Channel 2 TV reported that in the 1990s, specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.

Dr. Ahmad Tibi, deputy speaker of the Knesset, head of the United Arab Bloc for Change, stated that the Abu Kabeer forensic center removed in the 90’s patches of skin and corneas from every corpse that was transferred to it in order to implant them in wounded soldiers.

Dr. Tibi added that the body parts were removed from Palestinians and Israelis as well.

…

The Israeli TV published an audio recording of the head of the forensic center saying that corneas were removed from Palestinian and Israeli corpses, the Maan News Agency reported.

The report stated that Professor Nancy Shepherded Yoz, from Britain, met ten years ago with the director of Abu Kabeer Forensic center and recorded his statements.

She told the Israeli TV that “It is true that the parts were taken from deceased Palestinians and Israelis, but the matter of fact is that the parts were taken without family approval, this is immoral, removing skin from a body that belongs to a Palestinian in order to give it to a wounded Israeli soldier, an enemy, is immoral”.

…

“But the fact is that this new report incriminates Abu Kabeer center”, he added, “It incriminates the Israeli army”.

Dr. Tibi further stated that eight years ago, and after similar circumstances emerged, he filed a letter to the Health Minister but the minister never denied or confirmed the reports.

Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Chancellor’s Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley, the founder of Organ Watch, and the author of scholarly books and articles on organ trafficking. She is the pundit mainstream media call upon when they need expert commentary on the topic.5

While Scheper-Hughes emphasizes that traffickers and procurers come from numerous nations and ethnicities, including Americans and Arabs, she is unflinchingly honest in speaking about the Israeli connection:

“Israel is at the top,” she states. “It has tentacles reaching out worldwide.”6

In a lecture last year sponsored by New York’s PBS 13 Forum, Scheper-Hughes explained that Israeli organ traffickers, “had and still have a pyramid system at work that’s awesome…they have brokers everywhere, bank accounts everywhere; they’ve got recruiters, they’ve got translators, they’ve got travel agents who set up the visas.”

Lest this sound simply like a successful international concern, it’s important to understand the nature of such a business.

As Scheper-Hughes describes it, organ trafficking consists of “paying the poor and the hungry to slowly dismantle their bodies.”

….

Organ sales have been illegal in most countries for years. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which covers prevention, enforcement and sanctions in trafficking of humans, includes in its definition of human exploitation the extraction of organs for profit.7 Israel finally passed legislation against organ trafficking in 2008.8, 9

In her Forum 13 lecture Scheper-Hughes discussed the two motivations of Israeli traffickers. One was greed, she said. The other was somewhat chilling: “Revenge, restitution—reparation for the Holocaust.”

She described speaking with Israeli brokers who told her “it’s kind of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We’re going to get every single kidney and liver and heart that we can. The world owes it to us.’”

Scheper-Hughes says that she “even heard doctors saying that.”

For many years Israelis in need of an internal organ have gone on what experts call “transplant tourism”—traveling to other nations to obtain internal organs. Sometimes body parts are obtained from those freshly dead; more often from the desperately needy. While affluent people from numerous countries and ethnicities engage in this practice, Israel is unique in several significant ways.

First, Israelis engage in this at an extraordinarily high rate. According to a 2001 BBC report, Israelis buy more kidneys per capita than any other population.

Second, Israelis have the lowest donor rate in the world—one-fifth that of Europe, according to BBC. This is in part because there has been a widespread impression that Jewish religious law prohibits transplants as a “desecration of the body.”10 The Israeli news service Ynet reports, “the percentage of organs donated among Jews is the lowest of all the ethnic groups.”11

Third, the Israeli government has enabled the practice. For many years the Israeli health system subsidized its citizens’ “transplant holidays,” reimbursing Israelis $80,000 for medical operations abroad. Much of the remaining costs could often be obtained from government-subsidized12 Israeli insurance plans.13 In addition, Israel’s Ministry of Defense was directly involved.

A Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad has instructed three of his ministers to probe all the facts surrounding the alleged organ theft, said Hassan Abu Libdeh, secretary-general of the Palestinian government in the West Bank.

He named the three men as Foreign Minister Riad Malki, Interior Minister Said Abu Ali and Health Minister Fathi Abu Mughli.

“All options are open and our position will be sharp if it’s proven that Israeli occupation has been stealing the organs of Palestinian martyrs,” Abu Libdeh said. “In the wake of the results reached by this commission, the Palestinian Authority will determine its stance before moving in the international and legal arenas.”

A Palestinian minister on Tuesday accused Israel of trafficking the organs of Palestinians, after a similar claim by a Swedish newspaper triggered a diplomatic row.

Israel “is hiding the bodies of Palestinian martyrs to remove the proof of their crimes, including organ trafficking,” prisoner affairs minister Issa Qaraqae said.

He spoke at a rally held in the West Bank city of Nablus to demand the return to their families of bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military.

Arab-Israeli MP Mohammed Barakei challenged Israel to disprove the claim.

“It is our right to ask ourselves what Israel’s reasons are for keeping the bodies of martyrs,” he said at the demonstration marking the “national day for the restitution of martyrs’ bodies” decreed by the Palestinian government.

“Have the bodies been mutilated? My answer is yes, barring proof to the contrary. Have their organs been stolen? My answer is yes, barring proof to the contrary,” Barakei said.

Palestinian NGOs say Israel is holding the bodies of about 275 Palestinians.

There is ample evidence that trade in organs has been done in Israel, at least for the purposes of research and teaching. That was clearly revealed by the affair of Prof. Yehudah Hiss of the pathological institute at Abu-Kebir, who robbed organs from bodies even of IDF soldiers. If someone takes organs from Jews surely it is not beyond imagining that they might do the same with the bodies of Palestinians.

Given the facts that are known, there must be at least a very strong suspicion that Hiss removed organs without authorization from some Palestinians he autopsied. Both this issue, and the army’s possible role in supplying him with corpses, needs investigation.

Abu Kabir, mentioned in the article as the place to which the Palestinian casualty was taken, is the same institute whose chief, Dr. Hiss was found to operate the pathological institute against regulations and conventions; Stealing organs without the deceased’s families knowing and consent, replacing them with toilet paper rolls, broom sticks and plastic hoses ( source ). A formal Israeli investigation committee found these allegations true and recommended that a formal complaint be lodged with the police ( source )

How can the Israeli government claim the article as illegitimate, while an Israeli appointed investigation committee found similar allegations true? (‘The Segelson Committee’) ( source ) Which “Accuses Hiss of violating both laws and Health Ministry regulations, including the removing of many organs from corpses – and even preserving them for years – without the knowledge of the families of the dead”… “and the concept of honoring the dead and their families” by transferring many of the organs to research institutes, sometimes for money, and by replacing them with other objects in the bodies.” ( source [see item #7] ) ” Following a year-long investigation, the police department’s National
Fraud Unit has concluded that Chief Pathologist Prof. Yehuda Hiss
violated the Anatomy and Pathology Law by selling the body parts of
corpses without prior written permission from the deceased.” (DAN IZENBERG; Jerusalem Post; Nov 15, 2002 , quoted from source )

Hiss was granted immunity from prosecution by the Attorney general, Elyakim Rubinstein.

The same Dr. Hiss, same Abu-Kabir, same allegations, same time frame. Allegations which were investigated and found true in regards to a soldiers body. The fact that Hiss was given immunity by the government is highly suspicious. Why would he be given immunity after concluding he has acted in such obvious criminality? Maybe because he was working under orders from higher above? Perhaps because a public trial would expose other instances of this crime, instances involving not soldiers, but palestinians? The Segelson Committee’s findings remains closed to the public. Perhaps in 60 years we will know the definite conclusions.