High level Palestinian Authority panel to investigate "organ theft" reports

Published today (updated) 03/09/2009 13:40

Ramallah – Ma’an –

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is forming a high-level panel to investigate the news that the Israeli occupation forces  “stole organs” from Palestinian detainees after killing them, officials said on Thursday.

The Secretary-General of the PA Council of Ministers, Dr Hassan Abu Libdah, said that the committee has already started work by collecting all available information about the issue. He said the PA will take a sharp position on this issue, because, if true, the reported events would constitute violations of human rights.

The ministers of Health, Interior and Foreign Affairs, and senior officials from each ministry are to sit on the commission.

The news about Palestinian organ harvesting by Israeli occupation soldiers began in August when the popular Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published a story laying out claims that soldiers had returned the bodies of dead Palestinians with their chests cut open, then sown shut.

When the article was reprinted in the Hebrew-language media, a diplomatic crisis ensued when senior Israeli occupation government officials demanded that the Swedish government denounce the report, which Israel said was anti-Semitic.

Journalist Donald Boström has maintained that in writing the article, he merely wanted to call attention to the Palestinians’ claims in order to call for an investigation into the matter.

The case at the center of the article was that of Ahmed Bilal Ghanem, who was shot by Israeli soldiers in 1992. His body was returned with the chest sown up.

Abu Libdah, the PA official, criticized Ghanem’s brother, who according to Abu Libdah said the PA did not care about the issue.

He also said a Swedish delegation recently visited the family to listen to their account of the story, and their belief that the Israeli occupation forces removed organs from Ahmed’s body during an authorized autopsy.

“If we don’t visit the families that does not mean the Authority is not following up on the file,” said Abu Libdah.

Palestinian government forms a committee to follow-up on Israeli occupation soldiers' Organ harvest from Palestinians after killing them

Thursday September 03, 2009 11:35 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Hassan Abu Libda, secretary-general of the Palestinian Ministerial Council in Ramallah, stated that the Palestinian government formed a committee to follow-up on the ‘organs harvest’ from Palestinians by the Israeli occupation army.

In a Thursday morning interview with the Palestine Radio, Abu Libda said that the committee was formed under direct orders of the Palestinian Authority, and added that it would also act internationally.

He said that the Palestinian Authority will have a direct and sharp response to the issue, as organs harvest is a direct violation to the international law, the basic principles of human rights and is also a direct violation to religious beliefs.

The Palestinian Authority decided to form the committee after the Swedish paper, Aftonbladet, published reports accusing Israel of illegally removing the organs of Palestinians who were shot and killed by the Israeli occupation army.

The report put the Israeli-Swedish relations at odds, while the Israeli occupation government announced that it will file a lawsuit against the paper seeking $7.5 million in compensation.

The Israeli occupation government also demanded an official apology from Sweden, but the Swedish government said that the report was published as the country believes in the freedom of press and expression.