The recent controversy over the Swedish newspaper that spuriously claimed Israel steals organs from dead Palestinians was stupid and irresponsible journalism.
But, as journalist Shraga Elam explains, the inane Swedish piece obscured some legitimate questions about the subject:
There is ample evidence that trade in organs has been done in Israel, at least for the purposes of research and teaching. That was clearly revealed by the affair of Prof. Yehudah Hiss of the pathological institute at Abu-Kebir, who robbed organs from bodies even of IDF soldiers. If someone takes organs from Jews surely it is not beyond imagining that they might do the same with the bodies of Palestinians…
In 2005 the newspaper Haaretz reported:
“Palestinian corpse used for IDF anatomy lesson”
Amos Harel
28 January 2005The Breaking the Silence organization has collected new testimony from Israel Defense Forces soldiers on harsh actions carried out during the course of the fighting in the territories.
Two of the testimonies pertain to a military doctor who gave medics lessons in anatomy using the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.