10 Sep 2009

Organ harvesting accussations backed by politicians

5:52 am on 10 September 2009

A Palestinian minister and an Israeli Arab member of parliament have supported accusations that Israel has harvested organs from the bodies of dead Palestinians for medical reasons.

Israeli officials strongly deny the allegations, which were first made in a Swedish newspaper, calling them "outrageous".

But a Palestinian minister says Israel is refusing to return the bodies of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army to hide evidence that their organs had been removed.

An Israeli MP, Mohammed Barakei, says he will believe organs have been removed from the dead men unless Israel can prove otherwise.