Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour waiting for the start of a meeting of the U.N. Security Council at the United Nations headquarters, New York City, Dec. 30, 2014. (Frank Franklin II/AP Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority’s representative to the United Nations accused Israel of harvesting the organs of Palestinians killed while attacking Israelis.
Israel’s U.N. envoy responded by calling the P.A.’s accusation a “blood libel.”
“A medical examination conducted on bodies of Palestinians returned after they were killed by the occupying power found that they were missing organs,” Riyad Mansour, Palestinian Permanent Observer to the U.N., said in an official complaint to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, Ynet reported.
The letter said that the bodies were returned missing corneas and other organs.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, in a response to Ban, wrote in a letter that “the Palestinian representative’s anti-Semitic face has been revealed.”
In 2009, the Swedish daily Aftonbladet sparked an angry reaction from Israeli officials and Jewish leaders with the publication of an unverified account that Israeli troops harvested organs from Palestinians who died in custody. Israel squarely denied the accusation.
In 2014, Time Magazine cited the report in a two-minute video about the Israel Defense Forces on its website. It later retracted the allegation.
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