A viral clip captured on the red carpet of New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival has sparked widespread international outrage after two pro-Israel public figures, actor Elon Gold and influencer Lizzy Savetsky, were filmed joking about documented sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli military dogs.
The exchange unfolded Saturday as Gold promoted his Israeli-made film *The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan)*, which was selected for screening at the festival. After remarking that hosting an Israeli-produced film at the major U.S. event was a major milestone, Gold quipped, “I was only raped by two Israeli dogs.” Savetsky fired back with the line, “I thought they only raped Palestinians,” prompting both figures to laugh on camera. The clip was shared widely on social media platforms, drawing immediate condemnation from activists and human rights observers.
The joke does not reference an unsubstantiated claim: multiple leading human rights organizations have collected sworn testimony and evidence confirming the systematic use of military dogs to sexually assault and torture Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody. In January 2026, leading Israeli human rights group B’Tselem published a damning report titled *Living Hell* that compiled first-hand survivor accounts of dog-facilitated sexual violence. Just months prior, Middle East Eye published detailed testimony from Amir, a 35-year-old former detainee held at Israel’s Sde Teiman detention center, who described being forced to strip naked by soldiers before a trained military dog anally penetrated him while he was beaten. “This continued for several minutes. I felt profoundly humiliated and violated,” Amir told the outlet. Another former detainee, 43-year-old Wajdi, gave a separate account recounting being shackled to a metal frame and repeatedly assaulted by soldiers and a trained attack dog.
Reports of these abuses gained global attention earlier this year after New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof referenced the allegations in an opinion piece, triggering an angry retaliation from the Israeli government, which threatened legal action against the newspaper. To date, no lawsuit has been filed.
In the wake of the viral red carpet clip, the Tribeca Festival released an official statement unequivocally condemning the comments made by Gold and Savetsky. “Sexual violence and human suffering should never be mocked or minimized,” the festival said. “The comments do not reflect the Tribeca Festival’s values, and we regret the hurt and offence they have caused. We have not been able to reach the filmmakers.”