This post is also available in:
English
Short answer
The lie that Israel “harvests Palestinian organs in Gaza” is pure blood libel — a modern reboot of the same antisemitic filth behind the Damascus Blood Libel of 1840.
The conspiracy exploded back in 2009 with zero evidence, pushed by Hamas-linked and Iranian propaganda — and now it’s back, dressed up with AI images and conspiracy threads.
Israel has one of the world’s strictest organ transplant laws, banning any organ trade and ensuring full ethical oversight. And medically? The claim is laughable. Organ transplants aren’t back-alley crimes — they require advanced hospitals, expert surgical teams, tissue matches, post-op care, and legal documentation. You can’t do it “secretly” in a war zone.
This accusation isn’t just a lie — it’s a grotesque, medically impossible antisemitic fantasy, recycled to vilify Israel and dehumanize Jews — just like it’s been done for centuries.
Long answer
One of the most absurd and toxic lies making the rounds again is that Israel “harvests organs” from Palestinians — a modern twist on the classic antisemitic blood libel. This conspiracy exploded back in 2009 when a Swedish tabloid ran a baseless story accusing Israeli soldiers of stealing organs. It was condemned by Sweden’s own press council and debunked by Palestinian officials themselves.
Here are the facts: In the 1990s, there were a few documented cases where corneas and skin were used without family consent, from the bodies of Israeli citizens, Israeli soldiers, and Palestinians — a failure of medical procedure, not a targeted crime or conspiracy.
Israel acknowledged it, corrected it, and in 2008, passed one of the world’s strictest organ transplant laws, banning all trade and enforcing rigorous ethical oversight (The Human Transplantation Law).The claim that Israel runs a secret organ-harvesting operation — especially in a war zone — is not just false, it’s scientifically absurd. Organ transplants are among the most complex procedures in modern medicine.
They require a sterile hospital environment, advanced surgical equipment, specialized teams, and most importantly, a living, pre-matched recipient. You cannot harvest organs on a battlefield, in the back of a truck, or during a war. That’s not how medicine works — it’s medical fiction.
This grotesque lie is a modern blood libel, recycled from medieval antisemitism and now pushed online by Hamas-linked and Iranian propaganda, dressed up with AI-generated images to fool the gullible.
Today, Israel is a global leader in ethical organ donation, performing record numbers of life-saving transplants — including for Palestinian children in Israeli hospitals. Even amid war, Palestinian patients are still being treated in Israeli hospitals by diverse, highly trained medical teams who provide care with compassion and professionalism.
The same people pushing blood libels about Israel stay silent on real, documented organ trafficking:
In 2009, 11 Jordanians were arrested in Egypt for running an illegal organ ring that preyed on poor Palestinians. A Jordanian government study found that nearly 80% of those who “sold” kidneys were Palestinians from the Baqaa refugee camp.And that’s just one case — China has been condemned for harvesting organs from political prisoners, Egypt and Libya have exposed underground organ mafias, and in the U.S., UCLA staff were caught selling parts from donated cadavers.These are real crimes — investigated, documented, and condemned.
The accusations against Israel? Zero evidence — just recycled antisemitic hate, rebranded as activism for the social media age.
