Sunday 23 August 2009

Swedish PM: No apology to Israel

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Press TV Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:36:46 GMT



Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt
The Swedish prime minister says his country will not apologize for an article in a Swedish newspaper accusing Israel of killing Palestinians to plunder their organs.

"No one can demand that the Swedish government violates its own constitution. Freedom of speech is an indispensable part of Swedish society," Fredrik Reinfeldt was quoted as telling the Swedish news agency TT on Saturday.

Swedish top diplomat has also ruled out any plan to apologize to Israel.

"The government does not review individual articles or what ispublished in the press. That is not our task," Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told Swedish radio news.

In an article titled "They plunder the organs of our sons", the daily Aftonbladet said Israeli soldiers abduct young Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and return their bodies to their families after removing their organs.

"Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors," relatives of Khalid a Palestinian man from Nablus told Donald Bostrom who authored the report, which was published on Aug. 17.

Bostrom has told Press TV that an international war crimes investigation awaits Israel over its soldiers' harvest of organs from dead Palestinians.

The freelance journalist underscored that the International Court of Justice -- the principal judicial body of the United Nations -- will likely investigate the report.



Bostrom tells Press TV of Israel organ scenario

Press TV


Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:26:27 GMT


Swedish freelance journalist Donald Bostrom


Bilal Ahmed Ghanem's body was abducted by Israeli soldiers and returned several days later with a cut from the stomach to the neck that that had been stitched up.
Freelance journalist Donald Bostrom tells Press TV that an international war crimes investigation awaits Israel over its soldiers' harvest of organs from dead Palestinians.

He underscored that the International Court of Justice -- the principal judicial body of the United Nations -- will likely investigate the report.

Donald Bostrom said he was informed of the atrocities while he was working on a book in the West Bank. He was later approached by UN employees, expressing concern over the claims that Israeli troopers snatched Palestinian youths from their villages in the middle of the night and later killed them in order to trade in their organs.

The reporter went on to note that Bilal Ahmed Ghanem, a 19-year-old Palestinian man, was shot dead in 1992 by Israeli forces in the West Bank village of Imatin. Ghanem's body was then abducted and returned several days later by the Israeli military with a cut from the stomach to the neck that had been stitched up.

The Israeli organ harvest report printed in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has meanwhile enraged Israeli officials, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying Thursday that Stockholm's refusal to take a stand reminded him of Swedish behavior during World War II.

"It is a shame that the Swedish Foreign Ministry does not get involved when speaking about blood libels against Jews, something that is reminiscent of Sweden's position during World War II when it also did not intervene," Lieberman said in a sharply worded statement.

Meanwhile, Aftonbladet editor Jan Helin has said that Bostrom's article poses a question - why the bodies have been autopsied when the cause of death is obvious? There I think Israeli authorities owe us an answer, he said.

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