Journalist vows to follow up on 'Israel organ theft'

Press TV - October 12, 2009

Six weeks after he caused a political storm over his article on alleged Israeli organ thefts, the Swedish journalist behind the controversy says he will not quit the story despite receiving hundreds of death threats.

Donald Bostrom told Press TV on Monday that he did not believe there was any real intention behind the threats, which he has been receiving via email.

While he said he could not guess who was behind the anonymous threats, he acknowledged that the piece had received a large amount of bad publicity over accusations of anti-Semitism, which he overruled.

"My article asks very simple question: what happened to this young man in Palestine?"

He added that he was proud of the way Stockholm had handled the issue according to the Swedish Constitution, staying out of the decision-making process at the Aftonbladet daily, which ran the piece on August 17.

He emphasized that with all the frenzy that piece caused, even causing a diplomatic row between Sweden and Israel, he felt it was his and the newspaper's obligation to follow up on article and further investigate and "explain" its facts.

The article accused Israeli forces of kidnapping and murdering Palestinian youths for the sale of their organs — a ruthless trade going back as far as 17 years.

It also noted a current case of an American Jew charged with trafficking kidneys of Palestinians.