On Monday, The New York Times published a groundbreaking piece in its Opinion section by famed foreign affairs columnist Nick Kristof.
Kristof spent months investigating claims of sexual assault and rape of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and settlers. He relied on countless testimonies in addition to work done by Israeli human rights organizations that have painstakingly documented the use of sexual violence by Israelis against Palestinians.
Kristof, who is one of the most respected journalists in the world, came under the usual attacks. He was accused by the Israeli Foreign Ministry of “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press” — using a term reserved for an historic practice of falsely accusing Jewish people of murdering non-Jewish children as part of their religious rituals.
This capped off a torrent of hate online from Jewish conservatives and others who see themselves as ideologically aligned with the Israeli government.
All of this is predictable by now. This is always what happens when someone prominent highlights atrocities committed by the Israeli state. You get called antisemitic, accused of singling out Israel and committing blood libels; heck, the former antisemitism czar for the Biden administration retweeted someone suggested the Times staff should be hanged (I will assume she didn’t read the post carefully, but who knows).
But there is one allegation in Kristof’s piece that has been particularly controversial. A blindfolded detainee alleges that Israelis used a dog in the process of sexually violating him.
Many people scoffed at this allegation because they argued a dog can’t anatomically do that.
Journalist David Shuster cited unnamed “canine experts, veterinarians, and trainers” to make his argument:
(Shuster’s claim that a retraction is being considered has been denied.)
Sadly, this is not a difficult debate to resolve because there are numerous examples of cruel or sadistic individuals training dogs to do exactly this.
They include Klaus Barbie, a Nazi prison commander known as the “Butcher of Lyon.”
Barbie’s crimes are vast, but one particularly galling tactic is described by Judith Miller in One by One by One: Facing the Holocaust:
Barbie kept two German shepherd dogs. One was trained to lunge and bite. The other was trained to mount naked women who had first been ordered on their hands and knees, a humiliation that could cut deeper than the whip, than having one’s fingernails pulled out, or one’s nipples burned with cigarettes.
The Nazis were not the only ones who used a form of torture that recruited man’s best friend. In Pinochet’s Chile, sexual violence was common. Another German shepherd was again deployed for this purpose:
Women were particularly targeted for sexual abuse, suffering rape, forced pregnancies, abortions and sexual slur. A German Shepherd dog called Volodia was trained to rape inmates. Female and male prisoners were also subjected to beatings, hangings, electric shocks, Russian roulette, asphyxia and deprivation of sleep, among other torture methods. Prisoners called the secret detention centre La Discothèque due to Pinochet’s agents blasting loud music at all times.
In a sign that history doesn’t repeat itself but rather ryhmes, one of the women who oversaw the use of dogs to torture people was a Chilean-born German Ingrid Olderock, who was the descendant of parents who were affiliated with the Nazi Party. She came to be known as the “woman of the dogs.”
It shouldn’t have to be said that if these dogs could be trained to commit these vile crimes, then dogs anywhere could be trained to do the same thing. David Parker Ray, for instance, a notorious American rapist and serial killer, reportedly trained dogs to rape some of his victims.
This does not mean that Kristof’s reporting on this case is accurate. The best way to bring about justice in these cases is to have a thorough investigation. The Red Cross should be allowed to visit Palestinian prisoners, as is the norm in warzones across the world. Foreign journalists should be allowed to independently visit Gaza without Israeli military handlers (Kristof’s reporting was all from the West Bank).
There are ways to get at the truth, but they require sincere and independent investigations with an open mind.
Sadly, dogs are capable of raping humans. History has shown us this time and time again. But one reason people may find it so unbelievable is because dogs have never been recorded to do this in the wild. It is not a behavior that comes naturally to them.
The only reason dogs would rape a human being would be if they have been abused and brainwashed into doing so. It is not the dogs’ folly. It is ours.
UPDATE: Judith Miller, who I cited above, offered a clarification to her book I cited:
Good column