Tráfico de órganos; un mal extendido.

Romanian authorities are looking into possible links between Israeli adoption agencies and an illegal global conspiracy to sell organs for transplants.

The Romanian Embassy in Israel has asked for, and received from the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, a list of all children born in Romania who have been brought to Israel for adoption in recent years. The Romanian officials are trying to ascertain if all such children arrived in Israel with all organs in their bodies.

In its request to the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, the Romanians did not offer evidence in support of suspicions of a link between adoption and organ trafficking. The inquiry is part of a broader investigation involving Romanian children sent to Italy and the United States.

As Ha'aretz has reported in the past, some Israeli physicians were involved in illegal kidney transplants and the sale of human eggs in Turkey, Romania, and other countries in East Europe.

In parallel with the organ investigation, officials from Romania's central adoption agency and from Israel's Labor and Social Affairs Ministry and police, are also examining possible criminal activity of two groups dealing with the adoption of Romanian children by Israeli parents.

Among other suspicions, officials are checking whether one Romanian group, headed by an Israeli, has forged adoption papers, and whether children have been offered to Israeli parents without proper, legal process.

Responding to complaints and rumors, Romanian authorities have taken the highly unusual step in the past year of withholding authorization for the adoption of 16 Romanian babies destined for Israeli parents. This delay has been enforced although the Israeli couples have paid $20,000 each to adopt the infants, and have already become acquainted with the babies in the foster homes and institutions where they are being held. Romanian authorities insist they will not give the go ahead for the adoptions until inquiries about possible wrong-doing are completed.

To help finalize the adoptions, the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry turned to President Moshe Katsav and asked him to raise the issue with Prime Minister Adrian Nastase when he visited Israel last July. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres also raised it with Romanian officials during his recent visit there.

Parents affiliated with the "Future of the Children" group, based in Rehovot, have also appealed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to help finalize the adoptions of the Romanian children

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An Israeli organ trafficking ring which was smashed in South Africa last year has shifted its operations to China, according to a report in the New York Times. A 52-year-old Tel Aviv man, Ilan Peri, is alleged to have organised at least 100 kidney transplants for Israelis. The Times profiled the case of an American woman from Brooklyn and a Brazilian man from the impoverished city of Recife in Durban. She paid brokers US$60,000 (a special discount because of family ties) and he received $6,000 from them. The operation was performed at St Augustine's Hospital in Durban. This is owned by a private health care chain, Netcare, which boasts that it aims "to uphold South Africa's reputation as 'the transplant capital of the world'".

Organ donation rates in Israel are amongst the lowest in the developed world, partly because of a belief that Jewish religious law forbids it. To relieve the resulting organ shortage, brokers search for donors overseas for prices which can soar as high as US$150,000. Some advertise openly on radio stations for donors and recipients. There is no law in Israel against organ trafficking and government policy effectively encourages it by allowing Israelis who go abroad for transplants to be reimbursed as much as $80,000.

In Recife selling kidneys was becoming a popular way of making quick money before police stepped in. At first the brokers offered $10,000 for a kidney, but after 18 months the price dropped as low as $3,000. About 100 men volunteered and 60 ended up making the trip to South Africa. Some of those who spoke to the Times later had health problems; one was robbed of his money on his way back home and arrived both broke and kidney-less.

Dr Nancy Scheper-Hughes, of the University of California at Berkeley, a researcher in international organ trafficking, says that organ trafficking happens in the US as well, with many larger clinics advertising on the internet for "transplant tourists".

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Dozens of doctors and employees of a Bucharest fertility clinic, among whom were several Israelis, were questioned by Romanian authorities on suspicion of trafficking in human eggs.


According to a report in the Bucharest news agency Mediafax said several egg donors were questioned. Some of those involved are also suspected of trafficking in human stem cells.

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In a precedent-setting ruling yesterday the Haifa District Court yesterday sentenced two Haifa men to jail for trafficking in humans for the purpose of harvesting their organs.

John Allan (formerly Mohammad Gheit), 59, was sentenced to four years in jail with a three-year suspended sentence. Allan was also ordered to pay each of his six victims NIS 15,000. Hassan Zakhalka, 32, was sentenced to 20 months in prison and 12 months suspended sentence for aiding and abetting human trafficking for the harvest of organs

This is the first time an Israeli court has issued a conviction for this offense, based on a law passed at the end of last year.

The pair confessed to the charges against them in a plea bargain with the prosecution.

Allan and Zakhalka admitted that at the end of 2006, they persuaded Arabs from the Galilee and central Israel who were developmentally challenged or mentally ill to agree to have a kidney removed for payment. They located their victims by placing ads in the newspaper offering money for organ donation. According to the indictment, the pair gave false information to the donors, and also pressured and threatened them to give up their kidney. After the surgery, Allan and Zakhalka did not pay the donors as promised.

One of the victims was an illiterate 32-year-old single mother from an Arab village in central Israel. The pair told her she would undergo a simple operation, and she would be back on her feet in two days. At one point, the woman changed her mind, and in response Allan and Zakhalka threatened to report her to the police, telling her it was a crime to agree to donate a kidney. Like the other victims, the woman was flown to Ukraine where she underwent the surgery. When she returned home, the victims refused to pay her the $7,000 they had promised her.

Allan and Zakhalka were part of a criminal ring that included an Israeli surgeon, Dr. Michael Zis, who also worked at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center. According to the indictment, Zis sold the kidneys he harvested for between $125,000 and $135,000, of which Allan received $10,000 dollars. The State Prosecutor's Office is preparing an extradition order against Zis, who is being held in prison in Ukraine.

The conviction of Allan and Zakhalka was made possible by an amendment to the criminal code that was passed in October 2006, which added a number of clauses prohibiting trafficking in humans for the purpose of harvesting organs. Judges Josef Elron, Ron Sokol and Menahem Raniel decided to accept the plea bargain because they said clear legal interpretation had not yet been formulated with regard to the crime of human trafficking for the purpose of harvesting organs, Lacking such clear interpretation of the clause, they said, "the parties might be dragged into presenting much complex evidence."

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The head of a nonviolence research center that recently relocated to the University of Rochester has angered many Jewish people -- and the university's president -- with blog comments that said Jewish people "overplay" the Holocaust and that Jews and Israel are the "biggest players" in the worldwide "culture of violence."

Arun Gandhi -- who made the comments -- is the founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute, named for his grandfather, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and devoted to his teachings on nonviolence. Arun Gandhi is a popular speaker on many campuses.



The comments by Gandhi that set off the controversy came in The Washington Post's "On Faith" series of online discussions on religion. Last week's focus was Jewish identity. In his post, Gandhi wrote: "Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the holocaust experience -- a German burden that the Jews have not been able to shed. It is a very good example of a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends. The holocaust was the result of the warped mind of an individual who was able to influence his amowers into doing something dreadful. But, it seems to me the Jews today not only want the Germans to feel guilty but the whole world must regret what happened to the Jews. The world did feel sorry for the episode but when an individual or a nation refuses to forgive and move on the regret turns into anger."

After describing his frustration with Israeli policies, Gandhi wrote: "Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you? Can you not reach out and share your technological advancement with your neighbors and build a relationship? Apparently, in the modern world, so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept. You don't befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity."

More than 400 people responded, many of them critically, prompting Gandhi to post a new comment: "My Apology for My Poorly Worded Post," in which he said he was sorry that his statements were made "with insufficient care" and said that they "have inflicted unnecessary hurt and caused anger."

He wrote that "I do not believe and should not have implied that the policies of the Israeli government are reflective of the views of all Jewish people." On the Holocaust, Gandhi used a different tone in his second post (and capitalized the word), but stuck to his message about what he sees as the flaws of holding on to certain issues.

"I do believe that when a people hold on to historic grievances too firmly it can lead to bitterness and the loss of support from those who would be friends. But as I have noted in previous writings, the suffering of the Jewish people, particularly in the Holocaust, was historic in its proportions. While we must strive for a future of peace that rejects violence, it is also important not to forget the past, lest we fail to learn from it. Having learned from it, we can then find the path to peace and rejection of violence through forgiveness," he wrote.

According to university officials, Gandhi is in India right now.

Joel Seligman, president of the university, released a statement Friday in which he said he was "surprised and deeply disappointed" by Gandhi's post and that "his subsequent apology inadequately explains his stated views, which seem fundamentally inconsistent with the core values of the University of Rochester."

Said Seligman: "In particular I vehemently disagree with his singling out of Israel and the Jewish people as to blame for the 'Culture of Violence' that he believes is eventually going to destroy humanity. This kind of stereotyping is inconsistent with our core values and would be inappropriate when applied to any race, any religion, any nationality, or either gender."

Seligman added: "We are also committed to the right of every person to address complaints or allegations personally and directly. Arun Gandhi currently is in India. I will discuss this matter with him in person as soon as he returns to Rochester later this month."

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UnomasUnomenos dijo:

Bueno Geld:

En el primer post hablas de niños rumanos y de que el Gobierno ve indicios de una posible conspiración de tráfico de órganos. No demostrada.

En el segundo de China. Creo que en un país en el que se tiran, literalmente, a las niñas a la calle cuando nacen. Todos, rusos, estadounidenses y cualquiera puede llegar, pillar y largarse.

En el tercero, células madre. Seguro que hay tráfico en este tema, para aburrir.

Dos condenados más, junto al de China, por tráfico de órganos en Paléstina. ¡Todo se vende¡.

De la frase sobre la Torah, sólo te hago una pregunta. Si a tu vecino le preguntas ,que quién prefiere que muera, ¿un paisano o un músulman?. ¿Quién crees que dirá?. Instinto de protección, sin mas. Dirá el paisano, sin dudar.

Y del Pdf y de las palabras del hombre de la asociación índia. Radicales hay en todos lados y en casi ningún sitio son aceptados, por eso son radicales.

Y el sístema capitalista , es el sístema del más fuerte sobre el más debil. No estoy de acuerdo en que los alubios sean los que más promueven la violencia.

Cada día tengo más claro, que hay una lucha de poder con dos polos. Patrón Oro - Usa y el lobby que Ud. sabe - us Patrón materia prima, petróleo - Mundo islámico y el tercer mundo en general -. Si Ud. quiere ver a uno más malo que a otro, yo no estoy de acuerdo. Es una lucha de intereses promovida en muchos puntos del planeta.

En resumen: Sigue empeñado en cargar las culpas sobre un único grupo y está ciego respecto a los demás. Así no se busca la verdad, así sólo se enfanga más. Mi opinión , por supuesto. Y mi opinión está basada en una frase muy sencilla. La verdad si no es entera, se convierte en aliada, de lo falso.

Pd.- El último gráfico no carga, no se ve lo que es.

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Geld dijo:

hamijo, convendremos que los judíos vienen a ser unos 20 millones, es realmente preocupante que tal pequeña proporción a nivel global se convierta en gran proporción en cuanto de crimen organizado a nivel global hablamos

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UnomasUnomenos dijo:

Es un pequeño número de personas, qué íncluso por creencía religiosa, (cúanto más tienes mejor sirves a Dios), tiene muchas más posibilidades de tener medios, o sea dinero, que otros muchos.

Sólo, para mi, se vuelve a demostrar que el dinero y el poder corrompen. A todos. No sólo a este pequeño grupo.

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