On Monday, The New York Times published an opinion column by Nicholas Kristof titled “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians.” In it, Kristof recounts allegations of sexual abuse against Palestinians committed by Israeli soldiers, prison guards, and interrogators. The column swiftly provoked a firestorm, as many of its claims were revealed to be misleading, unverified, or demonstrably false. (For more on this, read Eli Lake’s “Nick Kristof’s ‘Dog Torture’ Claim About Israel Doesn’t Pass Muster,” and Haviv Rettig Gur’s “The Paper Trail of Nicholas Kristof’s Smear.”)
But how does a piece like this end up in The New York Times in the first place? That’s the question Free Press columnist Matti Friedman explores in a recent interview with Dan Senor on the Call Me Back podcast. According to Friedman, the column reflects a broader shift in modern journalism: a media culture that, in his view, has traded its credibility to become “a weapon in the fight for justice.” It’s an essential critique—which is why we’re publishing a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity.
—The Editors
Dan Senor: I want to start by going through the main claims that Nicholas Kristof makes in his New York Times piece. What are these claims? Which ones are lies? Which are unfalsifiable? And which may have legs?
Matti Friedman: Kristof gives us a list of terrible abuses that he claims were directed at Palestinian detainees. He says he spoke to 14 people, most of whom are not named, and some of the material is sourced from anti-Israel NGOs. He does not seem to know the identities of some of the people he’s describing. He describes male detainees being raped with objects, a female detainee being raped over the space of two days in an Israeli prison, and sexual assault of another female detainee by Israeli guards. He describes one incident of sexual assault by a settler—not by a uniformed soldier, but an Israeli civilian in the West Bank. That one, as far as I know, is accurate, much to our shame. And the incident receiving the most of the attention is Kristof’s description of a sexual assault perpetrated against a Palestinian prisoner using a dog.
When you read the piece, you have to use your own compass to decide which charges could plausibly be true and which charges come from the world of conspiratorial, anti-Israel fantasy. I think there is a plausible reason for concern about sexual assaults of prisoners. I don’t think we can dismiss every account of sexual assaults against Palestinian detainees.
