Protest outside Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv
Photo: Reuters
PA to probe 'IDF organ harvesting'
Palestinian Cabinet Secretary-General Abu Libda says Authority will pursue legal action against Israel if suspicions prove to be true; 'organ theft goes against all values and creeds,' he says
The Palestinian Authority (the PA) announced Thursday that is establishing an inquiry commission to investigate the report claiming that IDF soldiers killed Palestinians in order to steal their organs.
'No Evidence'
Yonatan Gur
Aftonbladet's editor-in-chief, Jan Helin, says he green-lighted report accusing IDF soldiers of harvesting Palestinians' organs because it 'raises some questions. He confesses, however, that paper has no evidence of such practices
The report, which was published in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, caused an uproar in Israel, which demanded that Stockholm condemn the article.
Secretary-General of the Palestinian Cabinet Hassan Abu Libda said the commission will be made up of the interior, health and foreign ministers. The PA will decide whether or not to pursue action against Israel in the international legal arena once the investigation's findings are revealed, he said.
"Should the suspicions prove to be true, our position will be unequivocal, because (organ theft) is not only a violation of human rights, it goes against all values and creeds," said the secretary-general.
In his article, Aftonbladet reporter Donald Bostrom quoted Palestinians as saying that youths who were snatched from their villages in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers were buried after being dismembered. Bostrom said he was informed of the alleged atrocities by UN employees while he was working on a book in the West Bank.
This suspicion, the report said, may lead to an international war crimes investigation against Israel.
