L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine ( he, המכון הלאומי לרפואה משפטית ע"ש ל' גרינברג) also known as Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, is an Israeli forensic research laboratory located in the

Abu Kabir Abu Kabir ( ar, أبو كبير) was a satellite village of Jaffa founded by Egyptians following Ibrahim Pasha's 1832 defeat of Turkish forces in Ottoman era Palestine. During the 1948 Palestine war, it was mostly abandoned and later destroyed. ...

neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel. __TOC__

History

Established in 1954 as part of the Israel Police Division of Criminal Identification (today the Division of Identification & Forensic Science), the Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine is now a department of the Israeli Health Ministry and affiliated with the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at the

University of Tel Aviv Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Loc ...

. Administratively it reports to Assaf HaRofeh Hospital. The Abu Kabir Institute is the only facility in Israel authorized to conduct autopsies in cases of unnatural death. The lab at Abu Kabir conducts forensic examination in cases of rape, homicide, suicide and suspicious death. It also identifies victims of

terror attacks The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people. Definitions of terroris ...

Organ removal allegations

In 2005, the then chief pathologist

Yehuda Hiss Yehuda Hiss (born c. 1946) is a retired Israeli pathologist. He served as the Chief Pathologist at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine between 1988 and possibly as late as 2005.Cole, 2007p. 99 Hiss has also served as part of the faculty f ...

, director of Abu Kabir from 1988 to 2004, admitted, as part of a

plea bargain A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...

, to the unauthorized removal of organs, bone and tissue from 125 bodies in the 1990s. Israel said that such activity stopped in 2000 . In 2009, Abu Kabir was mentioned in a controversial article in Swedish

tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft * ''Ta ...

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

'' by Donald Boström. Boström accused the institute of being part of a human organ trafficking ring in which

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

(IDF) soldiers abducted Palestinians to "harvest" their organs. Boström later admitted having no evidence. "I have a personal opinion," Boström told

Israel Radio ''Kol Yisrael'' or ''Kol Israel'' ( lit. "Voice of Israel", also "Israel Radio") is Israel's public domestic and international radio service. It operated as a division of the Israel Broadcasting Service from 1951 to 1965, the Israel Broadcastin ...

. "It concerns me to the extent that I want it to be investigated. But whether it's true or not - I have no idea, I have no clue." In an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Boström said his allegations were based on hearsay: "What I experienced during this day is many people from Israel who called me haven't read the article. So they think I'm accusing the IDF of stealing organs. That's not what I'm doing. I just recorded the Palestinian families saying that." The

Israeli Ministry of Health The Ministry of Health ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַבְּרִיאוּת, translit. ''Misrad HaBri'ut'') is a ministry in the Israeli government, responsible for formulating health policies. The ministry plans, supervises, licenses, and coordinat ...

later acknowledged that "skin, corneas, heart valves and bones" had been removed during autopsies of Israelis, including IDF soldiers, Palestinians and foreign workers in the 1990s.Kevin Flower and Guy Azriel
Israel harvested organs without permission, officials say
'' CNN'', 2009-12-21. Retrieved on 2009-12-24.Anne Barker
Israel admits organ harvesting
'' Australian Broadcasting Corporation'', 2009-12-22. Retrieved on 2009-12-24.Simon McGregor-Wood
Israel Took Organs of Dead Without Permission
'' ABC News'', 2009-12-21. Retrieved on 2009-12-24. The ministry says that for the past decade, procedures carried out at Abu Kabir have conformed with ethics and Jewish law,Mark Lavie
Israel admits to taking organs illegally
'' The New Zealand Herald'', 2009-12-21. Retrieved on 2009-12-24. and all organ removal is done with permission.Mark Lavie
Israel harvested organs in '90s without permission
'' Associated Press'', 2009-12-21. Retrieved on 2009-12-24 . Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley who founded

Organs Watch In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...

, an organization that monitors traffic in human organs, said she decided to publicize an interview with Hiss in the wake of the ''Aftonbladet'' affair. She described the involvement of the IDF as a "widely-known secret in Israel."Magnus Sundholm
''Man höll tyst av plikt mot landet''
''

'', 2009-12-22. Retrieved on 2009-12-24. However, Scheper-Hughes made it clear she does not believe Israel murdered Palestinians for organs. The Attorney General of Israel dropped criminal charges against Hiss. He was fired in 2012 and replaced by Dr.

Chen Kugel Chen may refer to: People *Chen (surname) (陳 / 陈), a common Chinese surname * Chen (singer) (born 1992), member of the South Korean-Chinese boy band EXO * Chen Chen (born 1989), Chinese-American poet * (), a Hebrew first name or surname: * ...

References

{{authority control Medical research institutes in Israel Pathology organizations Forensics organizations Organizations based in Tel Aviv 1954 establishments in Israel Organizations established in 1954