ONCE AGAIN Israel is at the center of an organ-trafficking
scandal after 6 Israeli suspects were arrested, among them two
lawyers and 1973 war hero Brigadier-General (res.) Meir Zamir.
It seems the ring advertised mainly in Israeli papers in Arabic
trying to attract impoverished Palestinians. It offered potential
kidney donors up to $100,000. However the donors were never
paid.
Police said a 50-year old Nazareth woman said she donated a
kidney due to financial difficulties, for $100,000. She underwent a
series of tests and then flown to Azerbaijan with another donor,
where she was relieved of her kidney.
Back in Israel, she asked for the money owed but she never
received it. Police meanwhile received another complaint from an
18-year old boy who was promised $80,000 and flown to Philippines
to donate his kidney.
Israeli police officer Aharon Galor told Ynet, "We ran an
undercover investigation and were shocked by the proportions of
this. We uncovered a large, very well-organized industry of organ
trafficking. The ring includes organ traffickers, agents, and
lawyers”.
The current scandal follows numerous revelations concerning
Israeli and American Rabbis involvement in organ trafficking and
organ harvesting. As much as it is hard to imagine a state with
such a gross lack of ethical conduct, it is even harder to imagine
a world faith in which some members of its spiritual leadership
engage in organ trafficking.
Earlier, researchers from Ukraine have said as many as 25,000
Ukrainian orphans may have fallen victims to organ harvesting after
they were adopted by Israelis. Efforts to find these children have
come to naught as none of them can be traced.