Israeli soldiers harvested Palestinians' organs - Swedish newspaper
Following
diplomatic tensions over an August article published in Swedish tabloid
Aftonbladet accusing the Israeli army of illegally harvesting the organs of
Palestinians, Israel has admitted its forensic pathologists removed organs from
dead bodies without consent from their families, reports the Associated Press.
Over
the weekend, a 2000 interview carried out by an American anthropology professor
with Dr. Jehuda Hiss, the then head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute,
was broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 TV.
In the
interview, Hiss admitted to harvesting corneas and that "no permission was
asked from the family."
The
Israeli military confirmed that skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from
Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers had been
harvested at Abu Kabir throughout the 1990s, AP reports.
Hiss
said that the practice ended in 2000.
"This
activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer," the Israeli
Defence Forces said in a statement quoted by Channel 2.
Aftonbladet's
article, 'Våra söner plundras på sina organ' ('They plunder the organs of our
sons'), sparked a months-long diplomatic row between Israel and Sweden, with
repeated calls from Israel for official condemnation of the article by the
Swedish government.
Published
in August, the Aftonbladet article by photographer and writer Donald Boström
claimed the Israeli army had been involved in the illegal human organ trade.
Boström linked allegations of organ harvesting made by individual Palestinians
to a New York-based crime suspect, Rabbi Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, who had been
accused of attempting to facilitate the sale of a kidney from a donor in
Israel.
The
organs were harvested from individuals who died from various causes, but AP
reported that there has been no evidence to back up Aftonbladet's claim that
Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians for their organs.
Original
Headline: Israeli Military Admits
to Organ Harvesting
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