Sweden's largest daily newspaper, Aftonbladet, featured a story on Tuesday accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting the organs of Palestinian Arabs they had captured.
The story's evidence for this charge were the wild accusations of a few vaguely identified Palestinian sources.
Israel's Foreign Ministry immediately cried foul, and likened the publication of the story to medieval blood libels against the Jews. Ministry officials warned that like the blood libels of the past, printing such unsubstantiated accusations is likely to encourage violence against Jews everywhere.
A competing Swedish newspaper also attacked Aftonbladet, calling the story an act of anti-Semitism disguised as "legitimate criticism of Israel."