Sweden's foreign minister cancels Israel visit

[bemildred]

JERUSALEM — Sweden's foreign minister abruptly called off a visit to Israel this week, an Israeli spokesman said Sunday, amid a feud over a Swedish newspaper article and a growing gulf between Israel and the international community over West Bank settlement construction.

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has called off a trip to Israel planned for this Friday, according to Yigal Palmor, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry. Palmor, who would not comment on a possible reason for the move, said Sweden informed Israel's embassy in Stockholm of the decision on Friday.

The Swedish decision came the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew international condemnation for deciding to approve hundreds of new apartments in West Bank settlements in defiance of U.S., European and Palestinian calls for a total settlement freeze. Sweden holds the rotating European Union presidency.

But the cancellation also followed a diplomatic feud between Israel and Sweden over an unsubstantiated article in a Swedish tabloid that accused Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs from dead Palestinians and suggested a connection with an international organ trafficking ring run by Jews. Israeli officials condemned the article as anti-Semitic and reminiscent of medieval blood libels against Jews.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iSYpeLo9EP1NAwa_SduklhjH4znAD9AHQBO01

[bemildred]

1. Sweden denies nixing trip over IDF story

An instructive example of spin.

Swedish officials on Sunday denied that Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt canceled a planned trip to Israel this Friday because of Israeli anger at his government's refusal to condemn an article in a Swedish newspaper accusing IDF soldiers of killing Palestinians and harvesting their organs.

While Swedish officials told The Jerusalem Post late last week that the visit was in doubt, Israeli diplomatic officials said Saturday night that the visit had definitely been canceled.

Anna Brodin, political officer at the Swedish consulate in Jerusalem, said on Sunday that Bildt has put off his visit in the hope Mideast peacemaking would progress during the UN General Assembly later this month.

"It has been delayed until after the General Assembly in New York, when there might be more substance in the process," Brodin said.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804505720&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[rpannier]

2. It's an interesting story to follow

So far the story seems to rely on what the reporter was told and no other evidence -- even something that would pass for tangible evidence.
So I can understand why the Israeli gov't is unhappy.
But, the Swedish govt is correct. They have to respect press freedoms.

[provis99]

3. I wouldn't be surprised they kill Palestinians for their organs

Organ selling is legal in Israel, as long as the organs sold are those of non-Jews. There's a brisk trade for middlemen in Israel who arrange for trips for sick Israeli Jews to travel to China or India to buy the organs of poor people.

CNN already covered the Chinese story.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/02/organ.brokers/index.html

Israeli organ harvesting from non-Jews is old news, too.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/7726/

[Kurska]

4. Every country has a black market for organs, you can dig up similiar stories about any nation.

But it is of course only the IDF that is accused of "harvesting" organs in a war, as if such a act was even possible (Only a idiot who knows nothing of organ transplants believes it could be which is surprisingly common apparently).