How US donor bodies were sold for Israeli military training
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The University of Southern California has been selling bodies donated for scientific research and education to the U.S. Navy. Some are being used to train Israeli military surgical teams in Los Angeles – all without the donors’ consent.
Watch the AJ+ documentary here and read the students' reporting here.
In this episode:
- Dena Takruri (@denatakruri), AJ+ Senior presenter
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Chloe K. Li with Spencer Cline, Catherine Nouhan, and our host, Malika Bilal. It was edited by Tamara Khandaker.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
Connect with us:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, how U.S. universities sold dead bodies for the Israeli military's training. |
| 0:18.0 | This is a military that is carrying out a genocide in Gaza that has an atrocious human rights |
| 0:23.8 | record. |
| 0:24.6 | Why are they then coming to Los Angeles and training on dead Americans who didn't consent to |
| 0:29.9 | this? |
| 0:30.1 | A student-led investigation uncovers what universities never disclosed to families. |
| 0:37.6 | I'm Alika Bilal, and this is The Take. |
| 0:44.3 | Hey everyone. |
| 0:49.6 | The investigation we're delving into today is featured in a new documentary from our friends at AJ Plus. |
| 0:55.5 | After you get the behind the scenes from our interview today, you can check it out on Al Jazeera.com and on YouTube, and we'll drop a link in our show notes. |
| 1:03.8 | We'll also share a link to the intrepid reporting that helped uncover it all from the student journalists at the University of Southern California |
| 1:11.4 | Annenberg School of Journalism and UC San Diego. And now, here's the show. |
| 1:21.9 | Hi, my name is Dina Tekruri. I am a senior presenter at AJ Plus, and I host the docu-series |
| 1:27.2 | direct from with Dinaina Takruri. |
| 1:29.2 | Well, Dina, welcome back to the take. It's really good to have you. We don't do it enough. |
| 1:33.6 | Just a short distance away from the University of Southern California. That's where you take us in the latest episode of Direct From, which you host. you are following a tip on a pretty disturbing story |
| 1:47.5 | involving two universities, the U.S. Navy, Israel, and human bodies donated to science. |
| 1:56.4 | Tell us what you found. |
| 1:58.3 | Yes, you're right, Malika. It is disturbing, and I just want to give that warning. |
| 2:01.3 | But our investigation with UC student journalists has uncovered that USC has secured more than |
| 2:06.5 | $1 million from the U.S. Navy since 2018 for supplying at least 89 cadavers under contracts |
... |
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