A column by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times about Israeli abuse has come under high-profile attack by pro-Israeli groups. He reports: “A report out last month, from the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based advocacy group often critical of Israel, concludes that Israel employs ‘systematic sexual violence‘ that is ‘widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.’ … Other Palestinian prisoners and human rights monitors have also cited reports of police dogs being coached to rape prisoners. …
“I became interested in reporting on sexual assaults against Palestinian prisoners after Issa Amro, a nonviolent activist sometimes called ‘the Palestinian Gandhi,’ told me when I previously visited that he had been sexually assaulted by Israeli soldiers and that he believed this was common but underreported because of shame.”
ISSA AMRO, [in Hebron], [email protected], @issaamro
Amro is based in Hebron on the West Bank and is founder of Youth Against Settlements. He is regularly threatened, harrased and detained by the Israeli military and settlers for his nonviolent activity such as making films and attempting to prevent home takeovers. Amro wrote the Institute for Public Accuracy today that the stories of sexual abuse “are much more than what is publicly known. … I also believe this abuse is used deliberately as a tool to dehumanize Palestinians and strip them of their dignity — targeting not only the individual, but their identity and community. This is a serious, ongoing pattern that demands urgent international attention and accountability.”
MATTHEW HOH, [email protected], @MatthewPHoh
Hoh just posted the piece “Rape and Torture in Palestine: What Nicholas Kristof left out of The New York Times.” He is senior fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network. He is a former Marine Corps captain, an Afghanistan State Department officer and a disabled Iraq War veteran. He has spent time with Amro and other Palestinians in the West Bank.
In a new interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano, Hoh said: “I was there in 2024 in the West Bank in Palestine and I saw Issa in Hebron [again], Issa told me then that he had been raped. He told me what they had done to him, what [the Israelis] do to them. And it wasn’t just Issa. His colleagues, his compatriots have been raped as well.
“The documentation of this is clear. This existed before October 7th. I think that’s one thing I’m upset with Kristof about, Kristof did not make that clear in his column. You could read it almost as if this is a recent development. It’s not. The systematic torture, including rape and sexual assault on Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian hostages is a better term, has been evident and documented for decades, including on children.”