El principal diario sueco denuncia que la IDF trafica con órganos de palestinos

A leading Swedish newspaper reported this week that Israeli soldiers are abducting Palestinians in order to steal their organs, a claim that prompted furious condemnation and accusations of anti-Semitic blood libel from a rival publication.

"They plunder the organs of our sons," read the headline in Sweden's largest daily newspaper, the left-leaning Aftonbladet, which devoted a double spread in its cultural section to the article.

The report quotes Palestinian claims that young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israel Defense Forces, and their bodies returned to the 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 Raed from Jenin as well as the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who all had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and autopsied," writes author Donald Boström in his report.

Boström's article makes a link to the recent exposure of an alleged crime syndicate in New Jersey. The syndicate includes several American rabbis, and one Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, who faces charges of conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a tras*plant.

(Click here for the opinion piece in Swedish)

Boström also cites an incident of alleged organ snatching from 1992, during the time of the first Palestinian intifada. He says that the IDF seized a young man known for throwing stones at Israeli troops in the Nablus area, who was shot in the chest, both legs, and the stomach before being taken to a military helicopter which tras*ported him to "a place unknown to his loved ones".

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

"The sharp sounds from the shovels were mixed with the occasional laughter from the soldiers who were joking with each other, waiting to go home. When Bilal was put into his grave, his chest was revealed and suddenly it became clear to the present what abuse he had been put through. Bilal was far from the only one who was buried cut-up from his stomach to his chin and the speculations about the reason why had already started," he writes.

But the liberal Sydsvenskan - southern Sweden's major daily - had harsh criticism for the rival paper, running an opinion piece under the headline "Antisemitbladet" (a play on the name Aftonbladet).

"We have heard the story before, in one form or the other. It ***ows the traditional pattern of conspiracy theory: a great number of loose threads that the theorist tempts the reader to tie into a neat knot without having been provided with any proven connection whatsoever," writes leading columnist Mats Skogkär of Sydsvenskan.

"Whispers in the dark. Anonymous sources. Rumors. That is all it takes. After all we all know what they [the Jews] are like, don't we: inhuman, hardened. Capable of anything," the opinion piece says. "Now all that remains is the defense, equally predictable: 'Anti-Semitism' No, no, just criticism of Israel."

The Foreign Ministry reacted angrily on Tuesday to the report. Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor said the newspaper's decision to publish the story is "a mark of disgrace" for the Swedish press.

"In a democratic country, there should be no place for dark blood libels out of the Middle Ages of this type," Palmor said. "This is an article that shames Swedish democracy and the entire Swedish press."

A Foreign Ministry official said that Israel's embassy in Stockholm have communicated a harsh condemnation to the Swedish government and the newspaper itself.

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Israel must investigate the "unlawful" killing of 11 civilians carrying white flags during its Gaza operation earlier in 2009, Human Rights Watch has said.

Five women and four children were among those killed in seven incidents detailed by the US-based rights group.

Researchers said the soldiers at best failed to protect civilians, and at worst deliberately shot at them.

Israel has launched investigations into five "white flag" incidents, but says Hamas exploited civilians with flags.

In one incident, east of Jabalya, HRW said Israeli soldiers fired at two women and three children, three of whom were holding pieces of white cloth.

Two girls, aged two and seven were killed, and another, now aged four, was left paralysed below the waist.

The five were standing outside their home after an Israeli soldier had ordered them to leave it, HRW said.

"We spent seven to nine minutes waving the flags, and our faces were looking at them [the soldiers]," HRW quoted the girls' grandmother as saying.

"And suddenly they opened fire and the girls fell to the ground."

Two of the incidents in question have also been investigated by the BBC.

In five of the seven incidents, Israeli soldiers shot at civilians who were walking down the street with white flags, trying to leave the areas of fighting, HRW said.

"All available evidence indicates that Israeli forces were in control of the areas in question, no fighting was taking place there at the time, and no Palestinian forces were hiding among the civilians or using them as human shields," the report said.

The Israeli foreign ministry has opened investigations into at least five cases involving Palestinians who were waving white flags.

As of the end of July, one case had been closed. The Israeli military said troops had fired at "suspicious men" who ignored warnings as they walked near a Palestinian family carrying a white flag.

HRW said its findings were based on site investigations, ballistic evidence found at the scene, medical records of victims and lengthy interviews with multiple witnesses.

An Israeli government spokesman said the report lacked credibility because it was based on evidence from an area under Hamas control.

The Israeli military said troops were obliged to respect white flags, but accused "Hamas terror operatives" of "exploiting those with white flags as cover for belligerent action and to protect themselves from return fire".

But it gave no details of specific incidents.

Israel has said its soldiers acted lawfully during the operation, although some mistakes were made, such as the bombing of a house containing 21 civilians by accident.

It says it went to great lengths to distinguish between civilians and combatants, while Hamas put civilians at great risk by firing rockets from near schools and UN facilities, commandeering hospital facilities and ambulances, hiding weapons in mosques and booby trapping civilian neighbourhoods.

War crime accusation

Human Rights Watch last week accused Hamas of war crimes, for firing rockets at Israeli population centres.

The group also says Palestinian militants operated from populated areas.

HRW's Bill Van Esveld said last Thursday that a Newsweek report quoted in a recent Israeli Foreign Ministry briefing was "as clear evidence of human shielding [by Hamas] as you're going to get".

Journalist Rod Nordland wrote on 20 January: "Suddenly there was a terrific whoosh, louder even than a bomb explosion. It was another of Hamas' homemade Qassam rockets being launched into Israel - and the mobile launch-pad was smack in the middle of the four [apartment] buildings, where every apartment was full."

But Mr Van Esveld said he was only aware of evidence of "three or four" such cases, and had seen more evidence of the use of human shields by Israeli troops than by Palestinian militants.

The Israeli activist group Breaking the Silence has published anonymous testimonies of Israeli soldiers describing a procedure in which they said Palestinians were forced at gunpoint to enter building where militants were hiding.

Soldier jailed

Israel said its 22-day operation in Gaza was "necessary and proportionate" and was aimed at reducing Palestinian rocket fire.

The Israeli military says it his currently investigating about 100 incidents, of which 13 are criminal investigations.

On Wednesday a soldier was jailed for seven months for using a credit card he stole from a Palestinian in Gaza during the operation to withdraw money in Israel.

Israel says 1,166 Gazans died in the conflict. Palestinian human rights groups put the figure at 1,400. Accounts differ as to how many were civilians. Thirteen Israelis died, including three civilians killed in Palestinian rocket attacks.

Israel says 12,000 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel between 2000 and 2008 - nearly 3,000 in 2008 alone.

Hamas denies committing war crimes and firing rockets from residential areas.

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