Quds, September 06, SPA--Sweden's foreign minister abruptly called off a visit to Israel this week, an Israeli spokesman said Sunday, amid a feud over a Swedish newspaper article, AP reported. Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has called off a trip to Israel planned for this Friday, according to Yigal Palmor, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry. Palmor, who would not comment on a possible reason for the move, said Sweden informed Israel's embassy in Stockholm of the decision on Friday. The cancellation also followed a diplomatic feud between Israel and Sweden over an article in a Swedish tabloid that accused Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs from dead Palestinians and suggested a connection with an international organ trafficking ring run by Jews. Israeli officials condemned the article as anti-Semitic. Both Swedish officials denied the article in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet had anything to do with Bildt's travel plans. Netanyahu demanded that Sweden denounce the article, headlined, «Our sons are plundered for their organs.» But the Swedish government rebuffed Israeli calls for an official condemnation, citing freedom of the press. The article provoked a flap inside Sweden's own Foreign Ministry after its ambassador to Israel published a condemnation of the article only to be reprimanded by her superiors for doing so. The Swedish decision came the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew international condemnation for deciding to approve hundreds of new apartments in West Bank settlements in defiance of U.S., European and Palestinian calls for a total settlement freeze. Sweden holds the rotating European Union presidency.
