2009 Aftonbladet Israel controversy

The Aftonbladet-Israel controversy refers to an article in Sweden's largest tabloid, implying that the Israeli Defense Force stole organs from dead Palestinians. This evolved into a diplomatic controversy involving Aftonbladet, Sweden, Israel, and the Jewish community. According to the Aftonbladet and the Swedish government, notwithstanding the falsehood of the article, the article represents a valid manifestation of free press. According to the Israeli government and antisemitism watchdog groups, the article's allegations are akin to ancient antisemitic blood libels against Jews and should not have been published or should at least be denounced.

The Aftonbladet article by Donald Boström

In August, 2009 the Aftonbladet ran an article on its culture pages written by freelance writer Donald Boström. The article probed possible connections between Operation Bid Rig in New Jersey, a money laundering operation involving rabbis, politicians and trusted civil servants, which also included an arrest for illegal organ selling, and events in the Palestinian territories, where some of the bodies of Palestinians killed by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) were being returned after five days with stitches running from their belly to their neck. Boström writes of things he heard and saw during his stay in the region in 1992, including the views of some Palestinian families whose relatives were returned in such a state, and who relayed their suspicions that the organs were being harvested. Boström also writes that unnamed UN staff members told him that "organ theft definitely occurred", but that they were "prevented from doing anything about it."

One photograph accompanying the article depicted a cadaver with the stitches, which was identified as that of Bilal Ghanem, 19 years old when he was killed by IDF soldiers during the First Intifada on May 13, 1992. The Ghanem family was not interviewed for Bostrom's article, but he does describe his first-hand impressions of Bilal's funeral service which he attended:

Together with the sharp noises from the shovels we could hear laughter from the soldiers who, as they waited to go home, exchanged some jokes. As Bilal was put in the grave his chest was uncovered. Suddenly it became clear to the few people present just what kind of abuse the boy had been exposed to. Bilal was not by far the first young Palestinian to be buried with a slit from his abdomen up to his chin.

The next paragraph of the article quotes other Palestinian families, and reads as follows:

The families in the West Bank and in Gaza felt that they knew exactly what had happened: "Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors," relatives of Khaled from Nablus told me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin and the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who had all disappeared for a number of days only to return at night, dead and autopsied.
Why are they keeping the bodies for up to five days before they let us bury them? What happened to the bodies during that time? Why are they performing autopsy, against our will, when the cause of death is obvious? Why are the bodies returned at night? Why is it done with a military escort? Why is the area closed off during the funeral? Why is the electricity interrupted? Nafe’s uncle was upset and he had a lot of questions.

Boström also reported the response of the IDF spokesperson who stated that the allegations of organ theft were lies, and that all Palestinian victims are subjected to autopsy on a routine basis. Boström noted that according to Palestinian statistics for 1992, Bilal Ghanem was one of 133 Palestinians killed, and one of 69 who went through postmortem examination. He concluded his article by noting his opinion that the questions surrounding what is happening remain unanswered.

Israeli reaction

Government

The claim in the article sparked an angry reaction by Israeli Foreign Ministry official Yigal Palmor who associated the article with the medieval blood libel. On August 23, the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, called for the Swedish government to condemn the article. An Israeli official quoted him as saying: "We're not asking the Swedish government for an apology, we're asking for their condemnation." The Israeli Finance Minister, Yuval Steinitz, said that a continued Swedish refusal to condemn the article, might lead Israel to cancel a visit, scheduled for September, by the Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt. Steinitz told the Israel Army Radio that "Whoever doesn't distance himself from this kind of blood libel might not be a welcome guest in Israel at this time. Until the Swedish government understands differently, the state of Israel, the state of the Jews, cannot ignore anti-Semitic expressions and modern recycling of medieval anti-Semitism". The Israeli Government Press Office, which accredits foreign journalists visiting the country, said it was delaying its approval for an Aftonbladet correspondent and photographer who are seeking permission to enter the Gaza Strip by the maximum ninety days allowed by regulations.

Netanyahu said that history was replete with Blood libel against Jews that have led to the murder and that "These matters cannot be taken lightly. We are not asking from the Swedes anything that we did not ask of ourselves".He reminded his ministers that in February 2009, after a satirical skit on the Israeli Channel 10 which poked fun at the Christian belief that Jesus walked on water and Mary was a virgin had angered the Vatican, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed regret and sorrow for it. Netanyahu commented: "I don't recall that Olmert's condemnation damaged press freedom in Israel". The Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman told Army Radio: "What angers us is that the Swedish government didn't condemn it but hastened to reprimand the ambassador who did find it right to condemn this blood libel, which recalls the Dreyfus Affair." He also compared the article to "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," an anti-Semitic tract purporting to show a global Jewish conspiracy which was widely cited by Hitler and others. He accused Sweden of hypocrisy and the affair has "an odor of anti-Semitism." and noted the Swedish condemnation of the Muhammed cartoons affair in 2005, as well as Sweden's shutting down of an Internet site in the country that posted the caricatures and the Swedish foreign minister letter of apology to the president of Yemen for it. He criticized Sweden for its silence earlier in 2009, when the city of Malmo decided not to allow spectators to a Davis Cup match between Sweden and Israel.

The Israeli Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, said that he would act to prevent Aftonbladet reporters from receiving work permits in Israel, and the Welfare and Social Services Minister, Isaac Herzog said that Israel should take legal steps against the paper. When asked why Israel did not investigate the article's claims, Israel's envoy to Sweden, Benny Dagan, said: "Why don't we investigate why the Mossad and the Jews were behind the bombing of the twin towers? Why won't we investigate why Jews are spreading AIDS in the Arab countries? Why won't we investigate why Jews killed Christian children and took their blood and organs to bake matzot on Pessah?".

Media

Gideon Levy, writing in Ha'aretz, criticized Bostrom for not engaging in documentation, investigation and the presentation of proof. He noted that, "There were cases in which the organs of Palestinians who had been killed were harvested without permission, something the Institute of Forensic Medicine has done to others in Israel, for research purposes. But it's a long way from that to suspicion of trafficking in organs based only on the fact that in 1992 a dead Palestinian was found whose organs had been removed and his body sewn back up. And 17 years later a few Jews were arrested on suspicion of trafficking in human organs. That's not professional journalism, that's cheap and harmful journalism."

Ma'ariv reported that Boström wrote about allegations of organ harvesting in his 2001 book, Inshallah, which deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, noting that the book was financed by - among other bodies - the Swedish Foreign Ministry.

Haaretz claimed Avigdor Lieberman’s reaction was “no less outrageous or inciting.” Accusing him of overreaction editorial said: “Lieberman's impassioned and demagogic reaction has damaged Israel. It cheapened the Holocaust, blew the article out of proportion and caused an international uproar, pushing Sweden - which currently holds the presidency of the European Union - into an unnecessary confrontation with Israel.”

Swedish reaction

Media

The Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan criticized Aftonbladet for publishing for what it called, "an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory." Henrik Bredberg in Sydsvenskan said:

"Donald Boström publicised a variant of an anti-Semitic classic, the Jew who abducts children and steals their blood... The regrettable aspects just seem to grow and grow... the Israeli government rages and speaks of an article which 'shames Swedish democracy and the entire Swedish press'. Hardly. Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are part of democracy... Dare to believe in freedom of the press and open debate. Even when individual editors make stupid and tasteless decisions."

Bredberg also said:

"The Foreign Ministry has made it clear that Swedish freedom of the press applies. Good. Aftonbladet should not be given the unwarranted glory of martyrdom... Publication seems to represent an obvious lack of judgment. Unfortunately the lack of judgment did not stop there. The Swedish ambassador in Tel Aviv... attacked the article and thereby created the impression that having views about or intervening in individual publications should be a task for the government and its representatives."

Several political commentators pointed out that Sweden holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union at the time of this dispute. From an Israeli point of view, they say, discrediting Sweden as anti-semitic may be a way to prevent European criticism of Israel's Middle East policies.

Government

Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier, the Swedish ambassador to Israel, strongly condemned the article, stating: "The article in the Swedish newspaper is shocking and terrifying for us Swedish, as it influences the Israeli citizens... The embassy can not emphasize more its disgust." The Swedish foreign ministry and the Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt distanced themselves from the ambassador's statement and underlined that Sweden is a democracy with freedom of press, and that state representatives should not comment on individual articles in newspapers.

The Office of the Councellor of Justice, however, allegedly said that the government might go further in its criticism of the article without violating the Constitution, although that might be "inappropriate". The literal words by the Councellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz, were, according to the Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå: "It is not completely clear where the limits are. There is rather a lot one may do, according to the constitution, even if it were to be regarded as politically and legally inappropriate." Mårten Schultz, senior lecturer in jurisprudence, thought that the appeals to freedom of speech were, "attempts to use the rhetorically convincing status of the freedom of expression and press legislation in order to pursue a political agenda," and exhorted politicians and journalists to bring out and read the Freedom of the Press Act before they say what the government is not entitled to do.

Donald Boström and Aftonbladet Reaction

The author of the article, Donald Boström, spoke to Israel Radio on 19 August 2009 and said he was worried by the allegations he reported: "It concerns me, to the extent that I want it to be investigated, that's true. But whether it's true or not — I have no idea, I have no clue." Boström told CNN that the purpose of his article was to call for an investigation into the claims about stealing organs in the early 1990s. In an interview to the Arab media site Menassat, Bostrom said there was "no conclusive evidence" that organ harvesting was a systematic IDF practice, but that there is a "collection of allegations and suspicious circumstances". He was quoted as saying: "The point is that we know there is organ trafficking in Israel. And we also know that there are families claiming that their children's organs have been harvested. These two facts together point to the need for further investigation". Aftonbladet's editor, Jan Helin, said in response to the accusations: "I'm not a Nazi,I'm not anti-Semitic", and described himself as "a responsible editor who gave the green light to an article because it raises a few questions" but noted that , however, that Aftonbladet had no evidence that Israel practices organ harvesting. Aftonbladet published a follow-up to Bostrom's article, which defended his report and said that the organ-harvesting allegation "should be investigated, either to stop the relentless Palestinian rumors, or, if the rumors prove to be true, stop the trade in body parts". It called Bonnier's condemnation of the original article a "disgrace".

Bostrom told Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot: "I am not an anti-Semite, and that's what saddens me most in this whole story. I've been a journalist for 25 years and I've always written against racism and segregation". He said that he had not meant to imply that IDF soldiers were killing Palestinians for their organs, and that "Even the Palestinians don't say that. What they said is that when the Israeli army returned the bodies, 62 of them had been autopsied and 20 Palestinian families I spoke to were certain that their sons' organs had been harvested". He admitted he had no evidence of organ harvesting, since the bodies that were returned to the families were never examined to determine whether organs had been taken: "As far as I know no one examined the bodies. All I'm saying is that this needs to be investigated". He also said that "Sweden supports Israel as a country and a people, and I am a part of this. There are many people, I among them, who condemn the Israeli government's policy of occupation and violation of international law. Israel needs to withdraw to its borders and evacuate the settlements. If Israel does this, support for you will reappear".

Helle Klein from Aftonbladet responded to Israel's allegations that the article constitutes a blood libel as follows:

"The Israeli reactions to Aftonbladet's article about illegal trading in organs break records for exaggeration... The harsh tones from the Israeli side do not benefit the State of Israel... How should the Israeli government's behaviour be understood? It's about realpolitic... The Israeli government is one of the most extremely right-wing in the country's history and Foreign Minister Lieberman has had a cool reception in both the USA and the EU... Lieberman and Netanyahu need an external enemy to blame to unite domestic opinion... and Aftonbladet's article was a chance for the Israeli government to demonstrate its ability to act against alleged anti-Semitism."

Palestinian Reaction

Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority announced that it is establishing an inquiry commission to investigate the report claiming that IDF soldiers killed Palestinians in order to steal their organs. 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 is concluded "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. Abu Libdeh accused Israel of committing "grave human rights violations" but did not elaborate

Family and relatives

According to The Jerusalem Post, Jalal Ghanem, the brother of Bilal Ghanem whose photograph acompanied Bostrom's article, could not confirm the allegations made by the Aftonbladet. Jalal said that Bilal was evacuated by the IDF in a helicopter after being shot. His corpse was delivered to the family a few days later, and that there were stitches on Bilal's body that ran from the chest down to the bottom of the abdomen, and that his teeth were missing. Jalal also said the only time the family saw the Swedish photographer was at Bilal's funeral when he photographed the event. Their mother denied having told any foreign journalist that her son's organs had been stolen, but said that she does not rule out the possibility that Israel was harvesting organs of Palestinians. Another relative of the family, Ibrahim Ghanem, said the family never told the Swedish photographer that Israel had stolen organs from Bilal's body, and speculated that, "Maybe the journalist reached that conclusion on the basis of the stitches he saw on the body." He also said that the family does not know if the organs were removed because they never had their own autospy conducted.

US Reaction

Members of Congress

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, who is chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Members of the U.S. Congress urged European foreign ministers to denounce the article "We at the U.S. Helsinki Commission are dedicated to upholding human rights, particularly freedom of the press,"He added: "But with freedom of the press comes responsibility. And when major press outlets fail to meet their responsibility, and instead raise the specter of racism or anti-Semitism, then public officials are duty bound to speak out and condemn such blatant falsehoods. I commend Sweden's Ambassador to Israel for fulfilling this duty..

In a letter to the Swedish prime minister Congressmen Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Elton Gallegly (R-CA), members on the United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, wrote:. "Given the far-reaching implications for this article, which raises the unfortunate specter of similar blood libels and spurious charges that have been directed at Jews throughout the centuries, it is critical that your government unequivocally repudiate and reject the heinous allegations expressed in this article," "It is essential that this vitriolic article not be used by anti-Semites, anti-Israel advocates, and extremists as an excuse to commit acts of violence and terrorism against the Jewish community in Sweden or internationally,? the letter stated.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL’s national director said it lodged a complaint with the Swedish embassy in Washington. "Such unfounded rumors -- of Jews ‘poisoning the wells’ and carrying out acts of ritual murder—have been in the playbook of anti-Semites through the centuries, and continue to be believed in parts of the Arab world and elsewhere to this day. What could Mr. Boström and the editors who ushered this article into print have been thinking?” The letter stated: “This article represents nothing less than a base recycling of the medieval blood libel in which Jews were charged with killing Christian children for their alleged ritual use,"

Reactions

from Israel

Colette Avital former diplomat declared that Sweden should know that there is a difference between freedom of the press and freedom of opinion, certainly that of journalists, “freedom of expression is not unlimited, even in that beautiful northern country:” She provided an example: “About a year or so ago, an employee of the Swedish Migration Board, a government body handling immigrants, fired an employee for expressing "too much admiration for Israel" on his personal Web site. When the employee pressed charges of political discrimination, the employer said in court that running such a site was inappropriate for a senior official.” Colette Avital also criticized Israeli official and the media reactions- as they are “blown out of all reasonable proportion“.. Again, "the whole world is against us." Again, great "experts" on Swedish history accused the country of anti-Semitism. She also criticized Israeli Foreign Minister for voicing “ridiculous and ultimately harmful threats” that the Swedish minister's visit might be canceled, or that Swedish journalists will be refused entry into the country .

from Sweden

Posner-Korosi, leader of Sweden's Jewish community, in the letter to editor Jan Helin criticized Aftonbladet stating, that "Jewish Central Council in Sweden insist that the description resembles classic anti-Semitism - Jews who kidnap children to slaughter them and steal their blood. We look with amazement at how a Swedish newspaper again permits its pages to such hate speech and expect that you, as editor and publisher to reject anti-Semitic statements." She also criticized Israel's official response to Boström's article, stating in an interview with the Israeli army radio that the Israeli reaction and media outrage had provided the claims with much more exposure than they would have had otherwise, and blown the story out of proportion.

Anders Carlberg, the outgoing chairman of the Jewish Community in Gothenburg, Sweden, said Israel should have responded by publishing a rebuttal. "The stance of the community in general is that it's strange that this has become a government issue at all," Carlberg said. "It falls along the lines of Voltaire: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it."

Dror Feiler, chairman of Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and European Jews for a Just Peace has claimed that Israel has failed in presenting the autopsy reports and debunking the story, because its in Israels interest that this story lives on.

Mattias Gardell, expert on religious extremism and religious racism, writes that it it is well known that Israeli spokespersons and self-appointed friends of Israel routinley tries to obfuscate the issue by playing the antisemitism card.

Other Reactions

Iranian state newspaper Kayhan attempting to inflame Iranian public opinion in the wake of the controversy quoted Arab reporter Kusar Aslam, who claims to have been stationed in Gaza and the West Bank for 22 years, as saying: "Since the early 1970s the Israelis have snatched thousands of Palestinian bodies from hospitals in the territories and transferred them to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute", and that "My personal experience verifies the report published by (Donald) Boström". She said that the IDF kidnapped living Palestinians: "I personally witnessed Israeli soldiers and army vehicles snatching Palestinian bodies from emergency rooms. In other instances I saw soldiers follow Palestinians to cemeteries with the intent of stealing bodies before they were buried. This became so widespread that many people began to bury those murdered by IDF forces near their homes – in the yard or under a tree".

Syrian President Bashar Assad's spokeswoman, Bouthaina Shaaban, praised the article in Asharq Al-Awsat and said Israel "should be put on trial" for its "criminal acts". She wrote that "These criminal acts began in 1992 when Palestinians started to witness a sharp rise in the number of young Palestinians disappearing and of bodies of Palestinians killed by occupation forces being returned with organs like hearts, kidneys, livers and eyes missing" and that "investigations in New Jersey have proved that Rabbi Levy-Izhak (Isaac Rosenbaum) from Brooklyn and other rabbis have run for years Soprano-like networks to sell the kidneys of Palestinian martyrs in the US black market. Patients in the United States paid up to US$ 160,000 per kidney. In 2003, a medical conference showed that Israel is the only country in the world in which the medical profession does not condemn stealing human organs and does not act against those involved in such a crime".

Yossi Levy, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's spokesman said Shaaban's praise for the article should be a "warning light" for the Swedish government which "unfortunately has still not fully and courageously condemned the article." "It is not surprising that Damascus smelled the anti-Semitism emanating from the article, and quickly embraced it for its propaganda purposes," he said, adding that "poisonous anti-Semitism was no stranger to Syria's political philosophy." Levy cited another exampleof Assad wellcoming Pope John Paul II to Damascus in 2001. Then Assad said Israel and the Jews "tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Mohammed."

Legal complaints

The Swedish Chancellor of Justice, the sole attorney in enforcing violations to the conventions regarding freedom of the press (and freedom of expression) and the ombudsman on supervising government action, have received two written requests asking for investigation into the matter. The first to asked the chancellor to judge whether the article "really would include anything that brings it beyond what the freedom of press allows - for example constitute hate speech." The second asked him to open an errand of supervision regarding the Swedish ambassador's statements, and on a principal level explain what a ambassador officially can express on behalf of the high office and the country.

Nils Funcke, an Swedish journalist and author focusing on the Swedish constitution, is predicting that the Swedish ambassador to Israel will be criticized for her initiative. The question, he asks, is how sharp the criticism will be and how the government reacts. Although he has deep concerns regarding the quality of journalism in the article, he claims that it is "unthinkable" that the chancellor's office will take on legal actions regarding its contents.

Attorney Guy Ophir, who lives in Tel Aviv but have a address in New York, have filed a civil action suit to the New York State Supreme Court claiming $7.5 million dollars in damages. Aftonbladet, being a big Swedish tabloid it have a edition published and distributed there. The writ alleges that the article had ill intentions and where hateful against Jews, Israelis and the Israeli defence forces, to the Jerusalem Post he added that the article was "incendiary" and "something Goebbels could have written." Further, a group of Israeli Army reservists under the heading of Attorney Ophir Miller intends to file a suit for slander in New York. In an interview with Israel Radio he said that they also where investigating the possibilities of filing action in Sweden. "The State of Israel must pick up the gauntlet and silence the reporter and the newspaper with a huge lawsuit for injury to the state and its citizens," Mr Miller said according to The Bullitin. "Since the heads of state are busy with requests for apologies, we had no choice but to enlist to submit the lawsuit,"

Compromise efforts

In an interview with Haa'rez on August 31, the Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, said that he had recently met with Bildt, and that the two of them agreed that at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers later the following week, they would work to pass a resolution making it clear that the EU, under the Swedish presidency, strongly condemns anti-Semitism and will take action against any manifestation of it in Europe. Frattini said he was intending to demand that the meeting's summary statement explicitly condemn the article.

Later that day, the Swedish news agency TT quoted Carl Bildt as denying the Frattini's conclusion, and reported that the head of communications at the Swedish Foreign Ministry, Cecilia Julin, denied that Bildt and Frattini even had discussed the dispute, or a possible resolution at the Council of Ministers. Julin said: "From the Swedish side we have no plans to handle this question through the informal foreign ministers' meeting in Stockholm". According to her, Bildt suggested that Frattini's comment must have arisen through an "Italian misunderstanding". Reinfeldt also insisted that the Swedish government could not take a stand because of Sweden's freedom of the press. At a press conference in Stockholm, he said: "We cannot be asked by anyone to contravene the Swedish constitution, and this is something we will also not do within the European Union".

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office did not comment on Frattini's initiative. However, Palmor said: "Every initiative against anti-Semitism is welcome. But if the declaration is general and does not specifically relate to the article in Aftonbladet, it will not resolve anything". He added that "We did not ask for an apology, or for measures against the newspaper or the journalist. All we asked of Sweden and the Swedes is that they reject and decry the content of the report. And our position has not changed".

Aftermath of the Aftonbladet Israel Controversy

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has cancelled a planned trip to Israel as a result of Israeli anger at the Swedish government's refusal to condemn an article in a Swedish newspaper accusing IDF soldiers of killing Palestinians and harvesting their organs. Swedish officials told that the visit was in doubt but Israeli diplomatic officials said that the visit had definitely been cancelled. .

See also

• Snow White and The Madness of Truth
• Zahra's Blue Eyes
• Israel–Sweden relations
• Organ donation in Israel
• Organ harvesting / Organ theft
• Blood libel against Jews
• Race card

External links

Video

• Organ trade scandal: "Palestinians are compulsive liars" published in Russia Today - including video with discussion between Dr. Mordachai Kedar and Daniel Boström