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Arab League official spreads libel: Israel steals organs from the bodies of killed Palestinian "Martyrs"

Headline: “Abu Ali: Israel insists on holding the Martyrs’ bodies and stealing their organs”
     “Aide to the Secretary-General of Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Affairs in the Arab League Sa’id Abu Ali said that ‘Israel still insists on holding the Martyrs’ (Shahids’) bodies and stealing organs from them’… He added that according to international reports, more than one case has been discovered in which clear violations of the dignity of the bodies have been carried out, and parts of them – particularly corneas, skin, and some of the major organs in the human body – have been harvested and stolen, and they are preserved in case there is a need to conduct experiments or for racist usages that desecrate the dignity of man (sic., the claim of organ theft is unfounded; see note below –Ed.). He also noted that organs were even stolen from the bodies of those who were buried in the [numbered] cemeteries (i.e., Israeli cemeteries for terrorists and enemy soldiers).”

There is one case of organ theft in Israel’s history. In 2001, an Israeli investigative journalist exposed that from the years 1988 to 2000, doctors under chief pathologist Yehuda Hiss at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine at times took body parts without permission from relatives, for research and transplants of skin and corneas. Most body parts were taken from Israeli Jews, but the theft also included body parts from Israeli Arabs, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian terrorists. There has been no documented case since then.

The Cemeteries for Enemy Casualties are two burial sites maintained by the Israeli army for burying the bodies of enemy soldiers as well as terrorists. They are fenced and well-marked. Graves have markers instead of gravestones. Burial is temporary, on the assumption that the bodies will eventually be returned to their countries of origin. No ceremony is held. The bodies are buried in numbered caskets after their identities are documented.

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