| Kippreport.com

Israelis accused of stealing Palestinian organs

August 20, 2009 1:51 by kippreport

Bostrom based his story on testimony from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza whom he identified only by their first names. It quotes an Israeli military spokesman denying the charges and saying that Palestinians killed by Israeli forces are routinely subjected to autopsies.

Bostrom claims Israel is short of organs needed for transplants, and mentions a 1992 government campaign to recruit new donors in his article.

“At the same time that this organ campaign was going on, young Palestinian men were disappearing and being delivered back to their villages five days later at night, dead and cut open,” he wrote.

“‘Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,’ relatives of Khaled from Nablus said to me, as did the mother of Ra’ed from Jenin as well as the uncles of Mahmoud and Nafez from Gaza, who all had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and autopsied,” Bostrom wrote.

Israeli and Swedish officials responded furiously on Wednesday to the Swedish newspaper article.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon filed a formal protest with the Swedish government on Wednesday.

The story made headlines in Israel, where some commentators compared it to medieval accusations that Jews killed Christian children for their blood.

Daniel Seaman, who heads Israel’s government press office, said the article played on “vile anti-Semitic themes.”

In a statement on Wednesday, the Swedish Embassy in Tel Aviv said the article was “as shocking and appalling to us Swedes as it is to Israeli citizens.”

“We share the dismay expressed by Israeli government representatives, media and the Israeli public,” the embassy said.

In Sweden, the article drew a critical editorial from a rival daily, Sydsvenskan, which said it followed the “usual template of a conspiracy theory.”

Arab News

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Tags: Aftonbladet, israel, organ transplant, Palestine