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Narrative War on Sexual Violence: False Claims and Double Standards

Within 24 hours, two reports of sexual violence were published. One was backed by 430 testimonies, 10,000 photos, 1,800 hours of video – many taken by the perpetrators – and transparent methodology. The other relied on a Hamas-linked organization known for fabrications. Guess which one dominated the news cycle?

One provided graphic evidence of the gruesome sexual assaults by Hamas against Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023. The other alleged systematic sexual assaults against Palestinian prisoners.

In an era when unproven claims against Israel are promoted by biased activists, organizations and journalists, rapidly spread across classrooms, social media and newsrooms, enforcing professional standards and accurate reporting is the only defense against misinformation.

Kristof’s Sources: A Case Study in Abandoning Standards

Nicholas Kristof’s recent opinion column in The New York Times alleged that Israeli security personnel systematically used sexual violence – including rape by trained dogs – against Palestinian detainees. All allegations of sexual violence deserve serious investigation. This is why the sourcing behind his claims demands scrutiny. His column relies on sources so compromised that even cursory vetting should have disqualified them.

Kristof’s primary organizational source is Hamas-linked Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor – reportedly “created in 2011 to demonize Israel under the human rights façade.” It is led by Ramy Abdu, a man who falsely claimed that a map of rocket alerts in Israel was actually “a map of registered sex offenders” and presented Syrian civil war images as Gaza footage. Euro-Med originated the claim that dogs can be trained to rape people – a claim as absurd as the Egyptian conspiracy theory that the Mossad trained sharks to attack tourists. The group also leads influence campaigns to edit Wikipedia articles.

One of Kristof’s main informants, journalist Sami al-Sai, praised the Hamas Oct. 7 atrocities on social media. He previously worked for Qatar’s Al Jazeera and accused Palestinian authorities of torturing him in prison – then contradicted his own account to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.

Kristof cited a UN report by three officials who all resigned over antisemitic remarks. He also equated Israel’s response to the allegations with Hamas’s denial of its own recorded evidence of violence on Oct. 7 – portraying Israel and Hamas as morally equivalent.

Kristof quoted former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to justify his claims. Olmert immediately issued a statement: “I did not validate these claims. The positioning of my quote after pages of allegations misrepresents my views.” Kristof also stated that “our American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security establishment, so this is sexual violence in which the United States is complicit” – advancing a political agenda.

Allegations Deserve Investigation

Like in any country’s prison system, Israel has individuals who commit misconduct. Abuse by individual guards is an unfortunate reality worldwide – including in the U.S. – but Kristof goes beyond claiming isolated misconduct. He is alleging an orchestrated system by Israeli authorities.

This is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence – not activist testimonies laundered through compromised groups with proven histories of promoting propaganda, violence and antisemitism. Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, warned: “At a time when Jews are already demonized worldwide, unverified atrocity claims against Israel are instantly weaponized against Jewish students, businesses, synagogues and communities.”

The Israeli military has investigated reported war crimes and ethical misconduct allegations against its soldiers and has taken disciplinary action when appropriate. Allegations against Israeli soldiers for raping a Hamas terrorist in a separate case collapsed when video evidence was found to be doctored – but the pattern repeated: sensational accusation, global headlines, quiet exoneration, limited follow-up coverage or retraction. This highlights why credible evidence and transparent investigations are necessary – and why Kristof’s reliance on Hamas-linked sources is indefensible.

The Times Defends the Indefensible

The newspaper and its opinion editor defended the column – very rare for an opinion piece, calling it “extensively fact-checked.” Yet, this would not be Kristof’s first time being “hoodwinked” – as he put it in a 2014 column apologizing for publishing a sex-trafficking story based on a source who deceived him.

Kristof has strongly defended his column. He acknowledged that Euro-Med’s leader supported the Oct. 7 massacres – yet defended his citation by relying on other organizations and individuals with documented anti-Israel biases. Kristof also defended the inclusion of the dog rape claims. Another group he included, the Committee to Protect Journalists, quietly removed Hamas terrorists from its list of journalists killed in Gaza.

Days later on social media, Kristof promoted new allegations of rape against pro-Palestinian activists. After Israel detained activists on boats trying to reach Gaza, their group released a press statement promoting multiple claims of sexual violence and rape. Kristof amplified this message – even though Kristof ended his tweet with: “This hasn’t been confirmed.”

Hamas: Documented Evidence of Sexual Violence

The day after the NYT published Kristof’s column, Israel’s Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children found that sexual violence was “systematic and integral” to the Hamas terror assault.

The report, Silenced No More, Sexual Violence Unveiled, is not a collection of anecdotes. It is the product of a two-year transparent, independent investigation conducted by researchers, lawyers and trauma experts who cross-referenced testimony across multiple 10/7 attack sites.

The report documents thirteen recurring patterns of sexual violence committed by Hamas and its collaborators, including rape, gang rape, sexual mutilation, genital mutilation, forced nudity, sexual humiliation in front of family members, and the filming and social-media distribution of these acts as psychological warfare. In one documented case, family members were coerced into performing sexual acts on one another. Similar violence continued in Hamas captivity for months.

The contrast between the column and report – published 24 hours apart – is stark. Kristof published unverified claims from individuals with a record of disinformation. The Civil Commission provided survivor testimony, forensic evidence and a methodology transparent enough to be scrutinized. One got a prime opinion slot in a major news publication and a publisher’s defense. The other received substantially less coverage.

The Double Standard Also Erases Palestinian Victims

The international human rights, feminist and news establishment that typically champions survivors largely remained silent when Hamas committed violence against Palestinians. Weeks before Kristof’s column, the Daily Mail and Associated Press reported that Hamas fighters sexually abused Palestinian women, Hamas-affiliated clerics raped Palestinian children and UNRWA workers traded aid for sex in Gaza.

A Palestinian womens’ rights advocate admitted on the record: “Most of us prefer to focus on violence committed by Israelis.”

Accountability

Two hundred protesters gathered outside the Times headquarters after the column was published, with signs reading, “Stop the libels, stop the hate.” Israeli leaders are considering their legal options after calling it a blood libel.

The outcry reflects a broader concern. At a time of rising antisemitism, false accusations against Israel become ammunition for those who already hold American Jews collectively responsible for Israeli government actions.

The goal is not just to correct one column – it is to hold news organizations accountable for what they report.

• Demand accountability from The New York Times: For nine years, the Times has not had a public editor to hold the paper accountable for when it publishes something irresponsible. Contact the NYT newsroom to request the hiring of a public editor and to demand a correction or retraction of misinformation. Public pressure has forced corrections before. Reference the sourcing failures documented in this edition’s Background section, such as Kristof’s reliance on a Hamas-affiliated organization.

• Equip yourself to counter the false narratives: The talking points of The Focus Project are designed for conversations with friends, family and colleagues. Understand the Civil Commission vs. Kristof contrast. Review the Silenced No More report and the stories documenting Hamas sexual abuse of Palestinian women and children. When someone brings up this NYT column, or another op-ed or news article, you will be prepared.

• Verify what you read and respond to falsehoods: Do not blindly trust sources of information that may be shaped by activists, influencers, organizations or journalists repeating false claims. Before sharing content, verify the source, context and facts. HonestReporting and CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) track media accuracy and publish detailed critiques. Write a letter to the editor or post a public response on social media when you come across misinformation or antisemitic narratives in the news.

New York Times Columnist Speaks Up

On May 20, New York Times Opinion columnist Bret Stephens published “Hatred of Israel and the Degradation of the West,” addressing a pattern he has observed over 25 years covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Writing days after his colleague Nicholas Kristof’s column, Stephens catalogs a history of inflammatory stories about Israel that collapsed under scrutiny – from the Muhammad al-Durrah case in 2000 to the 2023 Gaza hospital explosion.

His core observation:

“The common thread in these and many other stories is that they all involve strenuous, if ultimately embarrassed, efforts to prove that Israelis deliberately seek to kill the innocent and maim the vulnerable, apparently for no other reason than gratuitous cruelty. This isn’t a matter of reporters’ impartially trying to expose wrongdoing wherever they find it – if that were the case, the errors wouldn’t invariably lean in the same ideological direction. It isn’t speaking truth to power. It’s feeding narratives to the credulous."

Stephens argues the obsession with Israel has warped Western institutions – journalism, human rights organizations and academia – causing “minds that have lost the capacity to think dispassionately and critically.” He notes the recent Civil Commission report documenting Hamas’s systematic sexual violence “received little attention,” while asking: “When was the last time you heard of an American campus protest against the treatment of Kurds by Turkey or the genocide in Sudan?”

His conclusion: “Moral judgments should be made about Israel according to the same standards by which we judge other countries faced with similar circumstances. It’s when Israel is demanded to be a saint – and then, as it invariably falls short, is damned as the worst sinner – that we lose our sense of perspective and proportion.”

Read the full column here.

JAHM Week 5 Focus: The Mid-20th Century, 1926-1975

Spotlight: Mel Brooks — Comic Legend and Jewish-American Icon

Few figures in American entertainment have made the world laugh quite like Mel Brooks — or done so with such a distinctly Jewish sensibility:

• Born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, Brooks served as an Army engineer in WWII before launching a career as a comic and TV writer
• His early breakthrough came alongside Carl Reiner with The 2000 Year Old Man — a series of sketches and comedy albums in which Reiner interviewed Brooks as a wisecracking, Jewish-inflected 2,000-year-old
• He made his film mark with The Producers (1967), a sharp satire about Jewish Broadway producers who scheme to profit from a pro-Hitler musical — a bold, boundary-pushing premise that became a classic
• His 1974 Western parody Blazing Saddles featured Brooks playing a Native American chief who speaks Yiddish — his signature move of embedding Jewish identity into the most unexpected characters and settings
• One of only 28 people ever to achieve EGOT status — Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony
• At 99, Brooks is still at it: a sequel to his Star Wars parody Spaceballs is set for release in 2027

Click here to learn more about Mel Brooks and other Jewish Americans who have shaped American culture and comedy.

ABOUT JAHM:

This year, Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) celebrates the extraordinary contributions of Jewish Americans – from before the American Revolution to the present day – across the sciences, music, arts, sports, literature, military, business, and civic life. Formally recognized by the U.S. government since 2006, JAHM also promotes education about Jewish history and combats antisemitism.

#JAHM #JewishAmericanHeritageMonth @weitzmanmuseum

Stories Impacting American Jews

• The annual Israel Day Parade will be Sunday, May 31 in NYC
• Memorial Day parade: Jewish veterans march under heightened security
• U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez slams TX U.S. Rep. Dem. candidate for proposing internment camp for American Zionists, equating them with pedophiles
• U.S. Rep. Auchincloss: Maine U.S. Sen. Dem. Dem. candidate’s Nazi tattoo “disqualifying”
• Bipartisan U.S. Senators urge DHS Sec. Mullin to advance stalled Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding
• New Northwestern Univ. president to be tested on renewal of school’s Qatar campus
• CUNY anti-Israel graduates disrupt another law-school ceremony
• Students from Jewish fraternity AEPi raise $130,000 during first-ever Month of Giving

Stories Impacting the U.S. and Israel

• Pres. Trump: “Mandatory” for Muslim nations involved in Iran deal to join Abraham Accords
• “Coming to Light”: Former Israeli hostage Maxim Herkin publishes book featuring a diary he secretly wrote in captivity
• Palestinians submit war crimes filing against Hamas at International Criminal Court – no response
• Gaza envoy to Board of Peace tells UN Security Council: Do what it takes to disarm Hamas
• Israeli Foreign Minister praises U.S. barring of funds for Palestinians under Taylor Force Act
• Israel erased from maps: Antisemitism still present in Jordanian textbooks
• Sec. of State Rubio: Iran-backed Hezbollah trying to “drag Lebanon back into chaos” through war

Stories from Around the World

• Australia: Spy chief says anti-Jewish hate was allowed to become normalized after Gaza war began
• Slovenia: Pro-Israel former prime minister retakes power, pledged to move embassy to Jerusalem
• Spain: Israel mocks Spain in social media posts after police beat, detain returning Gaza flotilla activists

The Focus Project develops and distributes news, background, history and weekly talking points on timely issues to inform individuals and organizations about issues affecting the American Jewish community and Israel, and help readers speak with more consistency and clarity. The editions also provide potential responses for addressing incidents of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. With input from a spectrum of major American Jewish organizations, we focus on that which unites us, rising above political and individual agendas.



Recognizing that hatred of Jews comes in many forms and directions, we strive to address all sources as they arise, and educate our growing audience on topics ranging from inter-religious relations to relevant international developments. From week to week, we may focus on issues arising from the political left, university campuses, from the political right and from institutions, government, and corporations. We don’t try to address all issues in each edition. We hope you will find this information useful in your writing and/or speaking. We are always open to your feedback: info@focus-project.org.

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