ArabNewsThe chief Israeli pathologist and director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, professor Yehuda Hiss, has admitted harvesting organs from the bodies of dead Palestinians without the consent of their families.
Hiss said that he and doctors who worked under him took parts from bodies — including skin, corneas and heart valves — in the 1990s for transplantation. He also admitted that the same parts were taken from dead Israelis for the same purpose.
Hiss’ remarks came in an interview with Nancy Sheppard-Hughes, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley who tracks the organ trade worldwide. The one-hour interview was recorded in 2000 as part of Sheppard-Hughes’ study at Abu Kabir and was broadcast on Israeli television on Friday night.
The report said Sheppard-Hughes decided to publish the interview after the leading Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported in August that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to trade in their organs.
The Israeli pathologist said “the skins were taken from the bodies and transmitted to Hadasah hospital in Jerusalem on the request of Israeli Army to be transplanted to wounded soldiers and in case of disaster.”
Sheppard-H
ughes said the taking of organs “was not only from Palestinians and the bodies of terrorists, but all people. The symbolism is of taking the parts from a population which is considered enemy for military uses. This has to be reconsidered.”
In August, Aftonbladet quoted Palestinians as saying that young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israeli forces and that their bodies returned to their families with missing organs. Full story
Related article: "Israeli Organ Trafficking and Theft: From Moldova to Palestine" / Petition
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