Kristof’s Unbelievable Tale
The columnist publishes a poorly sourced, fantastical tale of torture and dog rape in Israel.
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By Rachel O’Donoghue
A little‑known Geneva‑based NGO called Euro‑Med Human Rights Monitor published a report in June 2024 alleging that the Israeli military was using dogs to attack Palestinian civilians in Gaza, including to “sexually assault prisoners and detainees in Israeli detention facilities.” Quoting testimony attributed to Palestinian detainees, Euro‑Med claimed that the dogs, equipped with “surveillance cameras” strapped to their backs, were “let loose” on prisoners, torturing them “systematically and sometimes collectively.”
Euro‑Med’s report received no attention from mainstream outlets when it was released, and for good reason. Israel has linked the group’s leadership to Hamas. Euro-Med has a documented record of promoting wild allegations against Israel, including claims of organ harvesting of Palestinian detainees, mass executions in hospitals, and denials of well‑established Hamas activity at Gaza’s Al‑Shifa hospital. This week, Euro-Med’s far‑fetched allegations found their way into a New York Times opinion piece penned by Nicholas Kristof.
Mr. Kristof cites allegations by “Palestinian prisoners” and “human rights monitors” that Israeli police dogs have been “coached to rape prisoners.” He offers no evidence for this in the column, but later defended the claim on X, citing “three different medical journal articles” about rectal injuries from anal penetration by dogs. Yet the scientific literature describes human‑initiated bestiality, not dogs assaulting humans, which may not even be anatomically possible.
Unfortunately, that isn’t where the problems with Mr. Kristof’s investigation end. Having reportedly spoken to 14 men and women who allege sexual abuse by Israeli security forces and citizens living in the West Bank, Mr. Kristof names two: Sami al‑Sai, 46, whom he identifies as a “freelance journalist,” and Issa Amro, a “nonviolent activist” whom Mr. Kristof claims is sometimes dubbed the “Palestinian Gandhi.”
Mr. al‑Sai recounts for Mr. Kristof a horrifying experience of rape in detention after his 2024 arrest, after which he says he was dumped, bleeding and in excruciating pain, back into his cell. He claims the spot where he had been raped bore signs of previous assaults, with “other people’s vomit, blood and broken teeth” crushed into his skin. Details of the alleged assault related by Mr. Kristof differ from an account Mr. al-Sai provided to the Israeli NGO B’Tselem in July 2025, and they come on top of Mr. al‑Sai’s previous claims of torture not only by Israel but also by the Palestinian Authority.
In 2017, Mr. al‑Sai was arrested by the Palestinian Intelligence Services in Tulkarm on charges of incitement. His mother, who visited him in prison, alleged that he was beaten, hung from door frames and windows, and injected with an unknown drug four times a day. Both the Palestinian Public Prosecution and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate flatly denied his torture claims. The Syndicate said that when its members visited him in detention, he told them reports of torture were only a false rumor, though he later retracted that, saying he was afraid to speak up while apparently under threat.
The story told by Mr. Amro, the “Palestinian Ghandi,” has also evolved. In July 2024, he told Mr. Kristof he had been “sexually assaulted” by Israeli soldiers when he was arrested on Oct. 7, 2023. But only months earlier, describing the same arrest to the Washington Post, Mr. Amro said he had merely been “threatened” with sexual assault.
Sexual assault in prisons is an unfortunate reality worldwide, and sexual violence in war is well‑documented. Hamas used systematic rape and sexual violence during its attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 as detailed in a comprehensive report released this week by the Israeli Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes. Such allegations are grave and demand proper investigations and rigorous reporting.
Mr. Kristof’s column doesn’t meet that standard. Instead, it relies on a patchwork of omissions, dubious sources and ever‑more lurid allegations, serving more to demonize Israel than to clarify what actually happened. Worse is that this kind of reporting erodes trust in journalism and makes it harder for genuine victims of sexual violence to be believed. They deserve better.
Ms. O’Donoghue leads content strategy and media analysis for the Jerusalem-based media watchdog HonestReporting.
Kristoff and the New York Times were simply trying to help out their Hamas accomplices by diverting attention from the new detailed report on the Hamas October 7 atrocities.
When you say “proper investigation,” what do you mean? The Israeli Civil Commission did an in-depth, deeply sourced investigation; who would you say would provide a “proper investigation?” The UN? Maybe even UNRWA which is controlled by Hamas? Possibly the ICC, which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu? Maybe the UNHRC with moral members like China & Afghanistan?