Yet Sari Bashi, an Israeli-American human rights lawyer who is the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and who was interviewed for Kristof’s opinion column, points out that there is no “evidence that it has been ordered.” She said she believes, however, that there is “persistent evidence that the authorities know it’s happening and are not stopping it.”

'It's impossible to know how common sexual assaults against Palestinians are'

And even Kristof himself admits that “it’s impossible to know how common sexual assaults against Palestinians are” - though that does not stop him from going on for almost 4,000 words about the total certainty that Israelis “systematically employ rape and sexual torture” to humiliate Palestinian prisoners and that Israel allows, even enables, Israeli settlers to sexually assault Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

The famed New York Times columnist even goes so far as to call on the US to “condition arms transfers on an end to sexual assault,” arguing that “we could send a moral and practical message that sexual violence is unacceptable no matter the identity of the victim.”

Maybe it would also send a message to other departments of his own newspaper that the Israeli victims of Hamas’s systematic sexual violence and rape on October 7, and afterward, as Israeli hostages languished in Gaza, also deserve to have their stories told?

Kristof’s column was published and promoted prominently on the NYT’s website, even including a separately produced video clip, one day ahead of a monumental Israeli report into Hamas’s systematic sexual crimes on October 7, which over the past two-and-a-half years have been downplayed or outright denied by a multitude of human rights and women’s rights activists, organizations, and officials.

The report by the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children was distributed to media outlets in Israel, including the NYT, weeks ahead of its publication on Tuesday. It was picked up by many journalists and platforms, but was somehow skipped by The New York Times.

It’s disappointing that the newspaper prefers baseless claims of Israeli rape dogs over actual reports on atrocities.