By Dave Bender, algemeiner.com
Time Magazine retracted a report on Sunday which claimed the Israeli army harvested dead Palestinians’ internal organs after a watchdog group accused the publication of propagating a “blood libel.”
In a scathing critique, Honest Reporting said, “Time Magazine should be ashamed for giving new life to a horrendous blood libel accusing the IDF of stealing Palestinian organs.”
Honest Reporting, noted a video about the IDF appearing in an August 23rd article about Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, in which the narrator said that the “IDF is not without controversy”, then claimed: “….in 2009 a Swedish report came out exposing some Israeli troops of selling organs of Palestinians who died in their custody.”
A later version of the video removed the statement and added a correction at the end saying, “The original version of this video cited a contested allegation in a 2009 Swedish newspaper as fact. The allegation has been removed from the video.”
The unfounded claim originally surfaced in 2009 when it was published by Swedish reporter Donald Boström in local tabloid Aftonbladet. The paper and the report were widely denounced as anti-Semitic.
“The reference is to a completely made up tabloid style article in an obscure Swedish paper, that even the author admitted was not based on any evidence,” the watchdog group said.
In an email, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Algemeiner that, “It seems that when it comes to Israel, many journalists have no collective memory of the facts – only of the (blood) libels.”
While Cooper suggested that, it “would be nice if someone was held accountable,” he cautioned that it was unlikely, and “…don’t hold your breath.”
The fact that this is a medical near-impossibility, due to cell necrosis, and a host of other complications, does not stop anti-Semites from regularly trotting out the claim in order to demonize the Jewish state.
“Repeating the story of a Swedish reporter who had no supporting evidence for this claim demonstrates the reporter’s lack of knowledge of organ transplants,” according to Judith Reishtein, a registered critical care nurse who worked with organ donors in Pennsylvania and who taught nursing at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
“There are specific protocols that must be followed to ensure that harvested organs are viable at the time they are removed from a donor, and that they remain viable until being transplanted into a recipient,” Reishtein told The Algemeiner on Sunday.
“The organs cannot pose an infection hazard to the recipient, who must take heavy doses of immune-suppressant drugs. The idea that Israeli soldiers can do all these things is ludicrous,” she stressed.
VIDEO: Time Magazine’s reedited version
The video is still on youtube unedited which proves that the intent of those who made it (and Time magazine itself) is to smear Isreal. They know that the original video is still there with it lie and the damage is still being done………………………
can’t some people who speicalize in media prove that this was done, and then people should circulate it???? worth the effort.
Calling the allegation “contested” is not good enough. Pressure should continue until they change it to an unequivocal “false”.
Are you reading this?
Pity, they used to be a respected magazine way back when. The fact that they published an article based on the usual hypocrisy and nonsense put out by known terrorists and obviously not based on any actual research puts them out of the running for basic decency. They knew it was not true then and they also knew it would boost sales. But some people will do anything for a buck. The token retraction- after the damage is done and the surge in sales dollars- is what one calls ‘too little and too late’.
The report doesn’t have to be supported by anything just enough to hate the Jew they will report it even if they take it off later they’re ready put it out there they couldn’t care less it’s already in the minds of all the sickos