Rabbi Dee subjected to fake reports his wife’s organs were donated to Palestinian terrorist
False claims about Lucy Dee's organs were made by right-wing Israel television station Channel 14 on Monday, in an attempt to discredit the Supreme Court
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Rabbi Leo Dee and his family have been forced to endure disgraceful smears that the organs of his murdered wife Lucy were donated to a Palestinian terrorist on the orders of Israel’s Supreme Court.
The fake news was widely circulated across Israel on Monday after it was reported by the Channel 14 television channel that morning.
It followed an interview Rabbi Dee had done with Sky News, which was aired on Sunday, in which he confirmed that his late wife Lucy’s organs had been used to save the lives of five people after she died in hospital from wounds sustained in the April 7th West Bank shooting attack that also took the lives of their daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 15.
During the Sky interview Rabbi Dee confirmed that one of those saved was an Arab.
But on Channel 14 presenter Shay Golden’s morning show just before 7.30am on Monday the claim was made that the Arab was actually a Palestinian terrorist still in prison.
It was also falsely suggested that the Dee family’s appeal to the Supreme Court to prevent the organ being given to the terrorist, who was held in a prison, had been overruled.
The Israel Prison Service branded the report about the donation of Lucy’s organs to a security prisoner as “false and offensive.”
It a statement they added:”We ask to immediately stop spreading these statements and respect the family in its time of grief.”
Israeli “military commentator” Kobi Finkler had earlier appeared on the Channel 14 programme to blame “the judicial system” on the very real possibility it was possible for a body part, such as a kidney, to be donated from a murdered woman to “a terrorist or rapist.”
But the false rumours continued to circulate on social media- with some online political activists even calling for the cancelation of “Edi” donor cards carried by people willing to donate their organs in the event of their death.
In a further condemnation of the false reports, Oded Revivi, the head of Efrat Local Council, the settlement where the Dee family lives, confirmed “no appeal was made to the Supreme Court, the spreading of these rumours harms the grieving family in its message to focus on the unity of Israel and the fact that it encourages organ donations.”
Channel 14 is known to be one of the most right-wing television channels in Israel, and has come out strongly in support of Benjamin Netanyahu’s hugely controversial judicial overhaul.
Despite the widespread denials issued in response to the Dee organ report, it was not until 21.48pm in Israel on Monday evening that the channel issued a clarification.
Other popular far-right social media accounts in Israel continued to circulate the false smears into the early hours of Tuesday, before taking them down.
Channel 14 was being widely condemned in Israel for its decision to air to the claims, while the Dee family continued to mourn the loss of three people.
A post on the Fake Reporter Twitter site, which specialises in uncovering untrue news coverage in Israel, stated:”Almost everyone who went online yesterday came across the viral fake according to which Channel 14 reported that the organs of the late Lucy Dee were transplanted to a terrorist because of the High Court of Justice.
“How was such a blatant and insensitive fake created? In short, malicious and political intentions, public incitement and exploitation of bad press.”
On Sunday Rabbi Dee had confirmed to Sky News his wife’s organs had gone to five people including an Arab.
He said:”I think that is significant to us because Lucy was very much into peaceful relations with our neighbours and I think she would have been very proud that she saved the life of an Arab.”
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