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Israel Admits Harvesting Palestinian Organs
Israel has admitted that pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others without the consent of their families - a practice that it said ended in the 1990s, it emerged at the weekend.
The admission, by the former head of the country's forensic institute, followed a furious row prompted by a Swedish newspaper reporting that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to use their organs - a charge that Israel denied and called "antisemitic".
The revelation, in a television documentary, is likely to generate anger in the Arab and Muslim world and reinforce sinister stereotypes of Israel and its attitude to Palestinians. Iran's state-run Press TV tonight reported the story, illustrated with photographs of dead or badly injured Palestinians.
Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab MP, said the report incriminated the Israeli army.
The story emerged in an interview with Dr Yehuda Hiss, former head of the Abu Kabir forensic institute near Tel Aviv. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic who released it because of the row between Israel and Sweden over a report in the Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet.
Channel 2 TV reported that in the 1990s, specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.
The Israeli military confirmed to the programme that the practice took place, but added: "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer."
Hiss said: "We started to harvest corneas ... whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."
However, there was no evidence that Israel had killed Palestinians to take their organs, as the Swedish paper reported. Aftonbladet quoted Palestinians as saying young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israeli forces and their bodies returned to their families with missing organs. The interview with Hiss was released by Nancy Scheper-Hughes, professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley who had conducted a study of Abu Kabir.
She was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that while Palestinians were "by a long shot" not the only ones affected, she felt the interview must be made public, because "the symbolism, you know, of taking skin of the population considered to be the enemy, [is] something, just in terms of its symbolic weight, that has to be reconsidered."
Israel demanded that Sweden condemn the Aftonbladet article, calling it an antisemitic "blood libel". Stockholm refused, saying that to so would violate freedom of speech in the country. The foreign minister then cancelled a visit to Israel, just as Sweden was taking over the EU's rotating presidency.
Hiss was removed from his post in 2004, when some details about organ harvesting were first reported, but he still works at the forensic institute.
Israel's health ministry said all harvesting was now done with permission. "The guidelines at that time were not clear," it said in a statement to Channel 2. "For the last 10 years, Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law."
• This article was amended on 21 December 2009. The original misspelled a name as Nancy Sheppard-Hughes. This has been corrected.
112 Comments so far
Show AllLooks like that Swedish newspaper was correct and the Israelis were liars.
I thought the story was just too horrific to be true. Then I couldn't think of how such harvesting could be done, after all there is a time limit when dealing with transplanting organs. There should be no way that anyone who could be trained as a doctor could do such an unethical thing. But this isn't a blood libel, it's frickin worse.
Just when you think the actions of the Israeli gov't couldn't possibly be worse, they surprise you with shit like this...
China reportedly does the same thing with its prisoners. What a standard to live up to, huh?
liars - not exactly a surprise after all these decades - they've lied about everything else so far. I actually held my feelings in abeyance, as I wanted evidence from another source. Can we believe they ended the outrage? or did they end it for a week and then start again?
I thought the stuff they're doing was wrong - it was wrong when other people tried it - how come it's ok when they do it? Is their exceptionality so extreme that morality, or human decency no longer applies?
Pretty cocky to admit it - I guess there won't be any consequences here either.
These blood suckers even kill for profit...
Who kills for loss?
States? It's reportedly much more expensive to execute a prisoner than imprison him/her for life.
Throughout the New Testament we are told that Israel
and a New Jerusalem will be only for the righteous.
As the word righteous means the harmless who feel
they deserve less, the Hebrews have a real problem.
For having always felt they deserved more, with a
guilt-free conscience do take all they can take.
These actions aren't far removed from medical experimentation on Jews in Auschwitz et al, and taking human skin to make lampshades. It's the same arrogance, just writ not quite so large... yet. The Israelis say it's over, but their word has been proven pretty worthless the last couple of decades.
Ditto on that.
It seems the Jews were good students. And yes, it reflects not just on Israel, but on Jews. The major Jewish organizations, the most vocal and the ones with huge influence, are in lock-step with Israel. It seems reasonable that if the face of Jewish people presented to the world is one of unwavering support for Israel, then crimes committed by Israel would reflect on them regardless of whether some Jews do not support all Israeli policies. It is not fair, but that is how it is.
Israel, and Jews, have a PR nightmare on their hands and are sowing seeds that will bear bitter fruit.
the "lampshades made from human skin" & "soap made from human fat" myths have been debunked as WWII propaganda... It never happened, but the rumor has lingered in the minds of the ignorant through hearsay...
Yes, GoldenMean, you are correct. I would hope the posters on here, whom are almost always quite intelligent, would be more discerning of any history concerning IsraHELL which seems created to evoke feelings of 'oh poor them'. The idea that Jews were supposedly cremated alive by the thousands is another vile lie that unfortunately gets repeated over and over again.
Harvesting hearts and minds.
Israel is truly a disgusting country!
God made Abraham the most intelligent and wealthy man on earth, and as brains like sex appeal pass from father to son, his Hebrew clan have throughout history played a dominant position in global banking and high finance.
Now if God did this to prove the good in Israel, then rich man Darwin was right that the purpose of this world ios to prove the good in it, and those most intelligent are the most good, having evolved from “the lesser to the greater.” Surely blind-alley darkness.
For the purpose of this world is to prove the harm in it,
and as soon as things cannot get any worse,
all things will turn toward the good.
Now if those in Palestine and the Taliban would just be so nice
as to let our Empire USA get the Afghan pipeline underway,
get that 100 billion barrows of oil out from the hands of Russia
and China, get all that black gold flowing south to the sea,
all that baby bombing would come to an end.
O why is our good and godly Christian Empire so misunderstood?
Notice there is no denial that the Palestinians were kiidnapped and killed for their organs, only that they were dead when the organs were removed.
To be fair we have heard of China's slow death executions where organs are removed as the executed slowly die. At least these are supposed criminals.
The Palestinian's only supposed crime is being Palestinian.
BDS and dissolve the zionist state.
Nazis.
To insure that they would "never again" be the victims they modeled themselves after those inflicting the horror and sought to avoid being the target by willfully orchestrating the demonization of the other.
How Jews don't think, or seem to care that the crimes of Israel reflect on Jews everywhere...especially when they are either complicit or silent.
Careful about using the word "Jew." The practice of harvesting organs of dead Palestinians has nothing to do with religion. The correct word to use would be "Israeli perpetrators," or something like that.
Not we are not even allowed to utter the word Jew?
You see how manipulated we are by fear of being branded an anti-semite? It is deliberately insinuated. Do you think the identity of Americans suffer as a result of their Government? What makes you think it is any different for Jews? Is Israel not a Jewish state? What has religion got to do with it?
It was the word I intended and I meant what I said.
"Israeli perpetrators
ahh,,like it was the Arab Israelis doing it....
[No, that is completely wrong. Israel was created as a Jewish state for Jews.]
But not all Jews support the state of Israel, nor is everyone who is a citizen of Israel Jewish. If you want to damn all members of a nation for the actions of a few, or even a majority, I take it you have no objection to calling all Yanks a bunch of barbaric, warmongering, lying torturers who do x and y and z? It works both ways after all...
"If you want to damn all members of a nation for the actions of a few, or even a majority..."
The USA and Israel bomb entire countries for the actions of a few people who may or not be related to the country being bombed. And they leave weapons behind that terrorize future generations.
The USA - in my lifetime - has even declared "war" on entire nations for a crime that was committed by a handful of people from a neighboring country without any government help.
So to call Israel "Jewish" is far from innacurate or innapropriate. The shellgame that aims at hiding Jewish responsibility for crimes against other nations is probably nearing its conclusion. Or has the Holocaust Alert level moved up to Level Orange because of this post?
Zionists would be more accurrate. But no one can deny that zionists use Jews willingly or unwillingly as human shields.
[The USA - in my lifetime - has even declared "war" on entire nations for a crime that was committed by a handful of people from a neighboring country without any government help.]
And for the last decade people have been arguing that just because the us gov't was run by a bunch of fascist arsehats doesn't mean that all yanks are fascist arsehats. You might not have noticed but the nation that is committing holocaust like acts in the name of god is Israel. (and to a lesser degree the usa, well maybe not that much lesser...) Damning all members of group x for the actions of a few members of that group is as wrong as damning all the French as being 'cheese eating surrender monkeys.' (although I really like that line...)
The government of Israel likes to say that they represent and protect all Jewish people, but that's not totally true is it? They have persecuted people who are Jewish, but do not support the actions of the state of Israel. (of course they're just a massive bit harsher towards people who are not Jewish and don't support the actions of the state.) Just like the US gov't makes the claim that they protect the rights of citizens of the USA, but just like Israel, that claim is not always true.
We must be careful with our terms: Zionism is not Judaism. Zionists do not represent all Jews. There have always been Jews who mistrusted and even hated the Zionists. During the 30s and 40s when Zionists were preaching their philosophies to Jews and others, there were many Jews of all kinds, from Orthodox to Conservative to Liberal, who abhorred the Zionists and tried to warn the world about them.
Whilst you be accused of being anti-semitic and reminded of the Holocaust(tm)
"How Jews don't think, or seem to care that the crimes of Israel reflect on Jews everywhere...especially when they are either complicit or silent."
While I'm hesitant to agree that Jews don't care or believe that crimes of Israel don't reflect on Jews, I do agree that this is how most people see it. As such, it behooves all Jews to speak out when something heinous is done in their names. Seeing that Israel is a self-proclaimed Jewish state, their actions reflect on all Jews.
I agree. That is also why it is up to progressive Americans to speak out when something heinous is done by the US government and military in our names.
Agreed.
I see no shortage of "speaking out" by progressives. Not much "doing" perhaps, but lots of speaking out.
The Israelis learned their lessons well from the Nazi's.
Yeah, the first thought I had after reading this was the sickly ironic parallels with Dr, Joseph Mengele.
And if it had been the Palestinians doing that to Israelis there would be an uproar and this would be page 1 news. In my paper - The Toronto Star - it was relegated to the back pages where no one would find it. They tried hard not to make a big issue of it. This is not the first time the Israeli government has lied so why should we ever trust what they say?
Who believes that Israel has stopped harvesting Palestinian organs, and killing Palestinians in order to get these organs?
The Israelis ARE the Nazis.
Jesus Christ's birthday is coming--I'm sure glad that these Zionists didn't know the Nazis until much later--or maybe we would have had a savior without His sacred heart ready to return with the judgment of these vicious bastards--Merry Christmas and happy new year of being led by the flesh stealing monsters--thank you Rabi Obomber for all that you never changed when you had your chance.
If Jesus existed, he was Jewish. But thanks for posting there chuckie.
Oh sure, Merry Christmas to you in the same spirit of love and forgiveness!
Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.
Dr. Mengela is alive and well and living in Tel Aviv
Tod Macht Frei, they decry!
So...at the Sabra and Shatila massacres, Sharron was just shopping for a new liver?
If Iran, or previously Iraq, had been doing this, MSM would be all over this report.
and we would have carpet bombed them back to the stone age!
Too true.
"The story emerged in an interview with Dr Yehuda Hiss, former head of the Abu Kabir forensic institute near Tel Aviv."
Or is that Rudolph Hess?
"Jesus... was jewish."
No, Jesus was not a Jew, he was a Hebrew Christian.
For there is the Jewish faith and the Christian faith,
those with the blood of Abraham who are Hebrew Jews,
those with the blood of Abraham who are Hebrew Christians.
And also but not necessarily least of all,
those with the blood of Abraham who are Hebrew Moslems.
Finally, and most certainly least of all,
those with the blood of Abraham who are Hebrew Zionists, namely atheists.
Wow.
Your ignorance of history is astounding.
Jesus (if he existed) was a Hebrew Rabbi.
Christianity is an outgrowth of the Jewish faith, which is why so much Hebrew history was kept in the Bible. Christianity was a minor messianic cult until it was co-opted by the Roman Emperor Constantine and his mother.
And Zionists are anything but atheists.
Yes "Jesus... was a Hebrew Rabbi... Christianity is an outgrowth of the Jewish faith."
And as I agree with you, if I am ignorant then so must you be ignorant.
Now you say that Jesus may never have existed and call Christianity a cult, which means a fiction salvation and a fake morality. Which means you are locked in darkness and cannot tell light from darkness.
It is common knowledge, being mentioned often by commentators, that a great many Zionists are atheists. And many freely admit it.
Abraham was the first man called a Hebrew, and the Israelites were first called Jews during their exile in Babylon.
The purpose of the Old Testament, especially Israel a theocracy ruled in person by God, was to show the harm in using force to overcome evil.
The purpose of the New Testament was to show the harm in allowing lukewarm Christians to control a church. For be they self-absorbed or deceitful, a lukewarm Christian is a mixture of hot-good and cold-evil, an illusion of good hiding misery, a pretense of good hiding an intent to be enriched upon your misery.
For the purpose of this world is to establish a full and perfect understanding of darkness, to reach the ultimate conclusion of using a pretense of good to hide evil.
The word 'Hebrew' is descended from the Assyrian 'habiru' or dirty barbarian.
And I still think you are ignorant.
Because you have dragged an unneeded theological argument into a discussion of a criminal undertaking that violates national and international laws and Human Rights statutes. And that these criminal actions are being protected by the US government.
The root cause of harm is what this topic is all about. And even
if you are an atheist, surely to discuss why people without true
religion, kill in the name of religion, surely this is essential
to a correct understand.
“One who had escaped came and reported this to Abraham the
Hebrew.” Genesis 14:14
“See, we have allowed to come be with us this slave,
this Hebrew. And so, wanting Joseph to be stone to death.”
Genesis 39:14