For B'Tselem executive director Yuli Novak, the firestorm around the New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof decrying sexual violence by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israeli prisons has had the wrong focus. 

Speaking on the Haaretz Podcast, Novak said the Israeli government’s "propaganda machine" and other critics focused on challenging the facts regarding the abuse described in the piece, which she says are backed up by "dozens of testimonies" collected by her organization. 

"I would say it's much less a question whether these things [sexual abuse of Palestinians] are happening or not happening, and much more about what it means for all of us, and first and foremost for the victims."

In its report on prisons, based on testimonies from Palestinians detained and then released from 16 detention facilities after October 7, B’Tselem documented "ongoing torture, physical and mental" abuse and the use of starvation and denial of medical treatment "as a policy." 

B’Tselem’s conclusion: that these facilities represented "a network of torture camps," which Novak admitted "was hard to grasp as an Israeli. For me – torture camps have been something that happens somewhere else." 

October 7 had been an opportunity and a “catalyst” for right-wing extremists in the government to influence policies in the direction of “their nationalist, racist, and in the case of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the prison system – I would even say their sadistic agenda,” Novak said.

“We can keep telling ourselves that we're a democracy, but if Israel, holding almost half of its population under its control without the right to go and vote for the system that governs them, it's not a democracy.”

Read more: 

B'Tselem Report: Testimonies Describe 'Pattern of Sexual Violence' Against Palestinian Prisoners

UN Secretary-General Report Accuses Israeli Forces of Rape, Sexual Abuse of Palestinian Detainees

Ben-Gvir Is Not Alone: These Are His Collaborators in the Illegal Treatment of Palestinian Prisoners

Op-ed by Yuli Novak: Even if You Call Israel a Democracy, It Is Still Apartheid

Israel Must Let Red Cross Visit Palestinian Security Prisoners, High Court Rules

Read B'Tselem's full report on Israeli prisons as a network of torture camps