Organ Harvesting: This is Not Really Happening, right?

For years we have seen modern incarnations of the most ridiculous medievel blood libels against Jews. Most of these modern blood libels involve Israel and Israelis. They have been so easy to dismiss because they have been so absolutely ridiculous: A Saudi newspaper story claiming that Jews drain the blood from Palestinian children in order make hamentaschen or the story that appeared earlier this year in a Swedish newspaper claiming that Israeli soldiers kill Palestinians and harvest their organs (the ADL called that one "irresponsible and shocking"). It was just so outrageous. How could anyone believe such a thing?! The sheer outrageousness of the claims was proof of the depravity of Israel's enemies.

Then, horror, it turns out that Israel really was harvesting organs from dead bodies without permission from the deceased or their families. Sure, they didn't just take the organs from Palestinians. They took from Israeli Jews and foreign workers. But it did happen. Sphere reports:

Over the weekend Israel Television's Channel Two broadcast a previously unaired
interview conducted by an American academic in 2000 with [Dr. Yehuda] Hiss, who then headed the [national forensic] institute. In the interview, Hiss said that Israel harvested corneas, skin, bones and heart valves from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from the families.

Was I crazy to assume that such completely immoral and illegal things couldn't happen in a democratic, Jewish state? Don't answer. I already know.