Ha’aretz interviewed Donald Bostrom, who can’t understand why Israelis didn’t take seriously his article blaming the IDF for killing Palestinians for their organs, and immediately launch an investigation to make sure that it wasn’t true.
But he’s not sorry for any of it, really.
Are you sorry about anything?
“I’m sorry there are so many lies about me. Like for example that they say I wrote that the soldiers hunted for youths so as to take their organs. It’s obvious that’s a lie. Even the Palestinians don’t make a claim like that. And the other side attributes anti-Semitism to me. I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry I’ve become a political tool. I’m sorry the article caused damage to the struggle for human rights here. And above all, I’m sorry that no one took the article seriously and that they did not examine the suspicions. In Sweden too they didn’t take it seriously.”
What. A. Tool. The human rights he’s talking about? Palestinians being killed by soldiers. The fact that the Palestinian that was killed, the one that inspired his story, was a terrorist battling the IDF seems to have been conveniently left out of Bostrom’s narrative.
Note that he’s not sorry at all that Israel’s enemies have another Mohammed al-Dura club to wield. What a jackass. This guy is considered a journalist in Sweden?
Do you think the IDF killed people to get body organs?
“I don’t think soldiers behaved like that. I don’t think they killed in order to gather organs. The truth is that they kill them without a trial and their bodies are taken to Abu Kabir. We don’t know whether they take out the organs. That has still to be further investigated. No one opened up the bodies after they were returned and only one man knows the truth, Prof. Yehuda Hiss, the director of the forensic institute. “
Actually, any medical doctor knowledgeable in transplants could tell you the truth: The organs that were “harvested” in such a way would be useless. But don’t let the facts get in the way of your spreading lies.
You have already had scandals at your forensic institute with other bodies, he says, and there is illegal trade in organs, so there is a need to investigate.
In other words: Have you stopped beating your wife yet? Guilty until proven innocent. Except when Israel offers the proof, the world will still insist that Israel is guilty. And then there’s the fact that he’s being accompanied by a bodyguard, paid for, no doubt, by Israeli taxpayers. Why? Um. Because he was met by protesters at the airport. Oooh. Scary.
Then there’s the conference itself, where he was booed and challenged on his made-up facts:
Lapid shot back, “To say this without a shred of evidence, that Israel possibly harvested organs from Palestinians who disappeared, in other words, whom we kidnapped, killed, and robbed their organs, is a degrading and monstrous idea.”
In response, Bostrom said that he understands why people are angry, saying that everyone lies while at war. He said that it is difficult for reporters to distinguish between what is correct and what is a lie. “If it were just one family, fine. But there were many families. Mothers have a right to know what happened to their sons,” claimed Bostrom.
Bostrom was told to his face that he was an anti-Semite. Of course, he responded that not all critics of Israel are anti-Semitic. Kudos to Yair Lapid for this:
Lapid concluded, “You are an anti-Semite because you are prepared to believe that there is a possibility that the government and the authorities would take part in such a monstrous thing. The only thing I can say in your favor is that you don’t know you’re an anti-Semite.”
I don’t think that counts very much in his favor. In fact, let us all chant the Yourish.com mantra for our Swedish photographer who says he really, really, really likes Israel, no, really: Anti-Semites of the world, just die already.
What’s remarkable is how similar he sounds to Goldstone. Goldstone says things like, “I’d be happy to be proven wrong, but the fact that I reported these things mean they need to be investigated.” (Not those exact words, but to that effect.)
The standard of proof seems to be “if we write it, it must be investigated; if it isn’t, it’s proof that we’re right.”
Why don’t they just say “Jews are poisoning the wells” instead of all these convoluted conspiracies. It’s shockingly medieval.
Aussie Dave makes a similar comment:
Incidentally, the Goldstone Report is based on the same principle: publish something based on spurious palestinian claims and then place the onus to investigate them on Israel, who is already comdemned in the court of public opinion by the very publication of the lies to begin with.
I think he’s being reasonable, Dad. He doesn’t claim to have proof that the IDF shoots Palestinians and then hauls their bodies off to be carved up for their organs, but it should be investigated. As you say, there is no proof that Jews poison the wells, but the charge is made and should be investigated. I’m sure he wouldn’t claim that Jews kidnap Christian children and use their blood to make matzah but again, the charge has been made and should be investigated.
Apparently our Swedish branch of the International Jewish Conspiracy that controls the media is falling down on the job.