JERUSALEM — Israel, already on the defensive over European criticism of its policies, has picked a diplomatic fight with Sweden over an unsubstantiated newspaper “expose” suggesting that Israeli soldiers harvested the internal organs of Palestinians who died in army custody.
The article in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet last week drew little attention until Israel demanded that Sweden’s government condemn it. Swedish officials refused, saying the newspaper has a constitutional right to free expression.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined a chorus of Israeli protest against the Swedish stance, saying it ignores the article’s potential to incite violence against Jews. Addressing his Cabinet, Netanyahu likened the report to “medieval libels that Jews killed Christian children for their blood,” said an official who was present.
Two of the tabloid’s reporters were told Sunday their applications for media credentials in Israel would be delayed for 90 days. An Israeli website announced a campaign to shun Ikea furniture and other Swedish products. The tempest could strain Israel’s already fragile relations in Europe.
The Swedish article repeated Palestinian allegations, dating to the early 1990s and denied by the Israeli military, that Israeli troops removed dead prisoners’ organs. The writer, Donald Bostrom, said the allegations should be re-examined in light of last month’s arrest in New Jersey of an American Jew charged with plotting to buy a kidney from an Israeli and sell it to an American patient.
Bostrom later told Israel Radio he could not vouch for the accuracy of the accounts of his Palestinian informants.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the article had “an odor of anti-Semitism.” The Swedish government’s refusal to condemn it, he said, recalled Sweden’s neutrality during World War II and the Nazi slaughter of Jews.
In a blog last week, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt denied that Sweden harbors anti-Semitic sentiments. He said he understood why the article stirred strong emotions but said basic values in society are best protected by free discussion.
