Israeli MP/MK Admits Israelis Steal Organs from Innocent Palestinians
This story was first offered to the Guardian's Comment is Free site.
It was received on August 26 by Brian Whitaker, a commissioning editor
at CiF and a former Middle East editor of the newspaper, who responded
that "we're minded to use it" but that because the issue was "a hot
potato" it would take "a day or two" to decide.
On September 3, more than a week later, Georgina Henry, CiF's
executive editor, replied, apologising for the delay but saying she
was going to reject the piece. Her strange reasoning led to a short
but revealing correspondence. I include it here for anyone interested.
The Missing Link in Israeli Organ Theft?
The Autopsy Surgeon Aftonbladet Forgot
By JONATHAN COOK
Counterpunch
September 4-6, 2009
The hyperventilating by Israel's leaders [1] over a story published in
a Swedish newspaper last month [2] suggesting that the Israeli army
assisted in organ theft from Palestinians has distracted attention
from the disturbing allegations made by Palestinian families that were
the basis of the article's central claim.
The families' fears that relatives, killed by the Israeli army, had
body parts removed during unauthorized autopsies performed in Israel
have been overshadowed by accusations of a "blood libel" directed
against the reporter, Donald Bostrom, and the Aftonbladet newspaper,
as well as the Swedish government and people.
I have no idea whether the story is true. Like most journalists
working in Israel and Palestine, I have heard such rumours before.
Until Bostrom wrote his piece, no Western journalist, as far as I
know, had investigated them.
After so many years, the assumption by journalists was that there was
little hope of finding evidence -- apart from literally by digging up
the corpses.
Doubtless, the inevitable charge of anti-semitism such reports attract
acted as a powerful deterrent too.
What is striking about this episode is that the families making the
claims were not given a hearing in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
during the first intifada, when most of the reports occurred, and are
still being denied the right to voice their concerns today.
Israel's sensitivity to the allegation of organ theft -- or
"harvesting", as many observers coyly refer to the practice -- appears
to trump the genuine concerns of the families about possible abuse of
their loved ones.
Bostrom has been much criticized for the flimsy evidence he produced
in support of his inflammatory story. Certainly there is much to
criticize in his and the newspaper's presentation of the report.
Most significantly, Bostrom and Aftonbladet exposed themselves to the
charge of anti-semitism -- at least from Israeli officials keen to
make mischief -- through a major error of judgment.
They muddied the waters by trying to make a tenuous connection between
the Palestinian families' allegations about organ theft during
unauthorized autopsies and the entirely separate revelations this
month that a group of US Jews had been arrested for money-laundering
and trading in body parts. [3]
In making that connection, Bostrom and Aftonbladet suggested that the
problem of organ theft is a current one when they have produced only
examples of such concern from the early 1990s. They also implied,
whether intentionally or not, that abuses allegedly committed by the
Israeli army could somehow be extrapolated more generally to Jews.
The Swedish reporter should instead have concentrated on the valid
question raised by the families about why the Israeli army, by its own
admission, took away the bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed by
its soldiers, allowed autopsies to be performed on them without the
families' permission and then returned the bodies for burial in
ceremonies held under tight security.
Bostrom's article highlighted the case of one Palestinian, 19-year-old
Bilal Ahmed Ghanan, from the village of Imatin in the northern West
Bank, who was killed in 1992. A shocking picture of Bilal's
stitched-up body accompanied the report. [4]
Bostrom has told the Israeli media that he knows of at least 20 cases
of families claiming that the bodies of loved ones were returned with
body parts missing, [5] although he did not say whether any of these
alleged incidents occurred more recently.
In 1992, the year in question, Bostrom says, the Israeli army admitted
to him that it took away for autopsy 69 of the 133 Palestinians who
died of unnatural causes. The army has not denied this part of his
report.
A justifiable question from the families relayed by Bostrom is: why
did the army want the autopsies carried out? Unless it can be shown
that the army intended to conduct investigations into the deaths --
and there is apparently no suggestion that it did -- the autopsies
were unnecessary.
In fact, they were more than unnecessary. They were counterproductive
if we assume that the army has no interest in gathering evidence that
could be used in future war crimes prosecutions of its soldiers.
Israel has a longtrack record of stymying investigations into
Palestinian deaths at the hands of its soldiers, and carried on that
ignoble tradition in the wake of its recent assault on Gaza.
Of even greater concern for the Palestinian families is the fact that
at around the time the bodies of their loved ones were whisked off by
the army for autopsy, the only institute in Israel that conducts such
autopsies, Abu Kabir, near Tel Aviv, was almost certainly at the
centre of a trade in organs that later became a scandal inside Israel.
Equally disturbing, the doctor behind the plunder of body parts, Prof
Yehuda Hiss, appointed director of the Abu Kabir institute in the late
1980s, has never been jailed despite admitting to the organ theft and
he continues to be the state's chief pathologist at the institute.
Hiss was in charge of the autopsies of Palestinians when Bostrom was
listening to the families' claims in 1992. Hiss was subsequently
investigated twice, in 2002 and 2005, over the theft of body parts on
a large scale.
Allegations of Hiss' illegal trade in organs was first revealed in
2000 by investigative reporters at the Yediot Aharonot newspaper,
which reported that he had "price listings" for body parts and that he
sold mainly to Israeli universities and medical schools. [6]
Apparently undeterred by these revelations, Hiss still had an array of
body parts in his possession at Abu Kabir when the Israeli courts
ordered a search in 2002. Israel National News reported at the time:
"Over the past years, heads of the institute appear to have given
thousands of organs for research without permission, while maintaining
a 'storehouse' of organs at Abu Kabir." [7]
Hiss did not deny the plunder of organs, admitting that the body parts
belonged to soldiers killed in action and had been passed to medical
institutes and hospitals in the interests of advancing research.
Understandably, however, the Palestinian families are unlikely to be
satisfied with Hiss' explanation. If the wishes of a soldier's familiy
were disregarded by Hiss, why not Palestinian families' wishes too?
Hiss was allowed to continue as director of Abu Kabir until 2005 when
allegations of a trade in organs surfaced again. On this occasion Hiss
admitted to having removed parts from 125 bodies without
authorization.
Following a plea bargain with the state, the attorney general decided
not to press criminal charges and Hiss was given only a reprimand. [8]
He has continued as chief pathologist at Abu Kabir.
It should also be noted, as Bostrom points out, that in the early
1990s Israel was suffering from an acute shortage of organ donors to
the extent that Ehud Olmert, health minister at the time, launched a
public campaign to encourage Israelis to come forward.
This offers a possible explanation for Hiss' actions. He may have
acted to help make up the shortfall.
Given the facts that are known, there must be at least a very strong
suspicion that Hiss removed organs without authorisation from some
Palestinians he autopsied. Both this issue, and the army's possible
role in supplying him with corpses, needs investigation.
Hiss is also implicated in another long-running and unresolved scandal
from Israel's early years, in the 1950s, when the children of recent
Jewish immigrants to Israel from Yemen were adopted by Ashkenazi
couples after the Yeminite parents had been told that their child had
died, [9] usually after admission to hospital.
After an initial cover-up, the Yeminite parents have continued
pressing for answers from the state, and forced officials to reopen
the files. [8] The Palestinian families deserve no less.
However, unlike the Yemenite parents, their chances of receiving any
kind of investigation, transparent or otherwise, look all but
hopeless.
When Palestinian demands for justice are not backed by investigations
from journalists or the protests of the international community,
Israel can safely ignore them.
It is worth remembering in this context the constant refrain from
Israel's peace camp that the brutal, four-decade occupation of the
Palestinians has profoundly corrupted Israeli society.
When the army enjoys power without accountability, how do
Palestinians, or we, know what soldiers are allowed to get away with
under cover of occupation? What restraints are in place to prevent
abuses? And who takes them to task if they do commit crimes?
Similarly, when Israeli politicians are able to cry "blood libel" or
"anti-semitism" when they are criticised, damaging the reputations of
those they accuse, what incentive do they have to initiate inquiries
that may harm them or the institutions they oversee? What reason do
they have to be honest when they can bludgeon a critic into silence,
at no cost to themselves?
This is the meaning of the phrase "Power corrupts", and Israeli
politicians and soldiers, as well as at least one pathologist,
demonstrably have far too much power -- most especially over
Palestinians under occupation.
Links
[1]
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109437.html
[2]
http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=8390&lg=en
[3]
http://www.slate.com/id/2223559/
[4]
http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article5652583.ab
[5]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766093,00.html
[6]
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1173179
[7]
http://www.israelfaxx.com/webarchive/2002/01/2fax0104.html
[8]
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/90518
[9]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/israel-seeks-lost-children-of-yemen-exodus-1318037.html
BBC Link: Police smash
Israeliorgan-traffickingringhttp://
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8608053.stm
Evil KIKES were selling body parts!
On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:26:07 -0500,
<
rdednYIASowSbPXX...@giganews.com>, Pogrom
<
no...@nowhere.com>
wrote:
US corruption probe nets dozens
More than 40 people, including politicians, officials and several
rabbis have been arrested in a major FBI operation the US.
Three mayors from the state of New Jersey and two members of the state
legislature were among those held.
One man is accused of alleged kidney trafficking involving Israeli
donors.
Three hundred FBI agents raided dozens of locations in New Jersey and
New York as part of a 10-year probe into corruption and money
laundering.
Prosecutors say the arrests were part of a "dual-tracked"
investigation.
Acting US Attorney Ralph Marra told reporters there were 29 suspects
on what he termed the "public corruption" side of the investigation,
including the politicians.
On the other side, he said, there were 15 suspects in connection with
alleged international money-laundering, including five rabbis and
their "associates".
'Vulnerable people'
Prosecutors accuse one man of dealing in human kidneys from Israeli
donors for transplant for a decade.
It's alleged that "vulnerable people" would give up a kidney for
$10,000 (£6,000) and these would then be sold on for $160,000
(£97,000).
Law enforcement officials say investigations originally focused on a
network they allege laundered tens of millions of dollars through
charities controlled by rabbis in New Jersey and neighbouring New
York.
It widened to include alleged official corruption with links to a New
Jersey construction boom.
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, Jersey
City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez
were among those arrested.
State legislators Harvey Smith and Daniel Van Pelt were also arrested.
Mr Marra said: "It seemed that everyone wanted a piece of the action.
The corruption was widespread and pervasive. Corruption was a way of
life for
the accused."
He said politicians had "willingly put themselves up for sale" and
clergymen had "cloaked their extensive criminal activity behind a
facade of rectitude".
The BBC's Jane O'Brien says the money laundering ring reportedly
spanned the US, Israel and Switzerland.
ARRESTED
# Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano
# Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell
# Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez
Jon Corzine, the Governor of New Jersey, said: "The scale of
corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and
cannot be tolerated."
Ed Kahrer, an FBI agent who has worked on the investigation from the
start, said: "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if
not the worst, in the nation.
"It has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture," he said.
Another FBI agent said: "The list of people we arrested sounds like it
should be the roster for a meeting of community leaders, but sadly
they weren't meeting in a boardroom this morning, they were in the
FBI booking room."
Correspondents say the number of people arrested is large even by New
Jersey standards, where more than 130 public officials have either
admitted to corruption or been found guilty of it since 2001.
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