UN expert calls out Israel amid lawsuit against NYT over article on sexual abuse of Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has lambasted Israel’s Foreign Ministry after it called a New York Times article documenting sexual abuse against Palestinians in Israeli prisons “hideous and distorted lies” and announced a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper.
In a post on X, Albanese described the article as “accurate but barely scratching the surface” and said it was “triggering hysteria” in the Israeli government, not because of the facts, but because of the audience.

“Apartheid Israel fears NYT readers will finally see and no longer ignore,” she wrote.

In a thread consisting of 22 posts, she referenced several reports and investigations documenting sexual violence specifically in the context of Israel’s unlawful detention of Palestinians.

She stated they only cover abuses documented since October 2023, but that the “reality is far older”.

“Sexual violence against Palestinians has been documented since the very foundation of the Israeli state, but this is nothing the NYT spoke about – so far”, she wrote. [aljazeera]