Israel-Sweden crisis over organ harvesting claim intensifies

Aug 23, 2009, 13:31 GMT

Jerusalem - An Israel-Sweden diplomatic spat over a Swedish newspaper article claiming Israeli troops killed Palestinians and harvested their organs, intensified Sunday, with Premier Benjamin Netanyahu demanding Stockholm condemn the report, and Foreign Minister Lieberman accusing the Swedes of double standards.

Another senior Israeli official, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, suggested that Swedish officials who refused to condemn the report, would be unwelcome in Israel, a clear, if unstated reference to an upcoming visit by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.

The article, printed in the Aftonbladet newspaper on August 17, claimed that the bodies of Palestinians seized in the West Bank were returned to their families with missing organs, and linked it to the recent arrests in the US state of New Jersey of several US Jews, including rabbis, for a number of alleged crimes, including brokering the sale of organs for transplant.

The author of the article, Donald Bostrom, later told Israel Radio he did not know if the claims were true, but said they should be investigated anyway.

Israeli officials and media reacted furiously to the Aftonbladet claims, with some saying it evoked the infamous 'blood libel,' which first became widespread in medieval Europe and accuses Jews of using the blood of non-Jews to make ritual food for the Passover ceremony.

The Swedish government, citing legislation protecting freedom of speech, said Saturday it had no plans to apologize to Israel for the report.

Netanyahu, addressing ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday morning, said Israel was asking 'not for an apology, but for a condemnation,' an Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Netanyahu said former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had condemned a tasteless Israeli television skit which made fun of the Virgin Mary, and such a condemnation did not impinge on freedom of speech, the official said.

Finance Minister Steinitz told the cabinet that 'we have a crisis until the Swedish government responds differently,' media reports said.

Welfare Minster Isaac Herzog said Israel should take legal steps against Aftonbladet to combat the claims.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, speaking to Israel Radio Sunday morning, slammed what he termed the 'double standards' and 'hypocrisy,' saying that in 2005 the Swedish Foreign Minister at the time, Laila Freivaslds, had rushed to condemn the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which some Muslims found offensive.

She did not just condemn it orally, Lieberman said, 'but also sent a letter to the President of Yemen explaining how much she regretted (it), how wrong it was.'

He added that the Swedish Foreign Ministry also closed down a web site which had run the cartoons, which Aftonbladet had itself refused to publish.

The Israeli Ma'ariv daily also claimed Sunday that the Swedish Foreign Ministry partly funded a 2001 book written by Bostrom, in which the claims of Israel harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians first surfaced.

In another development, Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Sunday he would act to prevent Swedish correspondents from receiving work and residence permits in Israel.

His comments came after the Director of the Israel Government Press Office (GPO), which issues media credentials to correspondents visiting or based in Israel, said Sunday he has instructed his staff to take their time reviewing the request by two Aftonbladet correspondents for accreditation.

The two, a reporter and photographer who are not the paper's Israel-based correspondents, applied to the GPO early Sunday morning for credentials needed to pass into the Gaza Strip.

GPO Director Daniel Seaman told Israel Radio he had instructed his staff to take as much time as needed and allowed by regulations - up to three months - to review the request.

He said he told his staff to tell the two that the checks could take some time, and could, he added cynically, include blood tests to see whether their blood types made them eligible for organ transplants.