AhlulBayt News Agency: Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, on Friday raised serious concerns over record organ donation figures announced by Israel, questioning the sources of what he described as an unusually large number of donated kidneys and calling for an independent international investigation.
In a press statement, al-Bursh said the figures promoted by Israel fail to address the core question of where these organs originate, particularly given Israel’s long-standing practice of withholding the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces for extended periods.
He noted that the same Israeli authorities that retain the bodies of Palestinian victims for years are now presenting themselves as a humanitarian model in the field of organ donation, boasting unprecedented numbers without transparency or accountability.
Al-Bursh said there are documented cases in which bodies returned to Palestinian families after prolonged detention were found to be missing organs, including kidneys, with no autopsy reports provided and no opportunity for families to seek accountability. These claims, he added, are based on testimonies from medical professionals and verified cases involving bodies returned incomplete.
He stressed that Palestinians do not oppose medicine or the principle of organ donation itself, but reject what he described as the exploitation of humanitarian values for propaganda purposes, and the use of Palestinian bodies, whether of the living or the dead, to manufacture achievements promoted internationally while the truth remains obscured.
Al-Bursh warned that the absence of transparency and the prohibition of any form of international oversight over these practices makes suspicion legitimate and transforms accountability into both a moral and legal obligation.
“What is required is not the registration of new records,” he said, adding, “but rather the opening of an independent international investigation that clearly identifies the sources of these organs, the authorities that permitted this, those who remained silent, and why that silence continues to be rewarded with public accolades and declared achievements.”
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