Israel admits to harvesting organs of dead Palestinians

After accusing the Swedish press of anti-semitism the truth has finally emerged. Israel has indeed been harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians. This is truly horrendous news, reported in the UK's Guardian newspaper this morning, following the airing of a TV documentary at the weekend. This is a public relations disaster for Israel and their future denials of atrocities are even less likely to be believed. Contrary to the original report in the Swedish press, no evidence has so far emerged showing that the Israelis deliberately killed Palestinians to harvest organs.

Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families – a practice 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.

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