"On Monday 6th of May it was widely reported in the Turkish press that four Israelis were arrested for their part in an illegal organ trafficking operation."
During raids that took place across the country, multiple properties were searched and Turkish police seized large sums of cash along with numerous fake passports and what was described as “digital materials”. Those arrested face charges related to organ trafficking as well as people smuggling and forgery.
Illegally harvesting human organs and trafficking them across national borders for the benefit of what is presumably a group of high paying clients is a pretty grim business. And initially this case may be waved away as a one off, something of little or no interest to British audiences – and that’s exactly how it was treated by the British media – as I didn’t see this case reported by any mainstream British source.
But I also didn’t see this case reported on by any US outlet either. It’s almost as if this story wasn’t newsworthy – or maybe it was being deliberately ignored, or maybe even covered up. But why would the press do that? Well, it could be all about timing, because this story comes hot on the heels of recent reports of organ harvesting in Gaza.
At the end of last year, a report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, an NGO working in Gaza, raised the alarm about organ theft from Palestinian bodies that had been collected and removed by Israeli forces during the on-going conflict.
This was reported on by Euronews, which stated the following, and I quote:
“The NGO claimed it has documented Israeli forces confiscating dozens of dead bodies from the al-Shifa and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza, alongside others in the south.”
“Medical professionals reportedly found vital organs, such as livers, kidneys and hearts, alongside cochleas and corneas, were missing, which the Euro-Med Monitor called ‘evidence’ of potential organ theft.”
“They also claimed Israel exhumed and confiscated corpses from a mass grave that was dug more than 10 days ago in a courtyard at al-Shifa.”
End quote. But this report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is not a one off, in fact, you only have to do a little digging to find similar stories that stretch back over decades.
In August 2009 an article in Aftonbladet, one of Sweden’s largest daily newspapers, reported that Israeli troops were harvesting organs from Palestinians who had died in their custody. The mere reporting of this story caused a furious response from the Israeli government – leading to Israeli officials demanding an explanation from the Swedish government.
The Israeli government and several US representatives went on to condemn the article as “baseless and incendiary” and accusations of antisemitism and blood libel against Jews soon followed. The Swedish government was then put under pressure to denounce the article – which thankfully, it didn’t.
However, the article in Aftonbladet wasn’t written in a vacuum, in fact it came hot on the heels of another similar article. Earlier in that same year the Sydney Morning Herald ran the following headline, and I quote:
“Organ trafficking: Rabbis arrested over massive crime ring.”
End quote. The article revealed that US authorities had arrested 44 elected officials and rabbis in New Jersey in a huge “anti-corruption” campaign. Those arrested were charged with extortion, bribery, money laundering and human organ trafficking.
“Although New Jersey is more famous for a history of Italian Mafia families, it was Jewish clergy who allegedly played a central role in the crime network.”
“Authorities raided several synagogues and among those arrested was the chief rabbi of Syrian Jews in the United States.”
“One rabbi, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, was charged with conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for transplant.”
“Marra said Rosenbaum’s ‘business’ was to entice vulnerable people to give up a kidney for $US10,000 ($A12,300), which he would turn around and sell for 160,000 dollars.”
“He’d allegedly been peddling kidneys for a decade.”
End quote. But don’t worry the FBI were quick to issue a statement telling the public the following, and I quote:
The article stated, and I quote:
“This case is not about politics, certainly not about religion. It is about crime. It is about criminals who use politics and religion.”
End quote. However, despite that assertion, it is highly likely that there was an ethnic aspect to this case, and that the organs harvested and trafficked ended up – one way or another – in Israel.
Whether that was via direct export, or because the organs were purchased by an Israeli who had them transplanted in America before heading home.
And if you think that’s the end of this, you are very wrong!
2009 wasn’t a good year for Israeli organ harvesters, and it was rounded off by an article published by CNN detailing the Israeli state’s complicity in this ghoulish practice, the article stated the following, and I quote:
“Israel harvested organs from bodies in the 1990s without permission of family members, the former head of a state-run forensic laboratory said in a newly released interview.”
“Government officials acknowledge that the practice happened, but emphasise that it ended years ago.”
“In an interview in 2000, which was released to an Israeli TV channel and broadcast over the weekend, Dr. Yehuda Hiss — who was once head of the Abu Kabir forensic institute — discussed the practice.”
“‘We started to harvest corneas for various hospitals in Israel,’ Hiss said in the interview on Israel’s Channel 2 network.”
“‘Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the families,’ he said.”
“Hiss said the harvesting also included heart valves, skin and bones.”
End quote. Moving into 2010, an article in the Guardian published in April of that year yielded further information about the size and scope of Israeli organ harvesting operations, and I quote:
“Israel has charged five of its citizens, including a retired army general, with operating a nationwide organ trafficking ring that ensnared dozens of potential victims. The charges include human trafficking for the purpose of organ harvesting and money laundering.”
End quote. Fast forward to 2013 and the truly global nature of this trade began to become clear.
As the Times of Israel reported on another case of Israeli organ trafficking, this time in Italy, they published the following, and I quote:
“Italian border authorities arrested 77-year-old Israeli citizen Gedaliah Taub on Friday on suspicion of international human organ trafficking. Taub was detained at the Rome airport after officials determined his passport was forged.”
End quote. Later that same year, Haaretz, an Israeli news source, reported on a similar story, but this time the crimes took place in South America.
An Israeli organ trafficking ring was uncovered in Costa Rica. Costa Rican police stated that they learnt that doctors were performing kidney transplants to sell to patients in Israel. In some cases, Costa Ricans were being trafficked to Israel in order to have the surgery done in Israeli medical facilities.
Costa Rican authorities raided a number of medical labouratories and clinics suspected of involvement in the organ harvesting ring. Costa Rican Attorney General Jorge Chavarria said that two people arrested in the raids were just the “tip of the iceberg” of the organ trafficking network. One of those arrested was in touch with Israeli doctors and had been testing the suitability of the local residents who were to be trafficked so that their organs could be harvested in Israel.
Then in 2018 a similar story was reported on by the German website Deutsche Welle – this time the arrest of an Israeli organ trafficker took place in Cyprus. But the network he was involved in was far larger and had a much greater reach than those mentioned previously. Deutsche Welle wrote the following, and I quote:
“Police in Cyprus have arrested an Israeli man described as the ringleader of a world-wide organ trafficking network that operated out of the tiny Balkan country of Kosovo several years ago.”
“Moshe Harel is accused of luring donors from eastern Europe, Turkey and the former Soviet Union to Kosovo, promising to pay them €12,000 ($14,500) for a kidney. He then allegedly charged people (most of them Israelis) in need of a kidney as much as €100,000 for the implant.”
End quote. The article reports that Moshe Harel preyed upon poor people in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Turkey and Russia.
The more you dig, the more it becomes clear that organ harvesting is a truly global trade and during the research for this piece, I uncovered numerous other reports of organ trafficking from all over the world – but the common thread between them all is Israeli involvement.
But what makes this even more eye-opening is how long this has been going on, with reports of such criminality stretching back for decades. And whilst it isn’t often discussed in the West in Israel the illegal trade appears to be an open secret, being the subject of books and documentaries.
In fact, an Israeli doctor named Meira Weiss published a book in 2014 titled “Over Their Dead Bodies” which detailed that between 1996 and 2002 organs were illegally harvested from dead Palestinians and then used for both transplants and for medical research at Israeli universities. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate an English translation of the book.
But the evidence presented in Meira Weiss’s book was corroborated by an Israeli television investigation that was screened the same year and included confessions from high-ranking Israeli officials that skin was taken from the bodies of dead Palestinians and African workers to treat Israelis, such as soldiers with burn injuries.
In this documentary, the director of the Israeli Skin Bank revealed the country’s reserve of “human skin” reached 17 square meters — a huge number relative to Israel’s population.
The evidence of these organ trafficking networks can be found all over the world, and it is both clear and overwhelming! And I am sure that if you spent a few moments with your favourite internet search engine you too could find similar reports of organ trafficking that involves Israelis.
And this is all summed up perfectly by Human Trafficking Search – a site set up to combat human trafficking and modern slavery. On the issue of organ harvesting, they said the following, and I quote:
“Israel Became Hub in International Organ Trade Over Past Decade”
End quote. From the evidence presented, it appears that human organ trafficking forms a world-wide spider’s web of connections – but at the centre of that web is Israel. And despite all the cases discussed taking place in many different countries which span multiple continents – the common denominator in them all is Israeli involvement.
But what is even more alarming, is that these horrific practices are not confined to back street clinics operated by criminal gangs.
They take place in Israel’s state-run hospitals and involve Israeli government officials, high ranking military officers and even religious leaders. And whilst this all seems to be an openly discussed fact in Israel, for some reason, on the rare occasions when Western news outlets talk do about the issue, the term “anti-semitism” is deployed in order to stifle discussion.
But that leaves one question unanswered: Why is Israel the centre of this illegal human trafficking and organ harvesting conspiracy?
Well after some research, it appears that a lot of this stems from Jewish religious or spiritual beliefs, which many cite as a reason as to why Israeli Jews do not sign up as organ donors, with some sources reporting as little as just 12 per cent of the Israeli population are registered as organ donors. This has left Israel, in terms of human organs, as the country that donates the least, but at the same time having an unnaturally high demand for organs per capita.
However, it does seem strange that whilst such religious folk will not donate their own organs, they are at the same time happy to be involved in the highly unethical and morally abhorrent practice of trafficking both people and human organs.
And that fact shines a light on another aspect of these crimes – whilst those purchasing these organs are wealthy Israeli jews, the victims of this trade all appear to be gentiles, many of whom give up their organs due to poverty, desperation or even have them forcibly removed against their own will.
But of course, none of this is considered newsworthy in Britain! And Israel continues to enjoy the unequivocal support of the British government.
Mark Collett
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