Ehud Olmert Rejects New York Times Quote on Alleged Sexual Abuse of Palestinian Prisoners

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pushed back against a New York Times column that quoted him in connection with allegations of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners.

Nicholas Kristof's report, which went viral on Monday, detailed claims from 14 men and women who said they were sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or security forces members. The accounts included abuse of genitalia and penetration by a dog.

Kristof wrote that he called Olmert, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, to make sense of the findings. "Olmert told me he didn’t know much about sexual violence against Palestinians but was not surprised by the accounts I had heard," Kristof said.

The columnist quoted Olmert as saying, "Do I believe it happens? Definitely... There are war crimes committed every day in the territories."

Olmert objected to the placement of his quote near the end of the piece, after descriptions of severe allegations. "Mr. Kristof's article includes claims of extraordinary gravity: that Israeli authorities have directed the rape of children, that dogs have been used as instruments of sexual assault, that systematic sexual torture is state policy. I did not validate these claims," Olmert said in a statement obtained by The Free Press.

"I have no knowledge supporting these claims as I said to Mr. Kristof. Therefore, the positioning of my quote after pages of such allegations misrepresents my views," he added.

The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Critics questioned the credibility of Kristof's sources, noting that some support Hamas, the group behind the October 7 attack. The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned the report as "one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press."

"In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused," the ministry wrote on X. "Israel — whose citizens were the victims of the most horrific sexual crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, and whose hostages were later subjected to further sexual abuse — is portrayed as the guilty party."

The ministry called the publication part of an anti-Israel campaign to place Israel on the U.N. Secretary-General’s blacklist. "Israel will fight these lies with the truth — and the truth will prevail," it said.

A Times spokesperson defended Kristof. "Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades, and is widely regarded as one of the world’s best on-the-ground reporters documenting and bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones," Charlie Stadtlander wrote.

"He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of the Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies," the statement added.