Ghanem Family: We Never Said Son's Organs Were Stolen

Media Backspin/Commentary
25 August 09

This Swedish blood libel was further undermined when the family of Bilal Ahmed Ghanem said they never told any reporter that their son was missing organs.

Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh tracked down the family:

The mother denied that she had told any foreign journalist that her son's organs had been stolen.

However, she said that now she does not rule out the possibility that Israel was harvesting organs of Palestinians . . . .

Jalal said that he and other villagers recall that a Swedish photographer was in the village during the funeral and that he managed to take a number of pictures of the body before the funeral. "That was the only time we saw this photographer," he recounted.

Ibrahim Ghanem, a relative of Bilal, said that the family never told the Swedish photographer that Israel had stolen organs from the dead man's body.

"Maybe the journalist reached that conclusion on the basis of the stitches he saw on the body," he said. "But as far as the family is concerned, we don't know if organs were removed from the body because we never performed our own autopsy. All we know is that Bilal's teeth were missing."

So much for Bostrom's previous excuse, which lame in its own right:

"I am just referring to what other people are telling me.

Aftonbladet editor Jan Helin also defended the article:

"The article poses a question – why has this body been autopsied when the cause of death is obvious? There I think Israeli authorities owe us an answer."

Since Aftonbladet was raising the accusations, the burden of proof is on the newspaper. Israel's not obligated to prove that something didn't happen, whether the accusations deal with body snatching, blowing up the World Trade Center, killing Arafat, poisoning the wells, tsunamis, etc. Stay tuned for an Aftonbladet exclusive on the Zionist tooth fairy taking Bilal Ghanem's teeth.