Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Freelance Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom has reportedly demanded an international war crimes investigation into claims that Israeli soldiers harvest organs of dead Palestinians.
Six weeks after he caused a political storm over his article "Our sons plundered for their organs", the veteran photojournalist called for an investigation and urged the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other competent tribunals to undertake a thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations that Israelis have unlawfully removed organs from Palestinians.
Bostrom garnered international attention on August 17, after his article was published in Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest circulation daily.
The article suggests that the Israeli army kidnapped and killed young Palestinians to harvest their organs. It shed light on the case of Bilal Ahmed Ghanem, a 19-year-old Palestinian man, who was shot dead in 1992 by Israeli forces in the West Bank village of Imatin.
Bostrom said Ghanem's body was abducted following the shooting and was returned at midnight — during an imposed curfew — several days later by the Israeli military with a cut from the stomach to the neck that had been stitched up.
The Swedish argued that an autopsy could have been necessary only if the cause of death was not apparent, while in this case it was clear that Bilal was shot dead.
Following the incident, at least 20 Palestinian families told Bostrom that they suspected the Israeli military had taken the organs of their sons after they had been killed by Israeli forces and their bodies had been taken away.
