The New York Times pushed back forcefully against criticism of a Monday op-ed titled “The Silence that Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” penned by Nicholas Kristof.

The column alleged a pattern of violent abuse of Arab prisoners, including rape, torture and sexual abuse, as well as the explosive and bizarre claim that the IDF trains dogs to rape detainees.

Responding to Israel’s Foreign Ministry accusation that the Times passed on an Israeli commission’s report about the sexual violence of Hamas on and after Oct. 7, instead publishing Kristof’s column to coincide with the report’s release, the Times issued a statement saying, “This is false. The Times never passed on the Civil Commission report and wasn’t told about its completion or the timing of its release. Once the report was made public, we covered its findings. The commission’s work also had no bearing on Nicholas Kristof’s opinion column or its publication timing.”

The Times also pushed back against journalist David Shuster’s claim on X that there were “already discussions, including up the masthead, about retracting” the column because of “issues with source credibility and lack of evidence.”

“There is no truth to this at all,” the New York Times declared in a statement on X. “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.”

“His article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies,” the Times concluded.

The article cites former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert toward the end of the piece, making it appear that he endorsed the claims made by Kristof.

“Olmert told me he didn’t know much about sexual violence against Palestinians but was not surprised by the accounts I had heard,” Kristof wrote. Then he quoted Olmert: “Do I believe it happens? Definitely. There are war crimes committed every day in the territories.”

Olmert said the framing of his comments was misleading.

“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 published 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 said.

Meanwhile, Jewish groups are planning a protest outside the New York Times building in Manhattan.

EndJewHatred, Stop Antizionism, Hineni and the Movement Against Antizionism plan to hold a demonstration Thursday at the paper’s headquarters at Eighth Avenue.

“Join us to rally and let NYT know they must stop the anti-Zionist libels! Enough is enough!” the organizers said.

The planned protest comes after anti-Israel protesters were seen shouting at a New York Times reporter at a demonstration Monday in a Jewish area of Brooklyn. The reporter held up a sign reading, “Did you read Kristoff?”

Police questioned the reporter, asking whether he was reporting on the protest or making himself part of the story.

The reporter, who was wearing a press badge, referred to the protesters’ animosity toward the Times from the opposite point of view — that it doesn’t cover the plight of Gazans and Arab prisoners in Israel enough.

“I think I can ask if they read the remarkable story that Nick Kristof wrote in today’s paper about sexual violence against Palestinians,” he told the cops.

“They should be interested in that. I think that’s a fair question,” he added.