Swedish foreign minister visit to Israel postponed, Israel confirms

Sep 6, 2009, 9:45 GMT

Jerusalem - An intended visit to Israel by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has been postponed indefinitely, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday, amid continuing tension over a Swedish newspaper report alleging that Israel harvested the organs of dead Palestinians.

Spokesman Yigal Palmor said he did not know if Bildt's trip, which had been slated to begin on September 11, would be rescheduled for another time.

According to the Israeli media, Bildt decided to postpone his trip after learning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering refusing to meet with him over Stockholm's refusal to condemn the organ harvesting article.

Sweden currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

The article published in Sweden's Aftonbladet tabloid 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 Palestinian charge, based only on the claims of the family, have been published before and the author of the article, Donald Bostrom, told Israel Radio he did not know if the claims were true, but said they should be investigated anyway.

In Israel, the report was compared to 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.

Netanyahu demanded the Swedish government condemn the article, but Stockholm citing legislation protecting freedom of speech, has refused to do so.

Israel countered that condemning the article would not impinge freedom of speech, while officials noted that in 2005 the then Swedish foreign minister Laila Freivaslds had rushed to condemn the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which some Muslims found offensive.