Are Israeli prisons deploying trained dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners? According to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, the answer appears to be yes.
In a lengthy column published Monday, Kristof recounts a sordid tale from a source he identifies as a “Gaza journalist.” He writes that on one occasion, the journalist “was held down, stripped naked, and as he was blindfolded and handcuffed, a dog was summoned. With encouragement from a handler in Hebrew, he said, the dog mounted him.”
Kristof is not the first reporter to level this charge. Some news outlets like Al Jazeera and the BBC have also reported anonymous victims claiming to have witnessed or experienced rape or abuse by dogs in Israeli detention centers. The allegations gained momentum last month when the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor released a report that claimed the practice was systemic based on interviews with anonymous victims. “Israeli forces have also employed animals, particularly trained dogs, to sexually assault Palestinian detainees, aiming to violate their dignity,” the report says.
All of this looks like another moral scandal for the Jewish state, which has been falsely accused by academics, journalists, and activists since October 7, 2023, of committing a genocide in its war against the perpetrators of that atrocity. Critics have specifically focused on Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician who oversees Israeli prisons in his role as national security minister.
