Withholding Bodies of Palestinians Killed

[Ariadna: The case described below is not an exception: Israel withholds the bodies of the Palestinians it kills and then subjects the families to further pain and humiliation as described by Ma’an News and commented on below in Fig Trees and Vineyards.

In view of the fact that we have an “indissoluble bond” with Israel, we contribute billions of dollars every year to support the Jewish State and, unarguably, its practices, it would be a good idea to have each presidential candidate answer the twin question:

Why do we, who always brag about our “values,” support a state with this record of criminality and what would you do about this, if anything, if elected?] 

Palestinian Buried After Body Withheld for 65 Days

Richard Edmondson‘s introduction:

[Ed. note – Imagine if your loved one is killed. The body is held for 65 days. To get it back you have to agree to hold the funeral at a certain specified time. The only people allowed to attend are those on a list approved by the killers. Oh yes, and to get the body back from the killers, you must also pay them $5,150 as “collateral.” At the time the funeral is held, the killers are there–they show up, right there at the funeral of your loved one! To confiscate all cell phones and cameras of mourners coming to pay their last respects.
Israel claims to be imposing such conditions in order to prevent funerals from being turned into political protests. But of course, holding bodies for weeks on end also allows plenty of time to harvest organs–and specifying when the funeral must take place after the body finally is returned, as well as who is allowed or not allowed to attend, practically precludes any possibility of an autopsy. Not a single US official, to my knowledge, has voiced a peep of protest against this odious practice of holding bodies for extended periods of time. And of course, it goes without saying no one has broached the issue of organ harvesting, for to do so would immediately result in one’s being smeared with the charge of “blood libel” and “anti-Semitism”–as happened to the Palestinian observer at the UN when he dared raise the matter back in November.

Israel certainly has a history of organ trafficking, but even if that’s not the modus operandi behind the current practice of cadaver hoarding, still it’s incumbent upon us to ask ourselves: Does any other country in the world have an official policy of refusing to turn over bodies to grieving families? None that I’m aware of.

“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…”

Those are the opening words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. It makes no mention of organ harvesting. Maybe it should have. But in reading over its preamble and its subsequent 30 articles, one kind of gets the feeling that no one back then could reasonably have conceived of or imagined the coming into existence of a state quite like Israel.]

Read original article in Ma’an News.