The New York Times has said libel action threatened against it by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over an article alleging sexual assaults against Palestinian detainees by Israeli security services is “without merit”.
It responded after Netanyahu and his foreign minister issued a statement saying they had ordered the “initiation of a defamation lawsuit”.
It follows the publication on Monday of the article which claimed there was “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children” carried out by soldiers, settlers, interrogators and prison guards.
It is not clear how, or if, such a claim by the Israeli state against the US newspaper could be pursued.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence…
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