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According to a recent article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, after nine members of the Knesset signed a petition initiated by the NGO Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (I serve as DAFOH’s executive director), the Chinese Embassy in Israel issued a formal complaint. The embassy’s complaint then led the Speaker of the Knesset and a few other Israeli officials to ask those who had signed to retract their signatures. Three did so.
Keeping Crimes Hidden
The diplomatic situation Israel has experienced with the Chinese Embassy in the past week is not unprecedented, but is a standard element in the Chinese regime’s strategy to exert power in other countries and to keep its organ transplant crimes hidden.
For more than a decade, Chinese embassies around the world have spread misinformation to incite hatred toward practitioners of the meditation practice Falun Gong, tried to block information from coming to light, and used diplomatic pressure to persuade political leaders and citizens to censor themselves and their fellow citizens on this issue.
In the case of transplant abuse, some medical doctors from abroad have been invited to China, given first-class treatment, and, upon return to their country of origin, have praised the transplant situation in China. These doctors have avoided taking a stand on the evidence about the organ harvesting that has been compiled by researchers such as David Matas and David Kilgour.
By dehumanizing and vilifying the victims, in particular Falun Gong practitioners, while at the same time suppressing any request for investigation, the Chinese regime has been able to harvest organs from wrongfully detained, peaceful citizens for over a decade.
We understand that pressure from the Chinese Embassy caused Israeli officials to choose to pressure the nine members of the Knesset—MKs who did nothing else but exert their right to freedom of expression, as ensured by the basic law of Israel.
The facts support the judgment of those MKs. There are irrefutable facts that neither medical professionals nor citizens can turn away from. Further investigation is essential.
David Matas, a human rights lawyer who spent many years bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, and Hon. David Kilgour, former Canadian secretary of state, conducted an in-depth investigation into the allegations of forced organ harvesting in China. Their findings were published in 2006 as a report titled “Bloody Harvest” (revised in 2007 and published as a book in 2009).
This groundbreaking report provided overwhelming evidence of China’s state-sanctioned system of harvesting organs from detained, living Falun Gong practitioners. It is a malpractice that is reminiscent of the crimes against humanity committed by Dr. Mengele and other Nazi doctors.
Currently, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are detained in China, anonymously and without sentence, subjected to targeted medical examination and categorization, and in many instances, killed at will when their organs can be matched to a buyer.
Human Rights as Provocation
DAFOH is an organization of highly respected medical doctors from around the world. Many of them teach at universities or are leading members in medical organizations. Several of our members have contributed their work to the book “State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China” (2012). Our petition is addressed to the United Nations and simply requests an investigation into unethical organ harvesting practices in China.
The Haaretz article quotes MK Yoel Hasson’s feeling that his signature was being used to “provoke the Chinese government.” From the victim’s perspective, calling for the respect of basic human rights is in essence never a provocation. However, from the perpetrator’s side, it is always perceived as provocation.
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