Lede: On the hysterical backlash to Nick Kristof's reporting on Israel's prison system.
Nick Kristof, the veteran New York Times opinion columnist who has covered sexual violence in conflict zones for decades, published an extraordinary piece on Monday, The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians, in which he reports on the UN's claim that Israeli leaders "have built a security apparatus where sexual violence has become one of Israel's 'standard operating procedures.'"
For my purposes here, I'm going to set aside the fact that Kristof felt compelled to open with two paragraphs of throat-clearing - both-sidesing the horrific testimonials of what's being done to Palestinians right now against the alleged sexual assaults by Hamas on October 7, 2023, many of whose details have since unraveled under scrutiny.
Below, I'm going to quote from the piece at some length to give you a sense of the graphic sexual violence Kristof reported. Please consider this to be a major trigger warning. (If you've already read the Kristof piece, you can skip down to the next section beginning with "Predictably.")
Cont'd ...
His birthday cake with the noose iced on is insane.
All of this just shows there is absolutely no crime or atrocity that the establishment media will not try to excuse the apartheid state for. They must never be forgiven.The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide. Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.
...she who was so certain about mass r@pes on Oct 7th that she decided to troll a feminist event in the UK with a banner saying 'R@pe is not Resistance' jumps straight to denial about the possibility that her beloved isr**lis might be guilty of crimes worse than she was even imagining about those swarthy, religious extremist Arabs. The weird thing I knew exactly what she was going to say even before I clicked to find out, and also that she would only be provoked to a denial because the claim was in the NYT, not from the direct victim testimony we've all been reading about for over a year. The racist double standards boggle the mind - how does someone have their mind and morality so utterly deranged?
Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof May 12 I share @megankstack's exasperation, but to those who say that canine rape is impossible, despite the many Palestinians who have described it, I'd note that at least three different medical journal articles discuss rectal injuries in humans from anal penetration by dogs. Sigh.
Megan K. Stack @Megankstack May 12 Replying to @HBendaas I draw the line at arguing over mechanics of dog rape 🤢
Strxwmxn @strxwmxn May 12 Is it these journal articles???
Kathryn Paisner @KathrynPaisner May 12 I was willing to cut Kristof some slack--maybe he's just really gullible--but I did like three minutes of research on this subject, a few weeks ago, and the medical literature very clearly states that the dog is not the aggressor, in these cases.
THE DA-LIE STARMER🤑 @CalvinsHelmet May 12 Uh huh
Lierre Keith @lierrekeith May 16 Replying to @CalvinsHelmet @strxwmxn @NickKristof @Megankstack And if you read the direct quote, the victim said that luckily, penetration did not occur. Dogs can be trained to savage people and I'm sure whatever these people went through was awful. It did not involve actual rape by a dog.
*****
(Thread referring to other historical cases of sexual acts by dogs on people, so unclear which people she's referring to, but the impulse to deny & complete lack of interest or outrage is palpable. Do you think she would have reacted the same way about a similar allegation towards white Jewish women on Oct 7th? Of course not.)Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
nmClio the cat, ?July 1997-1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ??2010-3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ???-4 November 2021 Georgina the cat ?2006-4 December 2025 Toni the cat ?2005-25 March 2026
While I'm at it slagging off authors I used to respect, Derrick Jensen, friend of L.Keith's, co-author of the Deep Green Resistance book which talked big about bringing down global civilisation with eco-terrorist guerilla tactics if necessary and used anti-colonial struggles as models for inspiration (I don't recall them looking at Arab examples, funnily enough), fresh from saying f* all about the genocide of our times and the heroic resistance against it, has decided that now would be a perfect time to talk about Boko Haram and what the Evil Muslims did to girls & women in N.Africa. Funny that.
So I’m running into more issues with the screenplay. Nothing out of the ordinary. Those of you who’ve been with the reading club a long time know that’s part of writing a piece. The first issue is that I need to introduce another half dozen girls. I know how I’ll do it, which I’ll tell you another time. I’ll tell you the reason, here. I have I think 8 or 9 girls so far, but there are going to be caught after escape, girls killed, girls who convert to Islam, girls who become pregnant, and some girls who get away. That’s more than 8 or 9.
I’ve always thought one of the great things about being in the reading club would be that the characters are still alive. When I read a book, the characters may be alive to me, but their path is predetermined, because the book is done and published. Old Yeller always gets killed. When I read Harry Potter, I knew someone important had to die, but I didn’t know who, which doesn’t alter the fact that the result could not change since the book was done.
In this screenplay, I honestly don’t know yet whether Amaka will survive, or whether kikelomo will survive. I’ll find out when the story tells me. So when you read it, she as a character is alive, with a path still undetermined.
Another problem I’m running into is that the reality is so horrible that I can’t keep piling on the unrelenting horribleness without people thinking I’m making a propaganda piece. They’ll think I’m making up especially horrible speeches or atrocities to happen to them. I’m not. I’m using literal speeches that were literally said by those who were literally in charge of Boko Haram. And so far what I’ve had them to do the girls is nothing compared to what is real. To have women slowly cut off the heads of hog-tied men, women, and children, taking twenty minutes and going from the back instead of the front so as to not cut into the jugular or carotid and kill them. And have everyone else have to watch. I’m going to be accused of exaggerating, but I’m lowballing it.Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
*W Africa (nm)
Posted by Ian M on May 19, 2026, 11:25 pm, in reply to "Derrick Jensen"
on May 19, 2026, 6:15 am