ארכיון: הסופר איתן גוטמן מדבר בכנסת על קצירת האיברים בסין E. Gutmann on organ harvesting in China

Beginning in 2006, I began conducting comprehensive interviews with medical professionals, Chinese law enforcement personnel, party apparatchiks, and over 50 refugees from the Laogai system, the system of forced labor camps, black jails, prisons, mental hospitals, all over China. In order to piece together the story of how mass harvesting from prisoners of conscience evolved in China, and based on my research, here's a very short timeline. In 1994, we have evidence that the first live organ harvests were performed on the execution grounds of Xinjiang in northwest China. In 1997, following the Guozhou Massacre, we have evidence that the first political prisoners, specifically Uyghur activists, were harvested on behalf of high-ranking Communist Party officials. In 1999, Chinese state security launched its largest action of scale since the Cultural Revolution, the eradication of Falun Gong. By 2001, Chinese military hospitals were unambiguously targeting select Falun Gong prisoners for organ harvesting. By 2005, overall transplant numbers and refugee accounts, agreed with these, suggest that the number of Falun Gong being harvested had increased dramatically. By early 2006, the Epoch Times' Falun Gong newspaper revealed that the first charges of organ harvesting of Falun Gong came out. It was followed that summer by the distribution of the Kilgore and Modest Report. Now, in 2012, something very unusual happened at the leadership level. Specifically, a man named Wang Lijun attempted to defect the U.S. consulate in Chengdu. Two weeks later, information surfaced that he'd overseen thousands of organ transplants. This man was the right-hand man to Bo Xilai, the Arab pillar to China, to assume the supreme leadership position in China. Six weeks later, the Chinese state declared an end to organ harvesting of death row prisoners, prisoners convicted of capital crimes, over a five-year time frame. No mention was made of prisoners of conscience. Any attempt at third-party verification was rejected and enforced disappearances of Uyghurs and Tibetans accelerated. At this point, I cannot supply a death count for House Christians, Uyghurs, or Tibetans, but I can give you a sense of the scale. Using a survey method, I estimate that 65,000 Falun Gong were murdered for their organs by 2008. These calculations were published in State Organs. It's a book that's out now. The evidence in full will be published in my book on August 12th, The Slaughter, available on Amazon or Creole. What does this have to do with Israel? Following World War II, David Gutman, my father, volunteered as a 21-year-old Jewish-American sailor for the Aliyah Pets. When I asked him why he did it, he served time in Acre prison, he served time in Cyprus, came to camps. He told me that seeing the refugees rushing down the gangways into the new land with their possessions in hand cleansed his memories. Perhaps they were only in his mind's eye, but they cleansed his memory of Jews being forced to rush into death camps. Now, Israel's changed a lot since my father's time. But the people here have not forgotten how tenuous the line between an all-powerful state and mass murder really is. And they know that every descent into mass murder, no matter how small in comparison to the Holocaust, must be studied, examined, and sifted through. And unlike the rest of the world, they do not need to wait until all the bones and ashes are exhumed. They can see it in their mind's eye. And the proof of what I'm saying is that this is the only state in the world to unequivocally take a stand against foreign intrusion to China. And wherever me and David go, we mention Israel for this reason. It is our example. It is our brass ring, as we say in America. So my policy recommendation today is simple enough. China's vast population and its loose medical standards, that's an understatement, have created a great temptation for Western pharmaceutical companies. The prospect of systematic clinical testing of transplant patients on the cheap. Now these companies say, Bosch is an example, they say they're in China to better the lives of those who've received transplants. They're there to test anti-rejection drugs. They're there to carry out a humanitarian mission. But they are not just testing drugs. They are not just testing patients who carry the organs of family members. They are also carrying the organs of innocents. Tibetans, Uyghurs, Falun Gong, house Christians. And there is no method at this time to know the difference between the two. Now I expect this sounds very familiar to some of you in this room, because not that long ago Israel waived the personal costs to Israeli citizens searching for an extension of their lives against the concern that the Chinese organ market was fatally contaminated. And the evidence has only deepened since you made that decision. You made the right decision. Now you can prevent pharmaceutical companies from exploiting an equally tainted opportunity and again set an example for the world. And until the Chinese authorities provide a full accounting of this crime against humanity, this is precisely the action I ask you to take.