PA and Fatah: Israel steals organs of dead terrorists
PA and Fatah: Israel steals organs of dead terrorists
Head of Palestinian UN delegation:
Israel is "harvesting organs"
Palestinian ambassador to Bahrain:
Israel "steals the Martyrs' organs, and sells them"
Fatah Central Committee member:
Israel steals organs from "young Martyrs"
and return bodies "with conditions"
forbidding Palestinians to autopsy them
PA Members of Parliament demand autopsy of "Martyrs'" bodies
"to know if the Martyrs' organs have been stolen"
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
As the Palestinian wave of terror attacks against Israelis continues and more terrorists are killed while attempting to murder Israelis, the PA and Fatah have revived an old libel, often documented by Palestinian Media Watch, which claims that Israel steals body parts from the dead terrorists before handing them over to the PA.
Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen stated on PA TV that Israel's takes whatever organs it needs:
Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen: "There are Israeli testimonies acknowledging that organs are being taken from the bodies of young Martyrs. While the body is with the Israelis, organs are taken according to Israel's needs, and afterwards they hand over the body [to the PA] with conditions... including not allowing the body to be autopsied, in order to cover it up."
[Official PA TV, Dec. 27, 2015]
The Palestinian ambassador to Bahrain Khaled Aref added to the allegations, saying Israel trades in the stolen organs: Israel "steals the Martyrs' organs, and sells them," he said. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 17, 2015]
Palestinian Members of Parliament have lately disseminated the libel as well and "demanded a clear decision be publicized" regarding the need to autopsy "Martyrs'" bodies when receiving them from Israel "in order to know if the Martyrs' organs have been stolen [by Israel] and to legally prosecute the occupation." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 24, 2015]
The head of the Palestinian delegation to the UN, Riyad Mansour, sent a letter to President of the UN Security Council, British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, accusing Israel of "harvesting organs" from the bodies of "Martyrs" who have been killed while perpetrating terror attacks. He claimed that their "bodies were returned without corneas and other organs." [Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), Nov. 5, 2015]
A mother of a terrorist who was killed when he tried to stab an Israeli soldier near the Lions' Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, expressed her belief in the organ theft libel. WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, reported that "Martyr Al-Khatib's mother fears that her son's organs have been stolen, especially since he was executed and quickly transferred, and that they will be implanted in [another] body after his life was stolen from him." She had told the news agency that "the family intends to autopsy the body after its transfer." [WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Nov. 11, 2014]
There has been one case of organ theft in Israel's history. In 2001, an Israeli investigative journalist exposed that from the years 1988 to 2000, doctors under the chief pathologist at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine at times took body parts without permission from relatives, for research and transplants of skin and corneas. Most body parts were taken from Israeli Jews, but the theft also included body parts from Israeli Arabs, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian terrorists. There has been no documented case since then.
The following are longer excerpts of the libelous statements regarding Israel's alleged organ theft:
Headline: "When a son's burial becomes his parents' goal"
"My last request is to know the burial place of my son, so that I can bury him and read the [Quranic Sura of] Al-Fatiha for his soul, and so that he will be buried according to Islamic Shari'ah law. These are the words of Maisa, mother of Martyr Mustafa Al-Khatib, 17, from Jerusalem, who was executed by the occupation forces next to the Lions' Gate cemetery in occupied Jerusalem last Oct. 12 [2015], while on his way to school in the city.
Martyr Al-Khatib's mother fears that her son's organs have been stolen, especially since he was executed and quickly transferred, and that they will be implanted in [another] body after his life was stolen from him. Likewise, she emphasized that the family intends to autopsy the body after its transfer, but Israel refuses [to transfer it], as in similar cases of Martyrs from occupied Jerusalem.
Media spokesperson for the National Campaign to Return the Bodies of the Martyrs, Salwa Hammad, stated... that it has been proven that some of the bodies recently transferred had signs of bruises and injuries, but it cannot be determined if they occurred before or after they died as Martyrs. Likewise, it cannot be determined whether organ theft occurred, except by autopsy of the Martyrs' bodies, which the Martyrs' families oppose for religious reasons."
[WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Nov. 11, 2014]
Mustafa Al-Khatib - 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist who tried to stab a soldier near the Lions' Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 12, 2015 and was shot and killed by Israeli police.
Headline: "The Palestinian embassy in Bahrain marked the anniversary of the [declaration of] independence and Arafat's death as a Martyr."
"The Palestinian embassy in Bahrain marked the 27th anniversary of the declaration of independence and the 11th anniversary of President Yasser Arafat's Martyrdom in a large reception at its headquarters... [Palestinian] Ambassador [Khaled] Aref referred to the popular [Palestinian] uprising in his speech and said: 'Our people, who every day accompanies Martyrs to burial who died while defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites during the present popular uprising, sacrificed so far 99 young people, children, and women as Martyrs, most of them murdered by gunfire with no reason or justification. Likewise, the occupation is holding 26 of their bodies, steals the Martyrs' organs, and sells them."
"The Palestinian embassy in Bahrain marked the 27th anniversary of the declaration of independence and the 11th anniversary of President Yasser Arafat's Martyrdom in a large reception at its headquarters... [Palestinian] Ambassador [Khaled] Aref referred to the popular [Palestinian] uprising in his speech and said: 'Our people, who every day accompanies Martyrs to burial who died while defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites during the present popular uprising, sacrificed so far 99 young people, children, and women as Martyrs, most of them murdered by gunfire with no reason or justification. Likewise, the occupation is holding 26 of their bodies, steals the Martyrs' organs, and sells them."
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 17, 2015]
Headline: "Ramallah: Agreement over a number of decisions regarding getting the Martyrs' bodies back"
"The families of the Martyrs (Shahids) whose bodies are being held by the occupation and a number of members of the [PA] Parliament (i.e., Legislative Council) demanded that a clear decision be publicized, which determines that the Martyrs' bodies must be autopsied and this right must be adhered to, in order to know if the Martyrs' organs have been stolen [by Israel] and to legally prosecute the occupation."
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 24, 2015]
Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, hosting Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen and political science lecturer Mukheimar Abu Sa'ada
Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen: "There are Israeli testimonies acknowledging that organs are being taken from the bodies of young Martyrs. While the body is with the Israelis, organs are taken according to Israel's needs, and afterwards they hand over the body [to the PA] with conditions... including not allowing the body to be autopsied, in order to cover it up."
[Official PA TV, Dec. 27, 2015]
Headline: "Mansour accuses Israel of stealing the Martyrs' organs during the current intifada"
"Head of the Palestinian delegation to the UN, Riyad Mansour, sent a letter to the current president of the security council, British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, in which he accused Israel of stealing the organs from the bodies of Martyrs (Shahids) who have died during the current intifada.
Mansour wrote in his letter to Rycroft: 'After [Israel] held onto the bodies of those killed by the occupation forces in October, and after medical examination, it turned out that the bodies were returned without corneas and other organs.' He added: This verifies previous reports regarding the harvesting of organs.'"
[Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), Nov. 5, 2015]