You guys heard about the story (and the story about the story) Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet ran in August? Donald Boström wrote about how Israeli authorities supposedly had been harvesting organs from dead Palestinians, without knowledge or consent from the families. It all took huge proportions – not because of the story being seriously worrisome – but because it sparked the usual what-can-one-say-about-the-policies-of-the-Israeli-state-without-being-dubbed-antisemitic-debate. Israeli officials of course evoked the anti-Semitic argument – and stupidly asked Swedish authorities to apologize for the article, which they of course did not do – so back in Sweden it all turned into a quite silly discussion about journalism ethics and whether Swedish press is pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli.
This is just tragic, and sadly intrinsic to reporting about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead of discussing real issues – like whether or not the Israeli military has been stealing people’s organs – it seems impossible for mainstream journalists, politicians and commentators to approach this topic without resorting to name calling and an inward-looking self-serving argumentation on which side people are on. Hey, Palestinians are real people you know, suffering from atrocities here and now. Let’s talk about that for a change.
Anyways, headlines today tell us that what Boström wrote about are not just allegations: Israel has made a complete u-turn and now admits having stolen organs, from Palestinians as well as Israelis and foreign workers. That’s quite something coming from the same mouth that only a couple of months ago called it all a lie. An anti-Semitic lie, of course. Please. Someone maybe should inform these guys that Arabs as well are Semitic people. Evoking antisemitism as flagrantly as Israeli authorities do only serves to undermine the fight against the hideous and appalling phenomenon that antisemitism really is. And, apparently, this time it was definitely not a question of antisemitism.
