New York Times Publishes Blood Libel

Israel is guilty of the same crimes Hamas carried out on Oct. 7, 2023, according to an opinion piece published by the New York Times on Sunday. Israeli soldiers are accused of inflicting sexual violence on Palestinian prisoners, and even of “dogs being coached to rape prisoners.”

These accusations are as ridiculous as the conspiracy theories that are regularly spread in Muslim countries. Jews have been accused of training sharks to attack Muslims on beaches, training eagles to act as spies, and operating “Israeli-made robot dolphins.”

• Yet unlike some of these accusations, this claim is appearing not in Iranian state-run newspapers or regional Middle Eastern outlets but in the supposed American paper of record.
• Media monitoring charity Honest Reporting accused the New York Times of “journalistic malpractice.” “[O]ur American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security establishment, so this is sexual violence in which the United States is complicit,” wrote Nicholas Kristof.
• Sami al-Sai, a major source for the piece, is presented as a “freelance journalist” who was jailed because he “prided himself on his journalistic professionalism” and would not disclose his sources to the Israelis.
• The truth, as can easily be seen on Sai’s social media, is that he does PR for terrorist groups: He receives access to their leaders and posts glowing profiles of them. On Oct. 8, 2023, he celebrated Hamas’s massacre of Israelis.
• Furthermore, Sai’s testimony has changed over time, with key details of his supposed sexual assault changing between him talking to B’Tselem in early 2025 and what he told the Times.

Going down the list of the Times’s sources turns up similar concerns:

• Issa Amro, another “activist” Kristof interviewed, changed significant details of his account between this article and a 2024 interview with the Washington Post.
• Euro‑Med Human Rights Monitor is another major source, presented as a neutral observer and watchdog. In truth, it is a propaganda front for Hamas, with easily provable links to Hamas and a history of publishing false stories smearing Israel.
• Shaiel Ben-Ephraim is credited as an authority on Israeli sexual violence. This man was forced out of ucla due to allegations of sexual harassment toward minors.

The real agenda: The Times report was published just before the first release of details from the Civil Commission’s report on sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. It makes for difficult reading, showing how Hamas intentionally humiliated and sexually mutilated their victims as much as possible.

• Israel’s foreign minister states that the New York Times was approached with details of the report ahead of time. The Times staff declined the story, and now we see that they instead lined up this propaganda piece to be published at the same time.
• As Honest Reporting wrote, the intent of the Times story appears to be to “redirect attention, shape perception, and ensure that even as new evidence emerges about Hamas’ crimes, Israel remains the primary focus of condemnation.”

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 200,000 people are sexually assaulted in American prisons each year. Bad people exist. Some become prison guards, and they have opportunities to get away with evil behavior.

• In the U.S. and in Israel, this is illegal and is punished when discovered. But there’s no evidence that Israel has anything like a systemic program of sexual violence, and it is nothing compared to what Hamas literally documented itself perpetrating.

A history of biased reporting: Last year, the New York Times was caught deceitfully using photos to blacken Israel, showing pictures of an ill child and telling its readers he was starving due to Israel.

• Soliman Hijjy, whom the Times used for freelance videography, regularly posts about his love for Adolf Hitler. When Refaat Alareer, another Times writer, learned that Hamas had burned a baby alive in an oven, he posted on X, “With or without baking powder?”

Honest Reporting published evidence that photojournalists working for AP, cnn and the New York Times knew about the October 7 atrocity in advance, traveling with the terrorists to document it.

Nicholas Kristof’s article is a powerful symptom of the sickness of America’s news media. Even a double Pulitzer Prize winner will join in a blatant attack on the Jews. The irrational hatred of the Jews is being stirred up once again by one of America’s most influential news organizations.

The rise of anti-Semitism is a dangerous warning of the sicknesses in America’s society.

“Satan can stir up vicious hatred,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in The Key of David. “He loves to use out-of-control emotions. A religion taken to the extreme—such as radical Islam—gives him a great field to work in. Nazi Germany exhibited fanatical hatred for the Jews. The Nazis also used emotion to stir up a repugnant hatred. The coming beast power [a political-religious empire prophesied to arise in the end time] will exhibit the same hatred for the Jews as well.

“Most people who hate the Jews don’t even know why they do. Can we see Satan behind such lies and hatred?”

Read more: “Truth and Lies About Anti-Semitism.”