlements from the mum or dad corporations of reports retailers, together with CBS Information. Mr. Trump sued CBS Information over a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The outlet mentioned the lawsuit was “utterly with out benefit” shortly after it was filed. Mr. Trump and CBS Information’ mum or dad firm, Paramount, settled in 2025 for $16 million.
In 1983, Israel’s then-Minister of Protection Ariel Sharon sued Time Journal over an article a couple of bloodbath in Lebanon. That case went to trial, and a federal jury discovered the reporting in query to be false, however concluded the journal didn’t act with precise malice in publishing the story.
Smolla mentioned Sharon — who a long time later would function prime minister — had standing as a result of the reporting that he claimed was defamatory was about him particularly. He famous that members of a small group can have authorized standing — even when unnamed within the reporting — in the event that they imagine they’re implicated within the alleged defamation.
Kristof’s column features a declare by a journalist from Gaza that he was stripped bare and mounted by a canine as Israeli guards laughed. Kristof wrote that “the Palestinian prisoners and human rights screens have additionally cited experiences of police canine being coached to rape prisoners.”
Smolla mentioned if particular person police canine trainers introduced claims they “may” be viable plaintiffs.
“There are solely a small variety of folks with that experience who’ve that project,” Smolla mentioned.
Nonetheless, Strossen mentioned even a case like that may have little probability below the Sullivan normal, since people weren’t named within the column.
“It appears to me that may be an imaginative effort,” Strossen mentioned.
