Organ Harvesting - Part 1
It was admitted on tape. Confirmed by the military. Acknowledged by the government itself.
The National Center of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir. Dr Yehuda Hiss. A tape recorded in 2000. An admission that changed what was deniable. All named. All on the public record.
Abu Kabir · National Center of Forensic Medicine · Tel Aviv · 1990s02 / 07
The largest forensic organ bank in Israel. At its centre: a practice its own director later admitted.
The National Center of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv was in the 1990s one of the most active forensic institutions in the country.
Its director at the time was Dr Yehuda Hiss. He ran the institute for decades. In 2000 American academic Nancy Scheper-Hughes conducted a documented interview with him.
What he said on tape changed what was deniable.
Source: BBC News August 20 2009, "Israel harvested organs without permission" · Haaretz coverage 2009
Year 2000 · Dr Yehuda Hiss · Nancy Scheper-Hughes · On tape03 / 07
Dr Yehuda Hiss admitted on tape that organs including corneas, skin, bones and heart valves were taken without family consent.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, co-founder of Organs Watch at UC Berkeley, conducted a taped interview with Dr Yehuda Hiss in 2000.
In it he admitted that organs were removed from bodies at the Abu Kabir institute without family permission. The tape became the basis of a 2009 documentary and multiple investigations.
The Israeli military confirmed the practices described. BBC News, August 20 2009.
Source: BBC News August 20 2009 · Channel 4 documentary cited by BBC · Nancy Scheper-Hughes, UC Berkeley Organs Watch, on record
Israeli military · Confirmed · Said it stopped in the 1990s04 / 07
The Israeli military confirmed the practice. It said it ended in the 1990s. No one was charged.
Following the 2009 investigations, Israeli military sources confirmed that organs had been harvested from bodies at Abu Kabir without family consent, and that the practice had been stopped.
No criminal charges were filed against Dr Hiss or any other individual. The 2022 Israeli government committee acknowledged the issue and called for reforms, not prosecutions.
Source: BBC News August 20 2009 · 2022 Israeli government committee, Haaretz reporting
Numbers Cemetery · 2019 Israeli Supreme Court ruling05 / 07
Numbers. Not names. Palestinian bodies held in Israeli-controlled burial grounds. The Supreme Court ruled on access in 2019.
Israel holds the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians in the Numbers Cemetery, where graves are marked with numbers rather than names.
In 2019 the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on a petition regarding access to these remains. The court did not order full return of all bodies. Families cannot access them freely.
The 2021 Knesset law gave legal framework for continuing to hold bodies of those Israel designates as terrorists.
Source: Israeli Supreme Court ruling 2019, Numbers Cemetery · Adalah Legal Center documentation · 2021 Knesset law on holding bodies
2021 · Knesset · Law allowing bodies to be held06 / 07
In 2021 the Knesset passed a law allowing Palestinian bodies to be held indefinitely as bargaining chips.
In 2021 the Israeli Knesset passed legislation formally permitting the state to hold the bodies of Palestinians it designates as terrorists indefinitely, to be used as leverage in negotiations.
The law codified a practice already ongoing. Families were given no access to the bodies. No independent body was permitted to inspect them.
Source: Adalah Legal Center, 2021 Knesset law documentation · Human Rights Watch · Haaretz 2021
The question. Not a claim.07 / 07
Admitted on tape. Confirmed by the military. Acknowledged by the government in 2022. No prosecutions. If the state confirmed it happened and called only for reforms, what accountability looks like is the question.
Tomorrow: since October 2023. What Euro-Med documented. What Gaza medical professionals found on returned bodies. What has been called for. What has not been permitted.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
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