Israel criticizes Swedish paper report

JERUSALEM, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Israel's Foreign Ministry lashed out at a Swedish newspaper for running a story about Israeli soldiers allegedly abducting Palestinians to steal their organs.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Primor said Tuesday the report by Aftonbladet was "racist hysteria at its worst." He called it a "shame to freedom of expression," and called on all Swedes to reject the report unconditionally.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called the article "a 21st century blood libel," Ynetnews.com reported.

The Swedish article, run under the headline "They plunder the organs of our sons," quoted Palestinians as saying soldiers kidnapped their sons and stole their organs, Haaretz reported Tuesday.

The Israeli newspaper quoted the author of the article, Donal Bostrom, who said he interviewed a number of Palestinians from Nablus, Jenin and Gaza, who alleged their sons had disappeared and then their bodies were returned a few days later after having been autopsied.

Haaretz said the article also made a link to the recent arrests of several American rabbis in an alleged crime syndicate exposed in New Jersey, and claimed one of the rabbis admitted to the sale of a human kidney for transplant.

Haaretz said another Swedish daily, Sydsvenskan, harshly criticized the Aftonbladet report in an opinion piece it ran. Sydsvenskan claimed the story has been heard in one form of another and "follows the traditional pattern of conspiracy theory."