The article was written by the award-winning journalist and commentator Nicholas Kristof, who is also a regular contributor to CNN.

Kristof refers to interviews he has conducted with a number of Palestinians who have been in Israeli captivity, as well as to human-rights reports and other sources.

According to him, there is “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children – committed by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet security service and above all prison guards”.

Raped

During a visit to Palestine, Kristof spoke with 14 Palestinian women and men who said that they were regularly stripped naked and fondled while in Israeli captivity, that they were penetrated with various objects and that they were raped by specially trained dogs.

He also writes about a previously reported incident in Sde Teiman prison, where a Palestinian prisoner was subjected to gross sexual abuse by a group of prison guards.

When Israel’s then Advocate General leaked a video of the abuses to the media, it resulted in nine prison guards being arrested. The case against them was later dropped, to cheers from Israeli right-wing nationalists.

– Distorted lies

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar call Kristof’s accusations groundless and are now announcing legal action against The New York Times.

– One of the most despicable and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel, it says in a joint statement from the two, quoted by The Times of Israel.

– I have today instructed my legal advisers to assess the strongest legal measures against The New York Times and Nicholas Kristof, Netanyahu writes in a post on X.

– We will fight these lies both in public opinion and in court. The truth will prevail, Netanyahu promises.

Rejects the criticism

The New York Times rejects the criticism from Israel, defends the decision to publish Kristof’s article and maintains that the information in it was thoroughly fact-checked.

– Independent experts were consulted throughout the process, the newspaper emphasises.

The accounts of those Kristof interviewed were also cross-checked against reports from human-rights organisations, and in one case also with witness testimony given to the UN, it states.

The New York Times also points out that Kristof has written about sexual abuse for decades, that he is regarded as one of the world’s most recognised journalists in the field, and that he has twice won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for his work.

It is striking that the Israelis are accused of the same thing that “Silenced no more” reveals: “that they were penetrated with various objects and that they were raped by specially trained dogs”, but then on a scale that defies description.

To reproduce a journalist’s work based on 14 interviews while at the same time concealing or failing to mention the enormous work carried out by the Civil Commission is not due to any lapse of memory. It is to continue in the same track as Hamas:

“The scope, coordination and repetition of the acts testify to a widespread and systematic attack against civilians, in which sexual violence was consciously used as a weapon of terror,” the investigation concluded.

What is incredible is that 7 October did not become the rallying point against bestiality and assault on innocent human beings that one would have expected.

Nor is the scale generally known. As many as 5,600 terrorists stormed the kibbutzim along the border and the Nova festival.

The 300-page report, prepared by the Civil Commission – an Israeli voluntary organisation established to document the atrocities of 7 October – describes in detail 13 types of sexual violence committed during the attack and against the hostages, including rape, gang rape, sexual torture and mutilation, executions connected to sexual violence, sexual abuse of corpses and sexual assaults committed in the presence of family members.

It is based on 430 formal and informal interviews, testimonies and meetings with survivors, witnesses, former hostages, experts and family members.

This is a programme, agreed in advance. Not spontaneous acts. Yet it is concealed.

But the active campaign against memory began almost immediately.

Elkayam-Levy, a legal scholar and recipient of the Israel Prize, said that in the wake of the atrocities of 7 October she found herself in a situation where she had to counter the denial of the crimes in various forums, including at the UN.

“Unfortunately, we experienced silence and denial – and a very rapid denial – which made me realise that we must collect evidence as quickly as possible and establish an archive in accordance with strict international standards,” she said.

“For two years we have listened to survivors and witnesses, thoroughly examined the evidence and confronted material that is often unimaginable,” Elkayam-Levy noted in the report.

“We have worked to preserve this evidence in a dedicated war-crimes archive, to ensure that their voices are heard and that the world learns what happened. The report reveals that sexual violence was a deliberate strategy, carried out with exceptional cruelty.”

Norway has embraced the culture of silence. And it goes all the way to the top. When Støre receives the royal couple at his new office, they cross the square created by the Palestinian artist Jumana Manna, who called the Nova festival murderers “creative resistance”.

It is the same mentality that characterises NTNU professor Bassam Hussein, who called the 7 October massacres in Israel “the most beautiful moment in this century”.

Many have defended him on the basis of the right to freedom of expression.

In reality, that is a yes to oblivion and repression.

But our most important decision after the Holocaust was that we should never forget.

 

Palestinsk kunstner som hyllet «motstanden» 7. oktober, utsmykker Regjeringskvartalet