06 September, 2009

If a kidney falls in the woods, but no one hears it...

About a week ago, a Swedish tabloid published a story that IDF soldiers were harvesting organs from Palestinians that they had killed and selling them to Israeli Jews on the black market. It was all over the Israeli press. The Israeli government condemned the article:

"This is an anti-Semitic blood libel against the Jewish people and the Jewish state. The Swedish government cannot remain apathetic," said Israel's Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz.

"We know the origins of these claims. In medieval times, there were claims that the Jews use the blood of Christians to bake their Matzas for Passover. The modern version now is that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers use organs of Palestinians to make money."

Three days ago, CNN publishes a story interviewing an Israeli man who illegally sold his kidney in the US for $20,000. American authorities arrested a Hasidic Jew accused of illegally trafficking kidneys to recipients in Israel and the US for the past decade.
"...law enforcement sources said Rosenbaum had been the centerpiece of a kidney-for-sale operation, which he called "United Lifeline," that operated extensively for nearly a decade.

The donors and patients in this network were linked by one common theme -- they were Jewish. Investigators say the donors usually came from Eastern Europe, were mostly poor and willing to sell their kidneys to U.S. and Israeli patients."
The twist, related to the first article, is this:
"Prosecutors in the West Bank (sic) town of Nazareth sent nine Israelis to jail in 2007 after uncovering a black-market ring that was buying and selling organs.

Gilad Ehrlick, the assistant district attorney for Israel's Northern District, said he was shocked by the case. Secretly recorded conversations showed that Arab and Russian newspapers were targeting low-income Israelis and Palestinians with ads saying there would be payment in exchange for providing a kidney."
Interestingly, nothing in the CNN article made the Israeli press.