UK
Israeli Embassy condemns Glasgow University rector for ‘disgraceful’ accusation of organ harvesting
During an interview last week, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah claimed Palestinian corpses showed evidence of surgical organ removal
November 16, 2025 14:41
During an interview last week, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah claimed Palestinian corpses showed evidence of surgical organ removal
November 16, 2025 14:41The Israeli government has accused Glasgow University rector Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah of spreading “grotesque lies” and reworking “classic blood libels" after he claimed Israelis were harvesting organs from the bodies of Palestinians.
Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon who specialises in conflict injuries, made the claims last week during a televised interview with the Arab language TV station Al Jazeera, alleging that photographs of Gazan corpses showed evidence that organs had been surgically removed from their bodies.
A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in London rejected the claim as “a disgraceful fabrication”, a modern rendering of centuries-old antisemitic tropes that are “defamatory, dangerous, and designed to incite hatred” against Jews and Israelis.
Abu-Sittah, who has previously attracted criticism for his alleged connections to Palestinian terrorists – accusations he has denied – made his claims in response to a series of photos of Palestinians’ bodies that, according to Al Jazeera English, were handed over by the Israeli army.
According to translations in regional media, he said: “The first observation is that, in all the bodies that organs were harvested or removed are those that are now routinely transplanted: the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and corneas.
“The method of extraction — the rib cage and ribs were clipped with a sharp saw, a medical saw, a bone saw — and the sternum, along with the central part of the ribs, was lifted to allow for the removal of the heart and lungs without causing damage to the organs being taken,” Abu-Sittah said, according to the translation. "The essential point is there was no damage to the remaining organs, meaning the extraction was carried out surgically by an experienced surgeon."
The accusation of Israeli organ harvesting is not new and is often dismissed as a modern form of blood libel, inspired by Medieval fabrications of Jews killing children for their blood.
“Abu-Sittah is a propagandist and a fraud,” the Israeli Embassy spokesperson said. “His conspiracy-ridden narratives, his willingness to manipulate imagery and testimony, and his repeated use of incendiary rhetoric place him far outside any standard of medical ethics or professional integrity. His sensational claims have been debunked time and again; he relies on shock value, not fact.
“Those who choose to platform or repeat such fabrications should reflect on the serious real-world harm caused by spreading deliberate misinformation in the service of political agendas.”
In 2018, writing for Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, the doctor described terrorist Ahmad Jarrar, who had masterminded the murder of father-of-six Rabbi Raziel Shevach in a drive-by shooting near Nablus, as a “hero” after his death.
In 2020, as previously reported in the JC, Abu-Sittah delivered a tearful eulogy at a memorial event for Maher Al-Yamani in 2020, a founder of terrorist organisation the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was later involved in the October 7 atrocities.
Abu-Sittah’s lawyers told the JC at the time that Al-Yamani was one of their client’s patients and they later became personal friends when the surgeon lived in Beirut between 2011 and 2019.
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