supernu

Israeli doc admits harvesting organs

RAMALLAH: The chief Israeli pathologist and director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, professor Yehuda Hiss, has admitted harvesting organs from the bodies of dead Palestinians without the consent of their families.

Hiss said that he and doctors who worked under him took parts from bodies -- including skin, corneas and heart valves -- in the 1990s for transplantation. He also admitted that the same parts were taken from dead Israelis for the same purpose.

Hiss' remarks came in an interview with Nancy Sheppard-Hughes, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley who tracks the organ trade worldwide. The one-hour interview was recorded in 2000 as part of Sheppard-Hughes' study at Abu Kabir and was broadcast on Israeli television on Friday night.

The report said Sheppard-Hughes decided to publish the interview after the leading Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported in August that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to trade in their organs.

The Israeli pathologist said "the skins were taken from the bodies and transmitted to Hadasah hospital in Jerusalem on the request of Israeli Army to be transplanted to wounded soldiers and in case of disaster."

Sheppard-Hughes said the taking of organs "was not only from Palestinians and the bodies of terrorists, but all people. The symbolism is of taking the parts from a population which is considered enemy for military uses. This has to be reconsidered."

In August, Aftonbladet quoted Palestinians as saying that young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israeli forces and that their bodies returned to their families with missing organs.

"'Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,' relatives of Khaled from Nablus said to me, as did the mother of Ra'ed from Jenin as well as the uncles of Mahmoud and Nafez from Gaza, who all had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and autopsied," wrote author Donald Bostrِm in his report.

Bostrِm also cited an incident of alleged organ snatching in 1992 during the first intifada.

He said Israeli soldiers seized a young man known for throwing stones at Israeli troops in the Nablus area. The man had been shot in the chest, both legs and the stomach before being taken to a military helicopter which transported him to "a place unknown to his loved ones."

Five nights later, Bostrِm says, the young man's body was returned, wrapped in green hospital sheets.

From the article: ""I, strongly, believe that we as Muslims must blame ourselves for our state of affairs and avoid the usual scapegoating that "powerful forces" such as Israel, the E.U., and America hinder our progress or our justified right to reclaim our lands and resources. Our "intellectuals" have adopted and imitated the Western mantra that progress can only come if one abandons religion. Rather than Islam being the problem, Muslims are the problem and Islam is the solution.""

"While Israel can tell the world "No", the Arabs sadly don't even know the word exists."

"Since then many U.S. politicians have quietly expressed their anger and frustration at Israel's continued Zionist expansionism in the Holy Land, but none have ever had the courage to stand up to this little nation while in office that manipulates the most powerful nation on earth to pay and die for Israel's wars from Lebanon, to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the Gulf, Afghanistan, and now the deja vu campaign to "bomb, bomb, bomb" Iran."

"That is why as a Muslim I am deeply proud of the Turkish government and the Turkish people for being the sole Muslim nation to publicly repudiate Israel on its slaughter in Gaza......... Muslim wealth is bailing out western economies and not benefiting the current confused Muslim generation lost between little faith and overwhelming American cultural influence....... "

"Each of us as Muslims is responsible for learning, implementing, and protecting our faith. Each of us is responsible for ourselves, our families, our neighbors, community, nation, and Ummah. Our silent acceptance of our corrupt till death do we part rulers has led to our failed societies."