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19 july 2011
From the place he loved, in memory of VittorioVittorio: (Vik, Victor, Victorio. Full name: Vittorio Utopia Arrigoni) a Palestinian martyr, only a bit braver, who was abducted and gruesomely killed at the hands of an Israeli-salafist gang on 14 April 2011. Later it happened that he was not dead: he was still living in the hearts of all Palestinians.
”Ween?” (the Arabic for “where”) was the first thing Vittorio ever asked me. He was looking for my phone number and sent me a FB message titled, “ween”. Today I ask him the same question: “ween?”
I can’t think of one reason that would make a “Palestinian” kill someone like Vittorio. A man who dedicated his life to fight injustice. A man who abandoned the luxury of Rome and came to one of the most turbulent regions in the world in order to expose Israeli atrocities committed against Palestinians. A man on whose right arm, the Arabic word for resistance “Moqawama” was brilliantly tattooed in big words. A hero in whose eyes there was a whole lot of unmistakable meanings of profound love, loyalty, hope, sacrifice, truth and courage. Vittorio has done for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank more than those who killed him. He was more Palestinian than many other Palestinians. Vittorio would have competed with Hamas rockets about who’s done more damage to Israel. He was such a nightmare for them that needed to be eliminated. Vittorio is a great disheartening loss to Palestinians, and Friday, 15 April is such an overwhelmingly melancholic day in the history of Palestine.
Vittorio is a man who loved Gaza, he loved Gaza’s land, its sea, and its sky. Two things Vittorio obviously loved to do: to wave the Palestinian flag, and to sing “Onadikum” (I call upon you!). Wholeheartedly, Vittorio sang, “Onadikum” time and again. He poured his heart out as he sang it. It’s probably the only thing he could say so fluently in Arabic.
Today, we took to the streets to tell the world how grieved we are at the loss of Vittorio, to convey a message to Vittorio’s family in Italy that in Gaza we are all Vittorio’s family. That We condemn in the strongest terms the shameful and outrageous act of abducting and murdering Vittorio by a bunch of criminals whom we disavowed the moment they had that vicious thought in their minds. We will not forgive those who betrayed Vittorio in the place he loved, the place where he felt most secure, where he would be angry to be treated like a foreigner. He warmly embraced our cause, so we will never stab him in the back. We’ll give him a warmer hug.
Today, though ridiculous I only wished Vittorio were alive to live this very day with us and see with his own eyes how much we all love him. We are all Vittorios.
Now that you moved to live in our hearts, we’ll become stronger and fiercer in the battle against occupation, humiliation and injustice. Vittorio. Such an inspiration to all of us. You taught us that life isn’t worth living if one isn’t ready to fight against its injustice, and that’s what gives it a meaning, that’s what makes it all beautiful. Now, empowered by your “memory”, we’ll carry on the fight together.
Vittorio wanted to fight injustice, but life was too unjust for him to fight.
”The injustice of it [life] is almost perfect! The wrong people going hungry, the wrong people being loved, the wrong people dying!” John Osborne.
Vittorio is one of the wrong people.
http://fwd4.me/zd9
http://fwd4.me/zcv
Rest in Peace Vittorio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dZuWAzX6hg
Gaza slept anxiously following the news of the abduction of the Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, shockingly woke up to find that he was excused by an extremist group of Salafis called Jaljalt.
Vittorio Arrigoni was a very recognizable face in Gaza. I didn't personally know him, but I came to know about his bravery from the documentary To shoot an elephant. Vittorio was one of the activists who stayed during operation Cast Lead. He was one of the voices which told the world about the brutality of the Israeli invasion.
Sadness and anger prevail over the murder of the Italian activist. Those who claimed responsibility for the abduction and murder of Vittorio call themselves Palestinians and Muslims. But Islam washes its hands from such brutal act. Moreover, International activists who visit Gaza have always felt the warmth of the Palestinian hospitality. This will never change, the only threat the Palestinians and these activists share is the threat of the Israeli occupation.
Just like the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, we do not know about the trajectories of the incident. Though, Hamas has vowed to bring the doers to justice, this is too ugly to be planned by a small group of Salifies. It is crystal clear that Israel is the only one benefiting from the murder of voices of peace like Juliano and Vittorio. The Zionist state has been franticly and cowardly propagating and lobbying against the upcoming Freedom Flotilla. Creating an image of Gaza as an internally dangerous place and save haven for extremists would abate the support of the international solidarity movements, as Israel will be promoting.
Palestinians today are not mourning the loss of a friend to the Palestinians, but a loss of a Palestinian. My Deepest condolences go to Vittorio's friends in Gaza, and all over the world. And his bravery will be
remembered
http://fwd4.me/zci
ISM volunteer Vittorio Arrigoni killed in Gaza
by Jared Malsin
Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian Palestine solidarity activist and journalist, was killed this evening after being kidnapped hours earlier by a little-known fringe Salafi group in Gaza http://fwd4.me/zcV . It was the first kidnapping of an international in Gaza in the nearly four years since Hamas took control.
I met Vittorio several times when I was in Gaza last year. I first met him when I accompanied him and several other activists to visit Palestinian families who had been injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes in the mid-Gaza area. He was a burley, bearded man, dressed in black and smiling wide. Talking politics the whole way, we shared the front seat of a van on the ride from Gaza City down to Deir Al-Balah. He had a tattoo of the word resistance (muqawama) in Arabic on the inside of his right arm.
He was a man who lived and died to express his solidarity with Palestinians. He was big-hearted and he was brave, twice participating in blockade-defying sea voyages to Gaza, three times jailed by Israel for his activism.
He embodied a certain spirit of the European anti-fascists of the 1930s and 1940s, who went to fight and die as partisans in Italy and Spain. I come from a partisan family, he once told an interviewer. My grandfathers fought and died struggling against an occupation, another occupation. It was the Nazi-Fascist one. For this reason, probably, in my DNA, there are particles that push me to struggle.
His murder is an outrage and an enormous tragedy.
Those who knew him better than I will write better tributes. I'll quote now from In Gaza, a blog written by Eva, one of Vittorio's ISM colleagues:
Stay human, he always said. And so was the title of his book on the Israeli massacre of Gaza in 2008-2009. Stay human.
Viks blog, Guerilla Radio, gave voice to Palestinians who have strong voices but are denied the microphone.
During the Israeli war on Gaza, we all worked together, riding in ambulances, documenting the martyred and the wounded, the vast majority (over 83%) civilian. Vik was always on the phone, Italian media taking his words and printing them for the public to see.
Aside from the loss of a compassionate, caring human, activist, and friend, I am saddened by the group that did this. Surely they knew Vik was with them, for them. But in every society, including my own, there are extremists, people who act with misguided guidance.
Vik was there, among the war casualties, among the on-going martyrs unspoken in the corporate media, celebrating Palestine's beauty and culture, dancing Dabke at my wedding celebration.
He was there to joke with us, to counsel us, to smoke shisha by the sea He wrote the truth, spoke the truth, stayed human.
Vik, my brother, allah yerhamek, bless you for your humanity and your great contribution to Palestinian justice. I will miss you, your smile, your humble, fun personality.
Yatikalafia ya Vitorrio.
And here, via ISM, is the video from which I quote above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZg0WGKRg2A
Jared Malsin is an American journalist and former chief editor of the English section of Ma'an News Agency. This piece originally appeared on Jared's blog, and is re-posted here with the author's permission.
http://fwd4.me/zcU
Vittorio Arrigoni (1975-2011)...
Yes Ken, it is obvious who stands to benefit. A striking finding: http://www.scribd.com/doc/53046178/Israeli-HIT-LIST-Includes-Vittorio-Utopia-...
-thanks to 1worldcitizen Ken O'Keefe for the video: http://www.youtube.com/user/1worldcitizen
Vittorio Arrigoni Gaza will not forget you, brother RIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ads3jDWb9UM
Abducted Italian activist found executed in Gaza, Hamas says
Two suspects have reportedly been arrested in the alleged kidnapping and subsequent murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, an activist in the International Solidarity Movement; Arrigoni was hanged in an Islamist militant's home.
The body of an Italian pro-Palestinian activist was found hanging in the home of a Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip early Friday, hours after he was reportedly kidnapped.
Hamas officials reported that the body of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, was discovered in the home of a member of the Monotheism and Holy War group that claimed responsibility for the abduction in a video released Thursday.
Two suspects have already been arrested, and Hamas claims to be searching a third.
The video claiming to show the victim emerged from Gaza on Thursday afternoon, teamed with the extremist group's demand that Hamas release its leader who was arrested last month. The group threatened to execute the hostage if it demands were not met by Friday afternoon.
Co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, Huwaida Arraf, confirmed that the abducted man in the video appeared to be one of its activists, identifying him as Arrigoni.
Later Thursday, Hamas police reportedly stormed a Gaza City apartment and found Arrigoni's body. In a statement, the Hamas Interior Ministry said the man was killed "in an awful way" shortly after he was abducted at mid-day Thursday.
Interior Ministry spokesman Ehab al-Ghussein said the kidnappers had planned from the beginning to kill their victim not to trade him for captives. He also said that a member of the militant group led them to the house.
The Palestinian People Party, a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization that is headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the killing and demanded the killers face the "utmost punishment."
"This crime does not reflect the morals or the traditions of the Palestinian people," the group said in a statement.
An Italian doctor was reportedly on his way to Gaza from Israel to identify Arrigoni's body.
The video released by the militant group shows a man with a thick black blindfold and a large bruise on his face. Apparently seated, he is held in front of the camera by an unseen person.
In a message on the video, the extremist group demanded that Hamas free its leader, arrested in early March, and two other members whose names had not been previously known.
Sheikh Abu Walid-al-Maqdasi, the leader of the group, was arrested in a crowded beachside neighborhood of Gaza City last month.
Although Hamas authorities were responsible for locating Arrigoni, Hamas itself is a fundamentalist Islamic group. But it faces challenges from even more extremist offshoots of Islam, including Walid-al-Maqdasi's group, that take inspiration from Al-Qaida and the world jihad movement. Hamas has denied that al-Qaida has a presence in Gaza.
Kidnappings of foreigners were common before the Hamas takeover. Most of those abducted were foreign correspondents, including Alan Johnston of the BBC, who was abducted and held for 114 days before being freed in July 2007, just after Hamas overran Gaza, expelling forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
ISM, the organization to which Arrigoni belonged, operates in the West Bank and Gaza and is known for trying to prevent the Israeli military from carrying out its missions. Arraf said this activist has been going in and out of Gaza for more than two years. He was working with farmers and fishermen.
The ISM incident that got the most attention was the 2003 death of American activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in southern Gaza while trying to block its path.
http://fwd4.me/zcV
Body of abducted Italian activist found in Gaza City
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Ministry of Interior in Gaza said early Friday that an abducted Italian solidarity activist was found dead hours after being kidnapped by radical Islamists.
The government in Gaza "condemns the heinous crime that does not reflect our values, our religion or our customs and traditions," a statement from the ministry said vowing to hunt down those responsible.
Local sources told Ma'an that Vittorio Arrigoni's body was found in an empty home northwest of Gaza City in the Mashrou Amer area.
A spokesman for Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, told AFP the Italian activist had been suffocated, and said his body was found in a street in Gaza City.
Salafist radicals in Gaza were suspected in the kidnapping of Arrigoni, an activist for the International Solidarity Movement, last seen alive in a video posted online Thursday.
"We kidnapped the Italian prisoner Vittorio and we call on the Haniyeh government ... to release all our prisoners," it said, referring to Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh and naming an imprisoned jihadi leader called Sheikh Hisham al-Suedani.
The Salafi Jihadi group had threatened to kill him unless Hamas released Salafist prisoners by Friday evening. Before the deadline passed, however, Hamas said his body was found.
The kidnappers identified themselves in the video as belonging to a previously unknown group called The Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima.
The group described Arrigoni as a "journalist who came to our country for nothing but to corrupt people -- from Italy, the state of infidelity, whose armies are still in the Muslim countries".
Huwaida Arraf, a co-founder of the ISM, confirmed that Vittorio's body was identified by staff in Gaza City. "It's unbelievable," she said. "He was more Palestinian than the criminals that killed him."
Two suspected kidnappers were arrested and security forces are looking for accomplices, officials said.
The West Bank-based Palestinian leadership earlier called for the "immediate and unconditional release of this foreign activist who is working in support of the Palestinian cause and people".
"This action does not help the just cause of the Palestinian people. On the contrary, it harms it," a statement said.
Before the death was announced, Palestinians had planned to meet in Gaza City's central Jundi square on Friday at 4 p.m. The protest was to demand Arrigoni's release, the Gaza Youth Breaks Out group said.
Arrigoni held honorary citizenship for his work in the occupied territories, "a hero of Palestine," said Khalil Shaheen of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in an ISM statement.
Rome on Friday denounced "in the strongest manner the act of vile and senseless violence committed by extremists who are indifferent to the value of human life", a statement said.
The foreign ministry expressed "its deep horror over the barbaric murder and its most sincere condolences to the family."
In March, sources close to the Salafists told Ma'an that their leader, Hisham Su'idni, 50, was arrested from his home in the Shati refugee camp. The video posted Thursday demanded his release.
Hamas security forces have in recent years taken a hard line against Salafists in Gaza.
There are five major Salafist groups in Gaza, all of which espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the early days of the faith.
Their religious observances and refusal to abide by various ceasefires have set them on a path of confrontation with Hamas.
Though small in numbers, the groups have had a disproportionate impact.
By launching hundreds of crude rockets from the coastal enclave into Israel, they have attracted the wrath of both Israel and Hamas.
The history of bad blood between Hamas and the Salafists goes back to 2007, when a Salafist group called the Army of Islam claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston.
Hamas severed ties with the group and helped free Johnston after four months in captivity.
Tensions boiled over in August 2009, when Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Partisans of God) announced the creation of an Islamist "emirate" in Gaza, during a sermon at a mosque in the southern city of Rafah.
That prompted a furious response from Hamas, whose forces stormed the mosque, prompting clashes which left 24 people dead.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378866 15 apr 2011, 13:31 , Respect
Maria France condemns Italian activist's murder
France condemned the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, a pro-Palestinian Italian peace activist who was kidnapped and murdered by a Salafi terror group in Gaza, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday.
"France strongly condemns the cowardly murder of an Italian national and offers its deepest condolences to his family and the Italian people," spokesman Bernard Valero Quai d'Orsay said during a press briefing.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4057346,00.html
Friends of murdered Italian activist 'devastated'
Vittorio Arrigoni's friends say will continue to spread his message, advocate for Palestinian human rights. Salafi group al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad withdraws statement in which it claimed responsibility for activist's abduction, murder.
The family and friends of the Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was murdered by a radical Islamist group in Gaza early Friday, are devastated by his death, one of his friends told AFP.
"The people who were close to him, as I was, are devastated and consumed by pain," Maria Elena Delia said by telephone in Italy.
Delia said rallies and gatherings were planned in Milan, Turin, Rome and Genoa on Friday, including a reading from Arrigoni's book "Gaza, Stay Human" in Turin in the evening.
The 36-year-old Arrigoni, who hailed from Besana Brianza near Milan, had been living in Gaza for much of the past three years, working as an activist for the International Solidarity Movement and as a journalist and writer.
There he wrote an eyewitness account of the Israeli 22-day offensive against the Gaza Strip between December 2008 and January 2009, known as Operation "Cast Lead."
"We want to keep attention on the issues Vittorio defended, such as Palestinians' human rights. We will continue to spread his message," Delia said.
Earlier Friday the Italian foreign ministry denounced "in the strongest manner the act of vile and senseless violence committed by extremists who are indifferent to the value of human life."
In a statement, the ministry expressed "its deep horror over the barbaric murder and its most sincere condolences to the family".
The pro-Palestinian activist was found hanged in house north of Gaza City hours after news broke that he had been kidnapped. He was the first foreigner to be killed since Hamas took control in June 2007.
In a video posted on YouTube, Arrigoni's Salafist captors had demanded the release of an unspecified number of their members detained by the security forces in the Gaza Strip, threatening to execute the hostage if their demand was not met.
Two of Arrigoni's presumed abductors have been arrested, a Hamas security spokesman said.
Prominent figure
Arrigoni's friends try to come to terms with murder
Meanwhile, Palestinian terror group al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad withdrew a statement in which it claimed responsibility for Arrigoni's kidnapping and murder on Friday.
"Even though we have no connection to the kidnapping, we would like to stress that what happened is the natural outcome to the Hamas government policy against other organizations within the Strip," the group said.
Arrigoni was a prominent figure in Gaza and often held debates with those who opposed his opinions on his blog. There was considerable opposition to his opinions in Italy including a facebook group named "the response to Arrigoni" which confronted him directly.
Last week he criticized the group, whose Facebook page posted a photo of a T-shirt with an image of a viewfinder on a Palestinian pregnant woman. The caption reads: 'Two birds with one stone'. "This is the learned remark of a group whose dedicated goal is abusing and insulting, a neo-Nazi rabble who would most likely wear these shirts," Arrigoni wrote and posted a picture of an IDF soldier.
In his final post he wrote about Gaza smugglers' "invisible battle for survival".
"Gaza is suffocating in Israel's villainous blockade," he wrote.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4057332,00.html
Abbas: Murder of activist 'grotesque, disgraceful'
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday strongly denounced the killing of an Italian peace activist in Gaza as a "grotesque and disgraceful crime," the official Palestinian Authority news agency reported.
Vittorio Arrigoni was found hanged in a northern Gaza home early Friday morning, Gaza government officials said.
He had been kidnapped by a radical Islamist group, who posted a video online Thursday saying he had been taken hostage to secure the release of Salafist prisoners detained by Hamas.
In the video, the kidnappers threatened to execute Arrigoni unless their demands were met by Friday evening. It was unclear why they killed their hostage before the expiry of the deadline.
"This disgraceful crime is against the values of our people who are struggling to gain freedom and independence," Abbas said, adding that Arrigoni was a supporter of the Palestinian cause.
The president extended his condolences to Arrigoni's family and praised the role international peace activists played in defending Palestinians' legitimate national rights.
Abbas' Fatah party also condemned the killing as a terrorist crime and "an act of betrayal," which served only Palestinians' enemies.
"This kind of crime is alien to the Palestinians," Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf said, adding that respect for human dignity was at the core of Palestinians' moral values.
The murder prompted a chorus of condemnation from Palestinian factions including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Palestinian National Initiative, Palestinian Peoples' Party and Popular Resistance Committee.
http://fwd4.me/zeF
Israeli HIT LIST includes Vittorio Arrigoni, Flotilla Crew, RT reporter, Humanitarians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le0tZt3CaT8
Salafi leader: Islam prohibits murder
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Salafi leader Iyad Ash-Shami said Friday that Salafi groups were not involved in the murder of an Italian activist in the Gaza Strip.
The killing of Vittorio Arrigoni "had nothing to do with Islam," he said, adding that Salafi groups and scholars all agreed that the killing of any man was prohibited.
The body of Vittorio Arrigoni was found hanged in a home northwest of Gaza City early Friday morning, hours after the International Solidarity Movement activist was kidnapped in the coastal enclave.
Salafi radicals were suspected of kidnapping Arrigoni, last seen alive in a video posted online Thursday.
The kidnappers identified themselves in the video as belonging to a previously unknown group called The Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima.
They threatened to kill Arrigoni unless Hamas released Salafist prisoners by Friday evening. Before the deadline passed, however, Hamas said his body was found.
Ash-Shami said "any government or state anywhere in the world" could have made the video, but said Salafi factions in Gaza would meet Friday to decide how to respond to the killing.
Earlier Friday, Salafi faction At-Tawheed wa Al-Jihad denied involvement in the abduction and murder of Arrigoni, but said it was "a natural outcome of the policy of the government carried out against the Salafi."
The Hamas-run government in Gaza has in recent years taken a hard line against Salafists in Gaza, whose religious observances and refusal to comply with ceasefires with Israel has led to confrontations.
Hamas severed ties with Salafist faction the Army of Islam in 2007 after the group claimed responsibility for kidnapping BBC reporter Alan Johnson.
Hamas helped to secure the journalist's release after four months in captivity.
In August 2009, Salafist faction Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Partisans of God) announced the creation of an Islamist "emirate" in Gaza, during a sermon at a mosque in the southern city of Rafah.
That prompted a furious response from Hamas, whose forces stormed the mosque, prompting clashes which left 24 people dead.
http://fwd4.me/zde
Widespread Palestinian Condemnation of Arrigoni Killing in Gaza
Gaza/Ramallah PNN Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, was found dead on Friday morning in an abandoned house in Gaza City hours after a radical Salafi group kidnapped him on Thursday.
The Palestinian police announced that after the kidnapping of Arrigoni police forces were deployed around the city in a man hunt for the kidnappers.
Sources in the police said that officers arrested a suspect that led them to the location where Arrigoni was held in but arrived too late to save him, as the kidnapers had killed him shortly after abducting him. According the Ministry of Interior in Gaza the police have arrested two suspects.
The Ministry added that Arrigoni was suffocated to death while his hands were tied together execution stile.
On Thursday a group calling itself Mohamed Bin-Mosliemah group released a YouTube video showing Arrigoni alive but beaten up and demanded the release of group members jailed by the Palestinian police in Gaza within 30 hours. If this was denied, they threatened to kill Arrigoni.
Arrigoni, Italian peace activists and freelance journalist, came to Gaza last year onboard the ships of the Free Gaza movement that broke the five-years long Israeli siege on the costal enclave bring much needed medical and food supplies to 1.5 million Palestinians living there.
According to the International Solidarity Movement ISM were Arrigoni works, he was last seen near Gaza City's port at 8:00pm on Wednesday.
The Hamas movement in control of the Gaza Strip condemned the attack. This is a clear attempt to create chaos in Gaza and to destroy the strong relations between the Palestinian people and their friends all over the world, Fouzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesperson told the online Palestinian Info on Friday.
In the west Bank, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the attack, calling it both cowardly and contradictory of the Palestinian culture.
Palestinian NGOs and human rights groups called for protests in Gaza and the West Bank and demanded the killers to be brought to justice.
http://fwd4.me/zdc
Vik Vittorio Arrigoni has been murdered in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VLDgplzWFs
REST IN PEACE BRAVE VICTORIO. YOU STOOD UP FOR THE OPPRESSED AND THE VICTIMS OF ISRAELI TERRORISM AND WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOUR BRAVERY, YOUR KINDNESS AND YOUR COMMITMENT TO JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE.
Vittorio Arrigoni ISM journalist and human rights defender murdered in Gaza on April 14 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZg0WGKRg2A
Maria To Vik: Gaza Will Stay Human
by gazadoctor
Upon reading the updates from facebook friends in my news feed this morning that Vittorio Arrigoni, the kidnapped Italian journalist and beloved ISM worker, was found dead, my heart leapt! Leapt might not be the perfect word as it implies excitement and happiness but I truly felt it leaping!
When I realized it was true and everyone was linking Vittorio's name to R.I.P., I was so shocked that I could hardly contain my feelings let alone identify them. Yet after reflecting on the news for few more minutes, my thoughts on the subject crystallized.
This is how I understood it: Vittorio was Gaza's and Palestine's latest Shaheed. He was brutally mudredred by a bunch of lunatic criminals who are not in any way even remotely related to Palestine and what Palestinians feel for Vittorio.
Vik, as friends called him, was kidnapped yesterday by a Salafist Islamic group that, in a film on YouTube, threatened to kill him if within 30 hours, starting from 11:00 local time, the Hamas government did not liberate some Salafi detainees. Vittorio was killed without even half the time that the kidnappers stated as the limit having passed.
My conscious thinking kept telling me not to worry and that Vik will be released to safety soon; that I can start worrying on exceeding the 20-hours mark. My rationalization was fundamentally wrong; monsters who allow themselves to abduct such a hero are not governed by any sense of reason.
Vittorio was assassinated. We lost him.
The big, strong and handsome Italian man was a volunteer with the International solidarity movement and served as a human shield while working with the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances during the Israeli attack on Gaza strip. He was especially known for accompanying the fishermen as they tried to ply their trade despite almost daily shootings at them from the Israeli navy, who confined them to the fished-out, sewage-filled waters near the Gaza coast.
Vik received Palestinian citizenship and a passport when he sailed into Gaza port in August, 2008 and on his facebook page is written: lives in Gaza. That citizenship was a richly earned one; Vik was a dedicated Palestinian who shared the people of Gaza the three-week aggression on the Strip as he shared them the too-sweet tea, traditional dishes and Shisha!
In his book, Gaza: Stay Human, Vittorio documents his experiences among the people of Gaza during Israel's attack in 2008-2009 and gives his first hand account of the inhuman actions the Gaza strip witnessed at that time.
Vittorio,
human you wanted Gaza to stay and in Gaza you were inhumanely murdered.
For you, Rachel, Tristan, Tom and Juliano
I swear Gaza will stay human and Palestine will be free
http://networkedblogs.com/gHvWU
Mourners march for slain Italian activist
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Dozens of young Palestinians and peace activists participated Friday in a symbolic funeral for murdered Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni.
The funeral started from at Jundi square to a wake where mourners gathered to pay their last respects.
Participants held Palestinian and Italian flags in addition to Arrigoni's photos.
They condemned the crime against him and chanted slogans like death to terrorism and by soul and blood we sacrifice ourselves for you, Victor.
An Italian activist, identified only as Silvia, said internationals would remain in Gaza.
http://fwd4.me/zfq
Photo series: nour_odeh Gaza mourns Vittorio & bids him farewell http://fwd4.me/zfa
Vittorio Arrigoni: The man I knew
By Nicole Johnston
There is a packet of pipe tobacco sitting in my Gaza City apartment.
It's Victor's. He left it behind the last time I saw him, about one month ago.
Anyone who knew Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni knew that he was usually puffing away on a pipe. Like a wise sea captain.
I had hoped to give his tobacco back to him this weekend, to catch up before he left Gaza and returned to Italy.
He was heading home to see his father, who has been very ill. Also to have a break from Gaza and return refreshed on a new flotilla aiming to set sail to Gaza at the end of May and break the siege.
I last heard from him on Wednesday. It was a short text message asking me if I'd just heard the loud booms. These were sonic booms from low flying Israeli war planes. No, I replied, I hadn't.
The following day he was kidnapped and shortly afterwards killed. Members of a Salafi group say they are responsible.
I first met Vik on a story inside Gaza's buffer zone. A team from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was accompanying a farmer and a dozen Palestinian women onto their land while they harvested their crop.
This area has been declared a no-go area by Israel. Inside the buffer zone Israeli soldiers shoot and sometimes kill Palestinians. ISM hopes the international presence will deter the Israelis.
It didn't seem much of a deterrent when we were there. Even with a film crew present Israeli troops fired shots. We crouched down low into the wheat.
Vik and his colleagues stood their ground. When they decided it was too dangerous to stay any longer, we followed them out. We went into the buffer zone once.
Gaza's ISM volunteers were doing it every week. Some say it was foolhardy bravery. But there was no doubting their commitment to the cause.
So after bonding in the buffer zone, I met Vik and his colleague, Adie Nistelrooy, many times. Sometimes it was over pasta, a seafood meal, or a shisha pipe and a World Cup football game.
The last time we all gathered, I thought I was farewelling them both from Gaza. A group of us ate, danced and watched the night slip away from my ninth floor apartment.
Adie did leave Gaza a day or two later. Vik ended up staying one month longer. A month that has changed everything.
The news of his death has shaken Gaza's small community of internationals and the Palestinians he counted as his dear friends. Italy has evacuated its nationals.
I often walk by myself through Gaza's dark streets at night, heading home from a café or after visiting a friend's apartment. Usually I carry a torch in the stretches of road where the electricity has been cut. With Hamas police manning checkpoints and street corners across Gaza City, it felt safe.
Now I hope it still is. Because that's what Victor would have wanted.
http://fwd4.me/zfg
REMEMBERING VIK
by Jeff Halper
Less than two weeks after losing another friend and comrade, Juliano Mer-Khamis, I now have to mourn and remember my fellow Free Gaza shipmate Vittorio (Vik) Arrigoni, who was brutally murdered last night by religious extremists in Gaza (and who actually resembled Juliano, physically, in his buoyant personality and in his insistence on being there when the oppressed needed him).
Vik was truly a person greater than life. He was so filled with energy, a mixture of joy, camaraderie and impatience with the confines of boats and prisons like Gaza, that he would suddenly lift you into the air, or wrestle with you he was a big, strong, handsome guy, ebullient and smiling even in the most oppressive and dangerous situations as if to tell you: Yalla! These Israel naval ships shooting at us and the Palestinian fisherman cannot prevail over our solidarity, outrage and the justice of our cause! (Vik was wounded in one of those confrontations). He would come up behind you and say: The Occupation will fall just like this! (and he would wrestle you to the ground, laughing and playing with you as he did).
Vik, who like me received Palestinian citizenship and a passport when we broke the siege of Gaza and sailed into Gaza port in August, 2008, was a peace-maker exemplar. Though having a family in Italy, he cast his lot with the Palestinians (with his whole heart, as was his wont. On his facebook page is written: lives in Gaza). He was especially known for accompanying the fishermen as they tried to ply their trade despite almost daily shootings at them from the Israeli navy, who confined them to the fished-out, sewage-filled waters near the Gaza coast. At least eighteen fishermen have been killed in the past decade, about 200 injured, many boats wrecked and much equipment ruined. But he was intimately involved wherever he was needed in Gaza, among the farmers as well as traumatized children, in times of distress his book, Gaza: Stay Human, documents his experiences among the people during Israel's three-week attack in 2008-09 and simply being with the people in their coffee shops and homes.
When it was learned he was kidnapped, hundreds of appeals rose spontaneously not only from the international peace community but especially from a distraught Palestinian population in Gaza. A memorial service will be held today in Gaza City and other parts of the Occupied Territories.
Vik worked in the West Bank as well as Gaza, and was jailed three times before being expelled by Israel. But his peace work did not take the form of activism alone. Vik was a master of communication physical, verbal, written (his blog, Guerrilla Radio, was one of the most popular in Italy) and he mixed personal experiences, reportage and analysis effortlessly.
Vik was what we call a witness: someone who put himself physically with the oppressed and shared with them their triumphs, tragedies, sufferings and hopes. Yet he was one who through his actions tried to affect genuine change. His last message on my facebook page was: No-fly zone over Palestine. He, like Juliano, Rachel, Tom and so many other internationals who have sacrificed themselves for peace and justice in Palestine and the world over, leave a huge hole in our hearts, our lives and in the struggle.
I'll miss you, man. But every time I feel tired or discouraged, I'll feel you lifting me up over your head and, with your huge smile and laughter, threatening to throw me overboard if I even hesitate in throwing myself into the fight. You were and are the earth-force of the struggle against injustice. You will always hold us up and inspire us. Like the Palestinian fishermen you loved so much, we and all others fighting for the fundamentals of life throughout the world commit ourselves to seeing your vision through.
Ciao, friend.
http://www.icahd.org/?p=7195
With Great Shock and Sorrow, PCHR Condemns Murder of Italian Activist, Vittorio Arrigoni
With great shock and sorrow, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the murder of Italian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni. On Friday morning, 15 April 2011, Vittorio's body was found in an abandoned house in the north of the Gaza Strip, following his murder at the hands of kidnappers.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), and its entire staff, gravely condemns this crime, which targets our inherent human dignity, and the values and traditions of the lawful struggle for freedom and justice. It is this human struggle which connects Gazan's locked behind the closed door of the Gaza Strip with the outside world, and inspires countless individuals to stand as human rights defenders.
PCHR calls upon the government in Gaza to prosecute the perpetrators. Furthermore, all necessary measures must be taken to secure the safety of international activists in the Gaza Strip.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, on Thursday evening, 14 April 2011, a group named "Group of the Companion Mohammed Bin Maslamah" announced the kidnapping of the Italian journalist, Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, a prominent member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and a human rights defender. In a video posted on the Youtube website, the group demanded the release of detained members of the group, affiliates of the so-called "Salafist Jihadist Group". The kidnappers threatened to kill Arrigoni if the government in Gaza did not meet their demands within 30 hours.
In a grave development, contrary to fundamental values shared by all Palestinians, the group carried out their threat. On Friday morning, 15 April 2011, security services found the body of Arrigoni in a house located in the 'Amer project area, west of al-Karamah building in the west of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip. In his testimony, a PCHR staff-member reported signs of beating on the victim's face, signs of handcuffs on his hands, and signs of strangulation around his neck.
The Ministry of Interior in Gaza issued a press release on Friday, condemning this heinous crime. It declared the arrest of two members of the group and the continued search for others.
Arrigoni had worked in Gaza since 2008, when he arrived on board the "Free Gaza" flotilla, organized to break the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip. He devoted himself to the defense of Palestinians' rights, and participated in a number of activities against the closure, against violations committed by Israeli Forces against Palestinian civilians, particularly fishermen, and against the Israeli decision to impose a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip. He was arrested by Israel forces on18 November 2008, while he was accompanying a number of fishermen off the shores of Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. However, he returned to Gaza a few months later via Rafah International Crossing. Arrigoni was also in the West Bank for a few years before coming to Gaza. He has been known for his activity with the International Solidarity Movement.
PCHR reiterates its condemnation of this heinous crime, and:
1. Calls upon the government in Gaza to conduct an effective and prompt investigation to identify the circumstances of the crime, prosecute the perpetrators, and publish the investigations' results;
2. Appreciates the role played by the International Solidarity Movement and other human rights defenders in the occupied Palestinian territory;
3. Calls upon the international community, political powers and Palestinian people to condemn this crime and organize peaceful activities against it.
http://fwd4.me/zfY
STAY HUMAN ...Freedom Flotilla Renames Voyage in Honor of Vittorio Arrigoni
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Freedom Flotilla 2 Steering Committee
April 15, 2011 (London)
The murder of human rights activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, is a tragedy for his family, for those of us who knew him, and for the Palestinians who loved and admired him. The Steering Committee of Freedom Flotilla 2 condemns this senseless murder and the people who are behind it. They took the life of one of the most passionate supporters of justice for Palestine. This murder is damaging to the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice as well as our work in support of that struggle.
In his honor, we are naming our next voyage, FREEDOM FLOTILLA STAY HUMAN.
Nothing that we write can capture the man who was so full of the joy of life, a man with the pipe in his mouth and the captain's hat always tilted at an angle on his head. The man with the big smile and gentle nature, someone who used his physical strength to hold small children in his arms, sometimes several at a time. His laughter and his last comments every time we saw him will ring in all of our ears as we board the boats to return to Gaza at the end of May.
Stay Human, he would say, then grin and clench his pipe in his teeth.
Vittorio had sailed with us on the first small boat to enter Gaza in the summer of 2008, one of 44 activists sailing to protest the illegal blockade imposed by Israel against the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza. We will do our best, Vik, to carry on the work you have done. The flotilla will return to Gaza in your honor.
Contact:
In English: Sion Art
In Italian: Mohamad Hannoun 00393477604355
In French: Annour Gharbu 0041792465703
In Arabic: Ramy Abdo 00447728021097
http://www.savegaza.eu/eng/index.php?id=550
Online Records of an Italian's Life in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2hTspxeLho
As my colleague Fares Akram reports, Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian activist who was kidnapped by Islamist militants in Gaza on Thursday, and found dead early on Friday, arrived in the Palestinian territory on a ship that broke through the Israeli naval blockade more than two years ago.
Since Mr. Arrigoni, who was 36 years old, was a blogger and an active user of Facebook and Twitter, he left behind an extensive online record of his life in Gaza.
This undated video posted on YouTube on Thursday shows Mr. Arrigoni discussing his activism (note: at the start of the clip, he mistakenly said that he had arrived by boat in August 2009, but, according to the Free Gaza Movement, the boat arrived in the territory on Aug. 23, 2008 and there was no challenge to the blockade a year later):
This video report from The Guardian includes archival footage of Mr. Arrigoni's arrival in Gaza in 2008 and his explanation, in English, of why he joined the movement to break the blockade: http://fwd4.me/zeu
http://fwd4.me/zev
GazaYBO Gaza Right now, hundred of people gathered at Al Jundi Al Majhool square in Gaza to demand hunting down & prosecution of Vittorio's murderers. 15 apr 2011, 21:43 , Respect
Maria GazaYBO Pics of today's protest for Vittorio http://fwd4.me/zgj
GoodBye Vittorio Arrigoni, killed in Gaza 15\4\2011
Vittorio Arrigoni,36, Italian ISM volunteer in Gaza plus a respectable journalist who always made his best to shed a light on Gaza, was kidnapped yesterday by an unknown Group. The group threatened to kill him if Hamas doesn't respond to their demand: which is to release one of their prisoners in Hamas jails. They gave Hamas 30 hours starting from 11am from 14\4\2011.
At 3 30am 15\4\2011 Reuters News Flash on twitter reported Vittorio's death, the source was unnamed Hamas source. Then tweets and rumors started asking about the credibility of this news, some started denying while others were confirming. At 4 am Vittorio Arrigoni's death was confirmed by Hamas officials.
Ministry of Interior, Gaza, issued a press release saying that they immediately moved to search for him once they got the news of his abduction; they did their best until they reached 1 suspect who led them to the other suspects and the place where Vittorio was held in. They entered and found Vittorio already dead. They arrested two suspects and doubt that more accomplices may be involved.
The press release also referred that the crime came to shake Gaza's image and scare international activists away specially after the news of the preparations for a second freedom flotilla. The press release pointed out that the abductors wanted him dead because they killed him after a short while of his abduction. The Ministry of interior promised to follow all the murders, prosecute them and punish them.
The press release of the interior ministry in Gaza didn't mention more info, no mentioning of the where and when he was abducted, why he was abducted and by whom.
On the other hand, France 24 offered more details which I cant confirm or deny about Vittorio%u2019s death and abduction process without mentioning the source behind these info:
The Italian was killed by suffocation and his body was found in a street of the city of Gaza," a spokesman for the Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip told AFP.
Two suspected kidnappers were arrested and security officials are looking for accomplices.
Foreign aid workers in the enclave earlier named the man as Vittorio Arrigoni and said he was an activist with a pro-Palestinian group called the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), who was also working as a journalist and writer.
Vittorio was Italian by birth but his dedication to Palestine and Gaza made him no less Palestinian than any other Palestinian, he came to Gaza many times and live here for a while. He endangered his life numerous times while working as a volunteer with the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) in Gaza when he was trying to protect farmers and fisherman, in addition to his participation in all buffer-zone protests.
Vittorio meant allot for Palestinians, Gazans and his friend everywhere. He is a huge loss for us all, may he rest in peace.
We will never forget you Vik.
http://fwd4.me/zgd
Ghazawi Vittorio
by Nalan
Vittorio has been active in the Palestine cause for almost 10 years. For the past two and a half years, he has been in Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement, monitoring human rights violations by Israel, supporting the Palestinian popular resistance against the Israeli occupation and disseminating information about the situation in Gaza to his home country of Italy.
Vic was more than this to me; he was my Italian friend who has a Palestinian heart. The brother for all Palestinians. who would sacrifices himself to protect fishermen and farmers. Who would say words and prove them with actions. The captain of the ship . the pipe, beard, and koffia. The dude with big mussels and tattoos. The caring friend and brother. The supporter . the big hearted vic who would do anything to draw smiles on Palestinian people's faces . with his smile you can feel faith. The believer. The ghazawi. The Palestinian. The hero . the martyr. Victor. Vittorio. I'm sorry . I miss you . and you will always be in my heart.
One of his right hand's tattoos was resistance! How sarcastic life is! He is a true believer
today 15.4.2011 , we the ones who knew Vittorio- gathered at the gallery café after the Friday prayer, most of us knew him in person some just saw his smile here and there. A lot of media coverage which is good so the whole world would know that not all Palestinians and gaza people like the gang which killed him , and also it was annoying bec. We needed some space to hold each other and be there for each other and remember him in peace.
I was talking to one of my ISM friends , Selvia , she's also Italian and close friend to Vic , she said when they kidnapped him we didn't believe it , when the news of his death came out we didn't either, even when I saw his body and it was him Nalan it was him , but I just can't believe it.
One of my questions to my friend, Nathan an American ISM activist, too, was: what your plans now? he answered powerfully: if you're asking if the ISM leaving, no we are Not . What happened to Vic give us more power to stand up by the Palestinian people I was amazed with his answer, I said in my mind you guys are such believers, and I know you are feeling scared but hell yes you are No cowards.
our tears will never dry on you Vic
We started managing for the march to al Jundi square the Unknown Soldier sq. where our sit-in was for couple of hours, and then we headed back to the gallery café, planning for the sit-in in front of the UNDP with candles later at night. Before the march to al Jundi, we prepared posters was talking mostly about victor, our pain for losing him and our demands for the government to punch the murderers!
candles for you our Hero Vittorio
we lightened these candels for you as you lightened our lives with your smile and belief.. we sang you your favorite song onadikom i'm calling you we sang some other songs full of pain, lost, proud, faith, and much more tears within we will never forget you Victor.. i will never forget you.
Last time I saw Vic was couple of days ago at the beach restaurant, we caught up, life, Gaza, work, study. We shacked hands, I said bye, he said keep in touch! Which is unusual for my Vic to say , he usually ciao or Salam or any other Italian word which could amaze me and make me laugh ! It rang in my head! But I ignored it as days would come and go and we will meet again. But days went and took him with it and didn't bring him back. I didn't know that some people mean what they say deeply sometimes. I'm sorry Vic I wasn't there to protect you. Or to hold your hand as you always held ours in bad times before good times.
He used to call me the most beautiful Palestinian journalist! And I call him now if you can hear me YOU ARE MY HERO! brother I will always miss you!
http://fwd4.me/zga
Haniyeh orders swift investigation after Italian activist murdered
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The premier of Hamas' government has ordered its interior ministry to immediately open a criminal investigation leading to the killers of an Italian peace activist abducted by extremists in Gaza.
Ismail Haniyeh said Friday that his government "strongly denounces" the killing of Vittorio Arrigoni, whose body was discovered in an empty house in Gaza City hours after he was seen in a random video posted by Islamist extremists Thursday afternoon.
The murder "does not reflect the values, morals, or the religion of the Palestinian people "This is an unprecedented case that won't be repeated," he said at an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis.
The government will consider Vittorio a Palestinian martyr and name a street after him, he said.
Hamas officials said Haniyeh called the Allegoni's mother to express his and his government's condolences for the death of her son. He explained the efforts the government is making to prosecute those responsible. The killers will be brought to justice "as soon as possible" to deter any similar crime, he said.
Allegoni's mother thanked Haniyeh for the call and appreciated his efforts, the officials said.
Security forces will increase protection to members of the international solidarity campaigns to break the siege, and the government called on them to continue their efforts until the siege is lifted.
This "crime comes in the time when Gaza is living in highest security situation because everyone who enters Gaza lives in security and stability," he said vowing to increase efforts to emphasize that point.
The government has sent its condolences to the Italian government and people. It ordered the foreign ministry and government media office to intensify efforts to coordinate with concerned parties and took a decision to form a delegation to Italy to pay its respects to the victim's loved ones.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379073
GazaYBO 2 of the killers are 16 &17 years old! WTF
That's what hammas said!
I heard rumors that killers confessed they were agents of Israel. Waiting something official.
EU foreign policy chief condemns Gaza murder
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The EU foreign policy chief on Friday condemned the murder of an Italian activist in Gaza, saying it was even more "deplorable" considering his efforts for Palestinians.
"I strongly condemn yesterday's kidnapping and atrocious murder of the Italian citizen Vittorio Arrigoni," Catherine Ashton said in a statement. "I express my sincere condolences to his family and friends."
She added: "This murder is all the more deplorable, as Vittorio Arrigoni has been helping the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip for many years. I urge everyone in the Gaza Strip to stop this violence."
http://fwd4.me/zg9
PFLP mourns the martyr Vittorio Arrigoni and calls for justice and accountability
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounces in the strongest terms the criminal murder of Italian solidarity activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza, and offers its deepest condolences to the family of the martyr, the Italian people, the global solidarity movement with the Palestinian people, and all who care for justice.
The Front expresses its shock and horror at this heinous and cowardly crime, which is completely averse to the ethics, principles and traditions of our people and our movement, that came against a solidarity activist with Palestine, who had come to Gaza to be among our people and stand against suffering, siege, occupation and colonialism. This heinous crime only benefits the Israeli occupation, while threatening great harm to the Palestinian people and its just cause of liberation and self-determination.
The Front called upon all to memorialize the martyr Vittorio Arrigoni, who lives on and stands among the great martyrs of our people, to continue on his path of justice, liberation, and solidarity, and to exert the strongest efforts to hold all those responsible for this crime fully accountable before the Palestinian people.
http://fwd4.me/zg0
In Honor of Vittorio Photo series: http://fwd4.me/zfw 16 apr 2011, 13:20 , Respect
Maria Mossad Killed Vik | Vittorio Arrigoni
(14:00) Mossad Killed - Vik Vittorio Arrigoni
Rest in Peace Vik
This is a mirror post. Anyone that uploads this video from me, please copy the information below and put it in the video description! Thank You
Please subscribe to the Originator of this video Gaza Friends and join in our fight to free Gaza. (Links Below)
Gaza Friends http://fwd4.me/zkX
Free Gaza
http://www.freegaza.org/
World United News
http://worldunited-stewart.blogspot.com/
Very Important Article:
Those who want to bump off the witnesses of the slaughter 15/01/09
Source: Original Article http://fwd4.me/zkS
Source: Original Article (English Translation) http://fwd4.me/zkV
http://fwd4.me/zkR
Those who want to bump off the witnesses of the slaughter - 15/01/09
by Pino Cabras - Megachip
Those who want to bump off the witnesses of the slaughter
A Criminal website incites the killing of volunteers in Gaza. Vittorio Arrigoni is also in their sights
The criminal website http://stoptheism.com/ invites people to kill the few volunteers who are providing health treatment in Gaza under Israeli bombs.
They are Americans, Spaniards, Australians, Italians and other volunteers who report us what news they can about the real impact of the Israeli aggression in Gaza. Amongst them there is Vittorio Arrigoni, human rights activist.
What we have here is pure incitement to killing, furnished also with the photos of those wanted. It's really unconceivable that the site is still online. We demand that the Italian Government and Foreign Office take steps right now to call for it to be immediately closed and to bring those responsible to court.
http://www.megachip.info/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=8532
The call is clear: to kill a group of people, with their first and last name, habits and ideas, political affiliations and pictures easily identifiable. They also demand informers cooperation so as to complete the list with addresses. The dossiers are openly addressed to the Israeli military so as to help them eliminate dangerous targets physically, unless others see to it first: the foes to be hit are western activists health assistants and other volunteers who work and are witnesses to what is unfolding in the Occupied Territories.
You may read all this on a website, run by a group of extremists, a sort of American-Jewish Ku Klux Klan: Stop the ISM. It may be worth noting that an Italian, Vittorio Arrigoni, whose touching reports from Gaza we have read, is amongst those targeted.
The person who runs the site is Lee Kaplan. He's one of the many quasi-fascist instigators of the American far right underbelly, a medley that has recently taken root both amongst the Christian movements and the fringes of Jewish fundamentalism, now joined by an unusual anti-Islamic extremism. In the US, this linking between these two milieus has strengthened to the extent that Kaplan often hangs around the wannabe high society circles of the TV talk shows famous for their foaming at the mouth, on Fox News channel.
But, above all, this phenomenon is getting stronger in the Holy Land. The Jewish fundamentalists control the most extremist settlements in the territories (as it was already possible to learn by reading Israel Shahak's and Norton Mezvinsky's Jewish fundamentalism in Israel, London, Pluto Press 1999). The Christian fundamentalists help them hasten the coming of Armageddon, the final battle between Good and Evil, that is supposed to take place precisely there. Maybe in order to get ahead with his work, Mr Kaplan gives free rein to the site in order to call for Arrigoni and others to be eliminated. Moreover, without expecting any concern from the Italian government, in case someone should see to our fellow countryman's wished-for permanent removal.
We shall repeat: these criminal hopes haven't turned up on a semi-underground web forum, but on a site open to everyone and run by a public figure.
Now, since also the Israeli armed forces don't want witnesses to Gaza's havoc, and our mainstream media has immediately and sycophantically complied with this ban, and since the only voice from there comes from Arrigoni, then two and two makes four and we get wind of a huge danger. We have seen that a heavy hand is being used there, if even hospitals, ambulances, schools are bombed and any aid is targeted.
While the body count in Gaza is now reaching one thousand, an oddity is taking place.
Neither can the heap of corpses be swept any longer under the rug of a leading article by Bernard Henry Levy, nor the use of horrible weapons that in future you will see prohibited. Our papers are shyly starting to talk about it. Yes, not in the front page, like we did some days ago here, but at page ten, with low profile articles.
Concealing is no longer possible. Yet, it's possible to water things down. And our great media knows well how to do it. Awaiting who knows what, a political military success, a chimera, the end of Hamas. At what price?
The most subtle censorship is ongoing, but this subtlety doesn't save it from being associated to more violent and threatening censorship, the kind that intends to hit those who want to rescue the Palestinian people from their own destruction.
You know, when the finger points to the moon, the fool looks at the finger. Similarly, many Italian intellectuals are horrified while pointing out to us the blood-stained finger of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) but they fail to look at the gloomy moon where the other fundamentalisms are increasingly holding sway over the Israeli leadership.
The idea according to which the IAF are defending the Enlightenment against the uncivilized is an ideology heralding tragedies, and we had better get rid of it by operating an honest historical and political review of the Middle-eastern record. The account of what is happening is now at a crucial point, with all the witnesses to be respected.
Source: Quelli che vogliono ammazzare i testimoni della strage
Original article published on 13 January, 2009. Diego Traversa and Mary Rizzo are members of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity.
This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and reviser are cited.
URL of this article on Tlaxcala: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=6810&lg=en
http://fwd4.me/zkV 17 apr 2011, 10:34 , Respect
Maria 16 apr 2011
Guardian: Vittorio Arrigoni received a death threat from a US far-right website
(2:47) Guardian: Vittorio Arrigoni received a death threat from a US far-right website
Ihab Salim-independent journalist-Sandviken-Sweden-Iraqi news agency INA:
Britain's Guardian newspaper revealed that the Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was killed after he was kidnapped by an unknown group in the Gaza Strip on Friday, received a death threat from a US far-right website, according to the newspaper.
The newspaper added: "Vittorio Arrigoni began travelling abroad. He reached Israel nine years ago almost by chance, his mother recalled", according to the newspaper.
"He told me: 'I came through the Damascus gate and arrived in East Jerusalem. It was as if I had been hit by a thunderbolt.' That was the moment he understood his work would be concentrated there," Egidia Beretta said according to the newspaper.
Her son was among a group of activists from Europe and the US who revived the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian group that worked closely with fishermen and farmers in the Gaza Strip. Arrigoni had been in Gaza for three years, living in a one-bedroom flat that looked out at the port. He was among those who took part in the Free Gaza mission in August 2008, which aimed to break the Israeli blockade and bring humanitarian aid to the Strip, according to the newspaper.
Beretta, who is mayor of a village between Milan and Lake Como, said her son never put himself in dangerous situations. He rang his family every Sunday and was "always calm", she said, according to the newspaper.
But Arrigoni's life was anything but safe. In September 2008 he was injured accompanying Palestinian fishermen at sea. Two years ago he received a death threat from a US far-right website that provided any would-be killers with a photo and details of distinguishing physical traits, such as a tattoo on his shoulder, according to the newspaper.
When he was seized this week, he had been about to return to Italy for the commemoration of the death of a man he in some ways resembled, the anti-Mafia activist Peppino Impastato, who was murdered in 9/5/1978 for his ideals, according to the newspaper.
Arrigoni's fervent commitment to the Palestinian cause is evident on his website, Guerrilla Radio, http://fwd4.me/zbO where he wrote that the Israeli blockade was "criminal" and four Palestinians who died in a tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt frontier this week were "martyrs", according to the newspaper.
But the 36-year-old Italian was first and foremost a pacifist. His book about his experiences in Gaza was titled Restiamo Umani (Let Us Remain Human), according to the newspaper.
"He always said it: 'Let us remain human, even in the most difficult moments,'" Beretta said. "I would ask him: 'How can you stay human at certain times?' And he would answer: 'Because, despite everything, there must always be humanity within us. We have to bring it to others.', according to the newspaper.
In the same context, 'Tawhid and Jihad" and "Masadat the mujahideen in Palestine", which is run by al-Qaeda, said in two statements on Friday :" We have not caught up Italian activist and we did not kill him", according to two statements.
Guardian:- Update:
As soon as passed his maturita (similar to A-levels), Vittorio Arrigoni began travelling abroad. He reached Israel nine years ago almost by chance, his mother recalled .
"He told me: 'I came through the Damascus gate and arrived in East Jerusalem. It was as if I had been hit by a thunderbolt.' That was the moment he understood his work would be concentrated there," Egidia Beretta said.
Her son was among a group of activists from Europe and the US who revived the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian group that worked closely with fishermen and farmers in the Gaza Strip. Arrigoni had been in Gaza for three years, living in a one-bedroom flat that looked out at the port. He was among those who took part in the Free Gaza mission in August 2008, which aimed to break the Israeli blockade and bring humanitarian aid to the Strip.
Beretta, who is mayor of a village between Milan and Lake Como, said her son never put himself in dangerous situations. He rang his family every Sunday and was "always calm", she said.
But Arrigoni's life was anything but safe. In September 2008 he was injured accompanying Palestinian fishermen at sea. Two years ago he received a death threat from a US far-right website that provided any would-be killers with a photo and details of distinguishing physical traits, such as a tattoo on his shoulder.
When he was seized this week, he had been about to return to Italy for the commemoration of the death of a man he in some ways resembled, the anti-Mafia activist Peppino Impastato, who was murdered in 1978 for his ideals.
Arrigoni's fervent commitment to the Palestinian cause is evident on his website, Guerrilla Radio, where he wrote that the Israeli blockade was "criminal" and four Palestinians who died in a tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt frontier this week were "martyrs".
But the 36-year-old Italian was first and foremost a pacifist. His book about his experiences in Gaza was titled Restiamo Umani (published in English as Stay Human).
"He always said it: 'Let us remain human, even in the most difficult moments,'" Beretta said. "I would ask him: 'How can you stay human at certain times?' And he would answer: 'Because, despite everything, there must always be humanity within us. We have to bring it to others.'"
• This article was amended on 18 April 2011. The original referred to Arrigoni's book as Let Us Remain Human. This has been corrected.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/15/vittorio-arrigoni-profile
The murder of Arrigoni. True Muslims don't do that
by Khalid Amayreh
We don't know for sure as of yet who murdered international Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni. However, whoever committed this despicable crime must be a human beast walking on two legs.
Vittorio Arrigoni was abducted on Thursday, 14 April, in Central Gaza. Members of a notoriously fanatical group posted a video online saying they would kill him unless the Gaza government released detained Salafists from prison.
Within a few hours of the warning, Arrigoni's body was found in an empty house.
Arrigoni's death has infuriated Palestinians everywhere. Ismael Haniya, the elected Prime Minister of Hamas called Arrigoni's murder a "nefarious crime that goes against our religion, norms and traditions." A spokesman for the Gaza government described the perpetrators as "thugs and murderers of the lowest kind."
One Islamist writer, Ibrahim Hamami, called the murderers, "the lowest of the low."
The accused group, the Tawhid and Jihad, has denied posting the video or any involvement in the killing of Arrigoni. They hinted that the Israeli intelligence may have been the real killers of the Italian activist.
And while Israel can never be ruled out as an accused party, it is widely believed that the so-called Salafi group (Salafi means a true follower of the Prophet) remains the premier suspect. They are guilty until proven innocent, given the prima facie evidence that would indict them.
It is true that the Salafis are not carbon copies of each other. However, the militant Salafis have been accused of abductions, killings, attacking internet cafes, and calling for the expulsion of Christians from the Gaza Strip.
A group of Salafis last year carried out an armed rebellion against the Hamas-led government during which several people lost their lives. In one episode, an intermediary who was carrying a message to their leaders was brutally murdered by those who called themselves Muslims. Islam is absolutely against killing messengers even in war time.
One would hope to give these stupid fanatics the benefit of the doubt. However, their diabolic crimes in many parts of the Muslim world leave us no doubt as to their true nature.
They claim they are out to fight the armies of the disbelievers who have invaded some Muslim countries. However, the falsehood and mendacity of their claims are made clear by the fact that for every western soldier they killed, they murdered at least a hundred Muslim men, women, and children.
And when they are confronted with these crimes, they often seek vague, erroneous, spurious and invalid edicts to justify and rationalize what is obviously evil.
Islam is not a vague religion, especially when it comes to human life. However, these ignorant fanatics seem to have been blinded by their misplaced zeal and ignorance.
They thrive and prosper and become quite gleeful upon killing innocent people, whether Muslims or non-Muslims. And they think that by so doing they endear themselves to the Almighty when the opposite is true.
Have the killers asked themselves what in the world would justify killing Arrigoni, a man who came all the way from Italy to identify with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice? What wrong did he do? What crime did he commit? Didn't they realize that Arrigoni may have done so much for Gaza which has now been besmirched by their cowardly crime?
Arrigoni didn't come to Gaza as an aggressor or invader. He came to show solidarity with its wronged people and highlight the immense oppression meted out to be people by the Nazis of our time, the Zionist Israelis.
Hence, the claim that he came to the Land of Islam to spread corruption and disbelief should be treated with the utter contempt it deserves.
Again, there is no doubt that these ignoramuses are victims of their ignorance. They don't represent the true followers of the Prophet (PBUH) who was quoted as saying according to authentic hadith that "whoever oppresses a Mua'hed (a non-Muslim resident or traveler in the land of Islam), or arrogated his rights, or takes something away from him against his will, or forces him to do that which is beyond his ability, I shall be his opponent on the Day of Judgment."
In another hadith, the Prophet said "whoever killed a non-Muslim living in the land of Islam shall not smell the fragrance of paradise; verily its fragrance is smelled from a distance of a 40-year travel."
http://fwd4.me/zjG
Vale Vittorio Arrigoni, 'hero of Palestine'
By Pennie Quinton
Hearing of the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, a committed peace activist who for the last 10 years campaigned for recognition of Palestinian human rights under Israeli occupation, has left me shaking and crying with rage at the sheer cruelty and stupidity of those who would carry out such an act. According to news reports, Arrigoni was murdered by the Tawheed and Jihad group, which operates in the Gaza Strip in opposition to the Hamas government.
His kidnap and murder came as a terrible shock to all who knew him. Known to his friends as Vik, as a human rights campaigner he was an unstoppable force.
Even after Israel's forces deported him from the West Bank he still took part in a direct action, associated with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), to highlight Israel's deportation of peace activists, taking a flight to Ben Gurion airport in the hope of being allowed to attend a peace conference in Bethlehem – only to be deported after spending Christmas 2005 in detention.
I first met and interviewed Arrigoni while he was preparing for this action. He described to me how, after some years of suffering depression, he undertook volunteer work in Africa and Eastern Europe. He soon found himself in Palestine as part of ISM and felt that he had to do all he could to help bring about equality and human rights for Palestinians living under occupation and to raise awareness outside Palestine of the difficulties and injustices of their lives.
He was aboard the 2008 Free Gaza Movement vessel and was imprisoned in Israel several times. He was in Gaza throughout "Operation Cast Lead", helping medics and reporting what was happening. Arrigoni wrote for the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto and for Peace Reporter and in 2010 he wrote Gaza Stay Human, a book based on what he witnessed and survived during Operation Cast Lead.
Khaleel Shaheen of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, a friend of Arrigoni, says: "What has happened is a black day in Palestinian history. The horrific murder of our friend Vittorio is totally condemned. We ask the local authorities to bring the criminals to justice as soon as possible. He is in our minds always. He is a hero of Palestine."
Arrigoni's brutal murder comes after the murder of a settler family and the shooting of theatre director Juliano Mer-Khamis last week. Writing as someone who has spent a great deal of time in the West Bank over the years, these events seem alien to the Palestinian culture of resistance I have come to know and respect. Such actions smack of some kind of dirty war, based on motives that have little to do with the ongoing struggle for Palestinian self-determination.
On Friday Arrigoni's friends gathered at the Italian embassy in London with candles and flowers. Demonstrations also took place following the Friday prayer across from the UN headquarters in Gaza. The villages of Bil'in and Al Masara dedicated their weekly Friday demonstrations to Arrigoni; and there were gatherings in Al Manara square in Ramallah and at Al Jundi al Majhull in Gaza City. A mourning tent will open at the fisherman's port Al Mina and in Nablus, in the north of the West Bank, political parties have called for an event in the city centre, condemning Arrigoni's killing and celebrating his work.
Vik took and withstood much violence but stayed so human and loving until the end – dear Vittorio Arrigoni, you are deeply missed.
Hamas holds 4 suspects over Italian's murder
GAZA CITY (AFP) -- The Hamas government said Saturday it has arrested two more suspects in connection with the murder of an Italian activist, hanged hours after his abduction.
The interior ministry "managed to arrest two suspects" in the murder on Friday of pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, in addition to two other suspects previously taken into custody, a statement said.
"The security forces continue to hunt other members of the group responsible for the murder," said the statement.
The suspects arrested were being questioned about Arrigoni's murder, it added, without revealing their names or when they were arrested.
Hamas had said Friday two suspected kidnappers were arrested and security officials were looking for accomplices.
The Italian activist was found hanged in a house north of Gaza City, the ruling Hamas government said on Friday, blaming a radical Islamist group for his murder.
"The government media office denounces the criminal kidnapping and murder of an Italian solidarity activist... who was found by security hanging in an abandoned house in northern Gaza," Hamas said on Friday.
Hamas government spokesman Ihab Al-Ghoussein branded the murder a "heinous crime which has nothing to do with our values, our religion, our customs and traditions."
"The other members of the group will be hunted down and the law will be applied," Al-Ghoussein said on Friday.
The pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement named the activist as 36-year-old member Vittorio Arrigoni, who had been living in the Gaza Strip for much of the past three years.
In a video posted on YouTube, the kidnappers said Arrigoni had been taken hostage in order to secure the release of an unspecified number of Salafists detained by Hamas security forces.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379275
Abbas: Murder of Italian activist is treason
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered the Palestinian Authority attorney general to open an official investigation into the murder of an Italian activist found dead in Gaza on Friday.
Abbas' legal advisor Hasan Al-Uri said the killing of Vittorio Arrigoni would be treated as treason, and that those responsible could be sentenced to death, the official PA news agency Wafa reported.
"The murder of Arrigoni, who voluntarily risked his life to defend the independence and freedom of the Palestinian people is equal to the murder of a Palestinian warrior," Al-Uri added.
Arrigoni, 36, who was working with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was found dead by the security forces in a house in northern Gaza early on Friday.
He had been hanged, Hamas security officials said.
Arrigoni was kidnapped a day earlier by a Salafist group which had demanded that Hamas release Salafist prisoners within a 30-hour deadline that was to have expired on Friday afternoon. It was not clear why they killed him.
Gaza premier Ismail Haniyeh on Friday ordered the interior ministry of the Hamas-run government to open a criminal investigation into the killing.
The murder "does not reflect the values, morals, or the religion of the Palestinian people. This is an unprecedented case that won't be repeated," he said at an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis.
The killers will be brought to justice "as soon as possible" to deter any similar crime, he said, adding that the government would consider Vittorio a Palestinian martyr and name a street after him.
Hamas officials said Haniyeh called Arrigoni's mother to express his and his government's condolences for the death of her son. He explained the efforts the government is making to prosecute those responsible.
On Saturday, Gaza's interior ministry "managed to arrest two suspects" in the murder on Friday of pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, in addition to two other suspects previously taken into custody, a statement said.
"The security forces continue to hunt other members of the group responsible for the murder," said the statement.
The suspects arrested were being questioned about Arrigoni's murder, it added, without revealing their names or when they were arrested.
Hamas had said Friday two suspected kidnappers were arrested and security officials were looking for accomplices.
Murder draws widespread condemnation
The murder prompted a far-reaching chorus of condemnation.
Abbas' Fatah party condemned the killing as a terrorist crime and "an act of betrayal," which served only Palestinians' enemies.
Hamas said it was a "disgraceful act" carried out by a "mentally deviated and outlawed group."
Islamic Jihad denounced the "grotesque crime," and the Palestinian People's Party said Arrigoni's murder was "a moral and national crime."
The Popular Resistance Committees condemned the murder as "a cowardly act," and Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi expressed his deep sorrow at the "shocking criminal act."
Italy's foreign ministry expressed "deep horror over the barbaric murder," saying it was an "act of vile and senseless violence committed by extremists who are indifferent to the value of human life."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for "the perpetrators of this appalling crime to be brought to justice as soon as possible," his spokesperson said in a statement.
Friends and colleagues mourn loss
Arrigoni's kidnappers described him as a "journalist who came to our country for nothing but to corrupt people" -- a charge completely rejected by activists and aid workers who knew him in Gaza.
"He's very well-known, he lives among the people," said Huwaida Arraf, a co-founder of ISM. "Vit has repeatedly put his life in danger, put his life on the line in support of the Palestinians."
A journalist colleague at the Italian daily Il Manifesto said he was "astounded" by Arrigoni's death.
"We're also wondering how a pacifist who was wholeheartedly pro-Palestinian could be killed by Palestinians, even though you have to ask who those Palestinians were," Maurizio Matteuzzi told AFP.
In Jerusalem, shocked Italian volunteers who had just left Gaza converged on a hotel in the city's annexed eastern sector, the horror evident upon their faces.
"He was a lively, lovely person, we made fun of him because he was more Palestinian than Italian," said Simona Ghizzoni, a 34-year-old photographer who worked in Gaza for the Italian NGO Cospe.
"He was a real believer and a real activist for Palestinian human rights.
"When we got to the Palestinian checkpoint before Erez, there were all these Palestinians coming and saying 'We are sorry, we are sorry.' All the Palestinians I met are completely shocked and sad," she said.
Arrigoni is the third ISM member to be killed in Gaza -- US national Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in March 2003, and a month later Briton Tom Hurndall was shot and critically injured by the army. He died in January 2004.
In Gaza City, several hundred people rallied in the Square of the Unknown Soldier against the killing, while in the West Bank, around 100 people, most of them foreigners, marched through Ramallah to a house of mourning in Al Bireh, an AFP correspondent said.
Palestinians and international peace activists held a vigil in Bethlehem's Nativity Square on Friday evening.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379241
Salafist groups pose challenge for Hamas
Despite ruling Gaza Strip with iron fist, Hamas faces growing opposition from extremist Islamic factions that consider its regime 'too liberal.' Latest example is kidnapping, murder of pro-Palestinian Italian activist.
The execution of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was murdered by a radical Islamist group in Gaza early Friday, sheds light on yet another facet of the extremist ideology held by Salafist organizations in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas' security apparatus' quick response following news of the kidnapping, which led to the discovery of the body and several arrests, reiterated their uncompromising struggle against these extremist factions.
So are these small groups that have engaged in an all-out war against the Hamas government in the Strip?
The Salafist groups derive their ideology from global jihad activities, and in particular from al-Qaeda.
Salafism is a fundamentalist Sunni stream of Islam, which calls to return to the origins of the Faith. According to Salafist ideology, Islam was flawless in its original form, and has deteriorated with time.
As such, they advocate a return to the purest form of Islam, practiced back in the days of Prophet Muhammad.
Salafism is often characterized by religious zealotry and intolerance toward the West and the Christian minority in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas 'too liberal'
The Salafist movements began operating in the Strip in the early 2000s, but gained momentum only after Hamas took control over Gaza in 2007.
However, even with the more "convenient" Hamas at the helm, Salafist groups challenged the leadership, claiming its approach was "too liberal."
Two years ago, the battle between Hamas and the Salafists culminated when one of the groups' most prominent spiritual leaders, Sheikh Abdul-Latif Moussa, declared the establishment of an Islamic emirate in the Strip.
In response to what was regarded as a "call to war," Hamas' security forces raided a mosque in Rafah, where Moussa also known as Abu Noor al-Maqdisi carried the controversial sermon.
Twenty four people were killed and over 100 were injured in the battles that ensued between the two sides. Among the victims was also al-Maqdisi himself. The incident gravely damaged the Salafist movement, but did not destroy it completely.
Behind rocket attack on Israel
One of the leading Salafist groups in the Strip is al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War) an extremist militant organization suspected of launching attacks against western targets in the Sinai Peninsula.
The organization is also known for its extensive activities against Israel, including the firing of rockets on Gaza vicinity communities last week.
A month ago, Hamas' security apparatus detained one of the group's leaders, Hisham al-Saidni, after a long manhunt.
In the abduction video released on Thursday, the kidnappers demanded al-Saidni's release in return for the release of Arrigoni.
However, shortly after Arrigoni's body was discovered, the group withdrew a statement in which it claimed responsibility for his kidnapping and murder on Friday.
"Even though we have no connection to the kidnapping, we would like to stress that what happened is the natural outcome to the Hamas government policy against other organizations within the Strip," the group said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4057517,00.html
Haneyya: Arrigoni's killers will not go unpunished
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya said his government had followed up the issue of the slain Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni since the first moments of his abduction and issued strict orders to secure his release immediately.
In a statement following an urgent cabinet meeting held on Friday, Haneyya added that the killers perpetrated their crime without respecting the time set by them, the thing which confirmed their premeditated intent to commit the crime.
"The crime has happened as the Gaza Strip is enjoying a state of highest security and stability, and this is an exceptional incident we are keen it will not happen again," the premier stressed.
He added that his government on behalf of the Palestinian people strongly condemns this crime which does not reflect their Palestinian values, culture and history in dealing with nations, countries and guests, especially the pro-Palestinian activists.
The premier noted that the government gave orders to its interior ministry to reveal the circumstances of the crime, arrest the perpetrators and follow all legal measures to punish them.
The premier also pointed out that the interior ministry was able to arrest some culprits a few hours after the crime was committed.
The government will hold a solemn funeral for Arrigoni when it receives his body, and an official and popular delegation will leave for Rome to offer condolences, the premier said.
Over a telephone call, Haneyya offered his condolences to Arrigoni's mother and promised her to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
In this regard, the interior ministry in Gaza released a statement explaining some circumstances of the crime.
"Since receiving information about the kidnapping of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, the security apparatuses had been on full alert searching and investigating, which led to one member of the gang who confessed against the rest and revealed the whereabouts of the activist, so the security apparatuses moved swiftly and wisely to the place and found that the kidnapped was hideously killed hours ago according to the forensic report," the interior ministry's statement read.
"The initial findings indicated that the kidnappers' intent was to murder, where the crime happened shortly after he was kidnapped," the statement added.
"The motives behind the crime, though it seems to have certain ideological hallmarks, they are referring to some hands still conspiring against the Palestinian people in Gaza and wanting to undermine their security and steadfastness, and terrorize the international popular movement in solidarity with the Gaza Strip," it emphasized.
The ministry said it would remain keen on promoting stability and security in Gaza, asserting this incident was the first of its kind in years.
http://fwd4.me/ziE
Activist hints Israel was behind Arrigoni killing
BRUSSELS, (PIC)-- Israel may have had its fingers in the recent abduction and murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, said Mohammad Hanoun, a Freedom Flotilla 2 activist said in a press statement Friday.
He said the hit served as a warning message for activists on board the Gaza-bound flotilla to back down before the convoy's expected arrival mid-May. Senior Israeli officials had warned that they were ready to attack the convoy if it tried to break the Israeli military blockade on the tiny enclave of the Gaza Strip.
Arrigoni's body was found in a Gaza home on Friday after he was kidnapped by armed men. The Gaza government has so far arrested two suspects in the murder.
The Italian pacifist, who worked with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), had been living in Gaza since August 2008 and spent another six years in the West Bank before he was ejected by Israel.
We do not rule out that Israel or elements belonging to it were behind the kidnapping, as a message of threat and influence to the arrival of activists on the Freedom Flotilla 2, said Hanoun, who is a member of the European campaign to end the siege on Gaza in Brussels.
If Vittorio's abduction was to pressure a Palestinian party to have demands met, then why did these [suspects] not abduct a member of the Palestinian party, for example, the activist said, suggesting that the kidnapping which preceded the hit was not actually designed to pressure Hamas to release Salafist men it was holding.
Religious affairs minister condemns the murder
It is known that our tolerant religion [Islam] forbids killing a person, said Gaza religious affairs minister Salih al-Raqeb. Among the people protected in Islam are those who enter the country safely to carry out a task and then return to their countries. The Italian and his ilk have come to our lands as reporters, activists and the like, and his murder was due to a lack of [knowledge of Islam] and the spread of ignorance, which is a cause of the incidence and spread of sedition.
Therefore, the government must enforce the Islamic ruling on those who kill Muslims and non-Muslims without right, Raqeb said.
This crime carries malicious intent to harm the interests of the Palestinians and the Palestinian government in Gaza and goes in total harmony with what the West has been falsely promoting about Islam that it is religion of killing, which strengthens the enemy and increases its supporters, the Palestinian League of Scholars has said.
http://fwd4.me/ziC - To kill a brother
A journalist's diary
Gaza outraged at Italian brother's murder
Gaza woke up shell-shocked on Friday when 36-year-old Italian activist and writer, Vittorio Arrigoni, was found murdered hours after he was kidnapped by a radical Salafist group.
The brutal assassination of a man loved by many Palestinians as one of their own shocked the blockaded enclave. Not only because no foreigner had been kidnapped since 2007, and no abducted foreigners were ever killed before on Palestinian territory, but especially because Vittorio exceptionally embodied the commitment to the Palestinian cause through peaceful resistance.
Since he reached the coastal strip on board the Free Gaza boat in August 2008, Arrigoni has been living and working with farmers, fishermen, rubble workers and young people as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement.
His charismatic presence always wearing black, a captain's hat and carrying a pipe with Al Muqawama (the resistance) tattooed in incisive Arabic script on his muscular arms was a reference point to locals and foreigners alike living under the Israeli siege. Whether discussing tactics and strategies with comrades, dancing late at night with friends or facing the full might of Israel's military power with farmers on their land or at sea, Vittorio was the man who would unquestioningly stand side by side with his Palestinian brothers.
Besides writing regular reports and blogging from Gaza, Vittorio wrote a book of his first hand testimony of the Israeli 22-day assault on the strip called Operation Cast Lead. At that time, Vittorio volunteered with ambulances to rescue thousands of civilians who were targeted by the Israeli military with indiscriminate bombing and use of white phosphorus that killed 1,400 Palestinians.
Vittorio would bravely board the ambulances as they zig-zagged through the bombs falling down all over Gaza, witnessing all sorts of casualties and even targeting of paramedics he worked with.
His graphic diary entries of those days, dispatched to newspapers and through his own blog, always ended with his trademark call that ended up becoming the title of his book, touching on the common denominator that transcends race, religion, politics and culture: Let's stay human.
Human, fearless and free perhaps best describe Vittorio, the son of anti-Fascist Italian partisans with a committed love to life, Gaza and the sea. The very qualities he shared with the Palestinians he lived with in Gaza, who greeted him at the harbour two and a half years ago, and every morning ever since.
This is not Afghanistan
When on Thursday evening, rumours of his kidnapping started trickling in, the initial reaction was that this was either a sick joke or some misunderstanding. Hamas would not comment on his abduction even after a group calling itself The Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima posted a video clip on youtube threatening to kill Vittorio unless Hamas released Salafist prisoners by 5pm Friday.
Vittorio looked in bad shape in that video clip. His face looks bruised suggesting he was either beaten or else he tried resisting his abductors when they assaulted him. In any case, I told my journalist friend with whom I was trying to figure out what was going on, this could all be the clichéd theatrics which Islamist kidnappers are so fond of put your hostage in a humiliating position in front of a camera, show he's shaken, up the stakes, etc etc.
Every Palestinian I spoke to was sure he would be released unharmed by Friday. This is not Iraq or Afghanistan, was the line we all wanted to believe. We've all seen this before, although nobody dared touch a foreigner since BBC journalist Alan Johnston was kidnapped, and released after four months, in 2007.
Look, what these guys did is crazy, Sami, a journalist friend told me late Thursday night. Kidnapping a foreigner after Johnston is a no-go area. You'd be inviting total war with Hamas. Hamas is not going to tolerate any messing around. These must have been Hamas defectors who joined the Salafists and want to highly embarrass the movement. To kidnap a foreigner is crazy they would only do it because they were close to Hamas and are seriously pissed off at what they believe is the movement's sell-out on the resistance and Islam.
That seemed pretty rational at the time. These guys crossed a red line, but it wouldn't take long until Hamas will force them back to their place. They would release Vittorio and then make a show out of these rebels. Like they did in Rafah in the summer of 2009 when the sheikh of the Jihadi-Salafist group Jund Ansar Allah declared, in an explosives-laden mosque, that Gaza was an Islamic caliphate, effectively challenging Hamas's rule on the territory. Hamas responded with a bloody raid that ended up in a full-blown battle with more than 20 killed.
The only other little tremors happened last year when some fringe elements among the militants targeted an International Red Cross convoy with an improvised explosive device, resulting in minor damage to the jeeps and a short period of panic among the international agencies operating in the Gaza Strip.
Nevertheless, it was always clearly understood that foreigners were mere instruments at the Jihadi-Salafis disposal that could only be used sparingly and lightly. Their final target was Hamas.
While since it has taken full control of the strip Hamas has always clamped down heavily on the Jihadi-Salaifsts with its Kalashnikovs and hand grenades, the movement has also been trying to appease the hard-liners including some of its own by adopting sometimes bizarre laws in the name of Islam, tradition and morality, and some embarrassing U-turns.
Deep down, Hamas classifies the Jihadi-Salafist presence in Gaza as its biggest existential threat way above Israel and Fatah. It knows that, given the radicals stubbornness and uncompromising stand, it can never reach political agreement with elements who are not interested in a political solution. Jihad is their only agenda, against Israel, the Jews and the infidels Al Qaeda style but lacking the global attention and sophistication. In fact, much as they are literally dying to be endorsed by Al Qaeda, they remain too parochial for the global Jihadist cause, and too amateurish in their tactics. Gaza's Jihadi-Salafists are to Al Qaeda the equivalent of the drop-out seminarian posing as chaplain on an uninhabited island.
The Israeli establishment knows this too particularly the military and intelligence and has only recently started acknowledging Hamas's genuine efforts at clamping down on the Jihadi-Salafist threat. In the wake of the latest escalation last week, the army top southern command officer said publicly that Hamas was split between the political moderates who wanted to restore calm, and its militant commanders who are bent on resuming attacks.
"The diplomatic leadership wants to stop the fire, while the military commanders seek to send out attacks and stir things up, GOC Southern Command Tal Russo said.
Israel has traditionally blamed Hamas as one bloc for all the woes, and has repeatedly assassinated political leaders who were known to be pragmatic and somewhat flexible. In distinguishing between the currents that are for a truce against those that aren't it will be hard for them to justify the killing of political figures, and might pave the way for some working relationship between Hamas and Israel.
Vittorio's last march
The question as to why Vittorio was targeted could be possibly answered in the fact that, unlike the hundreds of foreigners working in Gaza with humanitarian agencies, he moved and walked freely alone at all times without any security arrangements. While abroad this might sound risky given Gaza's wild image, international agencies in Gaza themselves acknowledge that internal security was never an issue bar for the exceptional week when some individuals bomb a cafeteria or scratch a Red Cross land rover.
According to testimonies relayed to me second-hand by reliable sources, Vittorio's last known location was Wednesday night at the Dugmush Gym in Tel Al Hawa, where he used to work out regularly.
At around 10.30pm, he was meant to meet friends at the Gallery Cafe, nearby Vittorio's favourite hangout with friends and comrades. He would have walked in the dark-lit dirt roads, or in complete darkness if it was blackout night depending on the power plant's rationalisation of fuel schedule.
He never turned up for the meeting. From then onwards, his mobile was switched off.
In their video clip, the abductors said they were giving Hamas a 30-hour deadline starting from 11am on Thursday.
Italians were meanwhile contacted by their embassy and advised to leave Gaza.
Still, the conviction that Vittorio would be released unharmed carried over till the early hours of Friday, until that fateful phone call to journalists from the internal affairs ministry at 3am. It was urgent. A press conference.
Full statement by the (Hamas) Ministry of Interior Affairs and National Security Friday 15 April 2010, 3am, on the abduction of Vittorio Arrigoni.
Since the first news of the abduction of the Italian solidarity activist Vittorio Arrigoni, the security apparatus acted quickly toward conducting a full search and investigation. They identified and arrested one of the criminals, who admitted to being involved in the kidnapping. This individual informed the police about the hideout of the abducted solidarity activist. Police moved in a wise and quick manner toward the place and found that Mr. Arrigoni had been killed.
According to the forensic report, he had been killed hours before the police raid on the location. In light of this situation, the Ministry affirms the following:
First: The Palestinian Government sends its condolences to the family of the innocent Italian martyr, to the Italian Government, and to all the Italian people. We grieve for the loss of such an honorable man, who stood steadfast and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, braving the conditions imposed upon the besieged Strip and the violent campaign waged by the Apartheid Entity.
Second: The Palestinian Government condemns in the strongest terms the heinous crime carried out by the criminals and confirms that it will hunt down the remaining members of the gang so that justice can be served and the violators punished. The actions taken by these criminals do not reflect Palestinian values, customs and traditions, or religion
Third: The Ministry emphasizes that this crime does not reflect the true state of security and order in the Gaza Strip. This hideous crime also does not imply a retreat from security and safety. The Government is keen to promote stability, security and safety, as this incident is the first of its kind in years. Security and safety will always remain stable and firm.
Fourth: The initial findings of the investigation indicate that the intention of the kidnappers was to murder in the first place, and that it was carried out shortly after the abduction.
Fifth: The motives behind this outrageous crime demonstrate and indicate that some hands and minds are still plotting against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and want to undermine the security and steadfastness of the Palestinians and their supporters; and, to spread a state of terror and intimidation among the worldwide solidarity movement with the Gaza Strip.
The Apartheid Zionist Entity is looking at ways to hinder and prevent the upcoming freedom flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip, particularly after the great momentum gained from the solidarity activists such as Mr. Arrigoni aiming to loosen and end the unjust and criminal siege imposed on Gaza. The Ministry of Interior Affairs and National Security and all Palestinians highly appreciate the efforts of all foreign friends. We assure the internationals living in and those heading to Gaza that it is safe for all and will always be their second home. It is together that the Palestinians and the solidarity activists worldwide will carve from the mountains of despair, a stone of hope so that justice may be preserved and injustice overturned.
We are all Vittorio
The incredulity and the outrage was immediately clear on the streets of Gaza City on Friday, when after midday prayers, a symbolic funeral march paraded across the city centre to the Square of the Unknown Soldier. Young people, farmers, fishermen and many of Arrigoni's friends marched together denouncing the brutal murder in the most categorical of terms, followed by condemnations from all Palestinian factions.
Terrorism belongs to no religion, they chanted, urging the murderers to get out of the woodwork and face Palestinians popular outrage.
We are all Vittorio, they said. From Gaza to Jenin, Victor's a son of Palestine.
A night vigil, more marches on Saturday, the end of the traditional three-day mourning on Sunday, a visit to his flat overlooking the breezy Mediterranean Sea that he loved Vittorio will be sorely missed as a great friend to all Palestinians.
On Friday, Vittorio's closest Palestinian friends were in tears, apologetic to foreigners, feeling almost guilty that one who loved Gaza so openly could suffer such a tragic fate in their midst.
That someone dared touched him while in Gaza is incredible enough for his hundreds of immediate friends here. That he was beaten and killed even before their own deadline just condemns his killers in the court of public opinion to a unilateral guilty verdict with the harshest possible sentence. Other Salafist groups have already disowned the arrested suspects, claiming what they did went against Islam
Gaza where rumours shape daily reality and old mukhtars mediate in bloody family disputes remains the land of the old adage of an eye for an eye. When the entire strip is mourning its beloved adopted son, murdered barbarically, no mukhtar would bother intervening on behalf of the suspects.
The challenge, at this point, is to keep Vittorio's spirit alive. To stay human.
http://fwd4.me/zkZ
Mother of Slain Italian Activist to Sail to Gaza, Flotilla Change Name in Honor of Vittorio
Gaza-PNN Agidea Prata, the mother of Vittorio Arrigoni, the Italian activist and journalist killed in Gaza on Friday, said that she will be sailing to Gaza on May with the Free Gaza flotilla.
Prata on Saturday told Italian news sources that I want to see Gaza that my son loved and sacrificed for, I want to meet the good people living there that my son Vik always talked about. She added that Vittorio work will go on though his friends.
Vittorio's mother added that her son received death threats from a right wing American group on their website two years ago because of his photos published online and the pro Palestinian tattoo he has on his shoulder.
Vittorio first came to Gaza with the Free Gaza folitial in 2008 and used to live in a single bedroom house near Gaza City coastline until he was kidnapped and murdered by a radical Salafists group calling itself Mohamed Bin-Mosliemah brigades.
Also on Saturday organizers of the Free Gaza flotilla announced that next voyage to Gaza will be named Freedom Flotilla Stay Human in Honor of Vittorio Arrigoni.
The murder of human rights activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, is a tragedy for his family, for those of us who knew him, and for the Palestinians who loved and admired him. The Steering Committee of Freedom Flotilla 2 condemns this senseless murder and the people who are behind it. They took the life of one of the most passionate supporters of justice for Palestine. This murder is damaging to the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice as well as our work in support of that struggle. The group said on their website.
Adding that Stay Human he would say, then grin and clench his pipe in his teeth. We will do our best, Vik, to carry on the work you have done. The flotilla will return to Gaza in your honor.
According to the Free Gaza Movement the group will send a new flotilla to Gaza on May. Last year on May 30th Israeli navy attacked the freedom flotilla boats while sailing in international water to Gaza killing 9 aid workers and injuring 54.
http://fwd4.me/zjI - Was Israel's Shin Bet Behind Vittorio Arrigoni's Brutal Murder?
(SALEM, Ore.) - I had a terrible feeling Salem-News.com Correspondent and Gaza Activist Ken O'Keefe was probably on target when be stated 'Israel' repeatedly in regard to Vittorio Arrigoni's kidnapping and murder.
It never made sense that a group of Palestinians would commit an act like this, that is unless they were among the handful of Gazans who out of pure desperation, work with Israel as informants. This generally occurs because they are either threatened or bribed.
There is no point in denying that it makes a great deal of sense that the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a sworn enemy of the Zionist state of Israel, would do this.
There is a demonstrated track record that is undeniable, and the increasing launch of the next Gaza Freedom Flotilla has Israel nervous, very nervous. They know the world is watching this time.
Hamas states on the Website for Al Qassam Brigades, that Palestinian people were shocked when they heard the news of the killing the Italian ISM activist Vottorio Arrigoni. While it was Hamas that initially stated the culprits were members of an extreme religious faction in Gaza, the government now says the resistance factions in Gaza have rushed to distance themselves from the murder-kidnapping.
The resistance factions in Gaza have decried the murder of Italian ISM activist Vittoria Arrigoni, who was kidnapped on Thursday, and found dead early Friday morning.
Hamas says Israel wanted to tell the world, especially the activists who support Gaza and the Palestinian cause, that If they visit Gaza, someone will kill them.
Connection- Suspicious Similarities
Juliano Mer-Khamis 1958-2011
Of course many will immediately dismiss the possibility that Israel would have had a direct role in not just Vittorio 'Vik' Arrigoni's murder, but also the 4 April 2011 murder of Palestinian filmmaker Juliano Mer-Khamis.
Juilano's mother Arna had famously provided a haven for the Palestinian youth in Jenin. She was Jewish. Her husband, Juliano's father, was a Palestinian Christian.
Our writer Gilad Atzmon in London wrote, "According to Jenin police chief Mohammed Tayyim, Mer-Khamis was shot five times by Palestinian militants, but that police were still investigating the circumstances of his murder. I would wait to learn more about the tragic incident; as we know, the IDF trains special units that are operating disguised as Palestinians militants."
"Palestinian militants" is too cliche; probably our first clue stems from a cursory examination of who the benefactors of these murders are. Both are extremely demoralizing for both Palestinians and their worldwide activist friends. I know it will only strengthen resolve, but today hearts are broken and brutality took a real toll.
Nothing was gained for Palestinians by either man's death, and that includes the hardcore jihadists. It's like saying upper echelon in the IDF were murdered and the immediate suspects were Israeli soldiers, what would the odds of that be?
These men were both beacons, real lights of hope that allowed the beleaguered people of Palestine, surviving a brutal military occupation from Israel, to know there is a reason to live, and that people care and they are not always their own countrymen, that point in fact is key.
According to Hamas, "Israel searched for new techniques to foil the efforts of breaking the injustice siege on Gaza people. It found that past technique of killing the peace activists, like what has happened in Mavi Marmara, failed."
Hamas says there is a similarity between the two techniques because, "Israeli soldiers took some of peace activists to the back of the ship and executed them, the Israeli soldiers knew that they didn%u2019t carry weapons."
Vittorio Arrigoni, Ken O'Keefe and Cormac O'Daly on the Gaza Strip in late November 2010.
Both the victims of the Mavi Marmara attack and Vik Arrigoni, were totally unarmed. Ken O'Keefe was aboard the Mavi Marmara and he personally disarmed two of the Israeli commandos and then handed them off to the ship's crew who took them below and gave them medical treatment, before releasing them back to the IDF which was still in the process of killing people aboard the ship. Then the Israelis refused medical treatment and two of the dead passed who could have been saved. It was vastly inhumane.
The common theme observed 31 May of last year in international ocean waters during the Flotilla attack that left nine dead, is that Israel both has what it takes to shoot unarmed victims execution style, as well as the moral fortitude to willfully deny it later to the United Nations. The UN is the agency that investigated and determined that Israel had committed numerous war crimes that day, and the UN investigators are who brought forth the confirmation of the IDF' execution killings of the unarmed civilians.
Hamas says the culprits were, not surprisingly, Israeli Shin Bet agents, "Palestinian traitors helped the service, used the same techniques, Gaza government security personnel found Arrigoni's body in an abandoned house in Gaza following his abduction by Israeli traitors. Two men were arrested and others were being sought in relation to Arrigoni's murder," the official added.
With regard to Palestinians aiding the Israelis, first consider that Gazans are in often cases dirt poor, and Israel blocks the essential items they need in regard to rebuilding their homes, all of which were damaged or destroyed by Israeli military operations. Just the fact that they are homes that were attacked, should set off red flags all over the world. Second, the Israelis are the best in the world at using information against people.
Palestinians who cooperated, if that is the case, easily could have done so under dire threat from Israeli agents. There is no end to what they would be willing to do. The Hamas statements do not reveal anything that wasn't already totally under consideration by many in the pro-Palestine community.
Hamas condemned the murder and characterized it as "a shameful act, contrary to the tradition of the Palestinian people."
Rachel Corrie
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, "The goal of this depraved band of outlaws is to spread chaos and anarchy in the Gaza Strip, a desperate attempt to strike at the stable security situation." Barhoum believes the kidnapping and murder of Arrigoni was intended to scuttle the next Gaza flotilla, expected to depart next month.
Barhoum explained that he believed the murder was meant to dissuade other foreign activists from arriving on the Gaza Strip.
Tom Hurndall
For those who study this ongoing conflict, the idea doesn't sound very hard to believe, at least from a strategic point of view.
Israel's military is already behind the murders of two ISM activists; American Rachel Corrie, and Tom Hurndall of Great Britain.
Rachel was killed by a bulldozer operator while trying to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian doctor's home. (see: (From: Mar-16-2011: On the 8th Anniversary of Rachel Corrie's Stand in Gaza - Craig and Cindy Corrie, The Rachel Corrie Foundation)
Tom was shot in the head by a sniper saving small children from the same sniper. (see: Feb-03-2011: The Shooting of Tom Hurndall - Film review by Tim King Salem-News.com)
With regard to Hamas, it is important to note that Vik had been very critical of them in an article published recently by Salem-News.com 18 March 2011 titled: Gaza's Youth: Hopes Broken at 15 March End Of Division Demonstration. Vik didn't pull any punches, he was clearly disgusted by what he saw from Hamas. There was sporadic brutality toward an otherwise jubilant crowd, then it became much worse, as he described:
Hamas decided to end the festivities in its own way: Hundreds of policemen and plainclothes agents surrounded the area, once again armed with clubs and brutally attacked the peaceful demonstrators and burned their tents in the hospital area.
About 300 demonstrators were injured, with the majority of then being women , dozens of broken bones abound. Throughout the whole night, as the injured were released from Al Shifa hospital in the center of Gaza city, Hamas police arrested them one by one as the exited the emergency room.
- Vittorio Arrigoni for Salem-News.com
Yet in spite of this very direct harsh assessment that happened just as he described, it was not Hamas that threatened his life. It was Hamas that tried to save him. Vic told the story of Palestine's suffering; his work made Israel look like what it really is.
Vik was sickened by what he witnessed; the fishermen of Gaza, at least 20 of whom have been murdered at sea by the Israeli navy, were a focus of his attention. Vik was even shot during one of the many shooting encounters.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Israel of perpetrating the murder of Arrigoni because he had been a vocal opponent of Israel's policies in Gaza, and frequently blogged about 'Israeli crimes against Palestinians' equating Israeli policies to 'Nazi' crimes. Vik Arrigoni had also been arrested twice by Israeli authorities, Barhoum alleged. (From: Shin Bet kills the Italian ISM activist Vittorio Arrigoni - Al Qassam Brigade Website)
One could write an endless amount about the pain this has caused. Vittorio's mother has stated that she does not want his body returned home via Israel, she wants to receive his remains through Egypt.
As in the case of other heroes I have studied, Vik was on the verge of returning home. His father was ill and he knew that Gaza had been increasingly becoming more dangerous.
Anti Peace Activist Hate Group's Death Threats
It is also noteworthy that a group called Stop the ISM had called specifically for his death, as well as the deaths of other activists from ISM.
The only reason ISM exists is to counter the brutality and internationally illegal behavior of Israel, and for that they wanted him dead. It seems in a decent world, that this would not tolerated, but it was and is.
In fact Stop the ISM works with and in support of AIPAC and other Zionist groups that support Israel's separate laws for Jews and non-Jews, as well as a long list of human rights violations.
These are the mainstream Israeli and Americans who largely control congress and in fact we are coming right up on the AIPAC Conference held annually in the U.S. AIPAC and others are absolutely consorting with terrorists and this maniac, sick organization in my opinion, is on a level with the Westboro Baptist Church in regard to its hatefulness. On behalf of my Jewish friends and my position in this world as a human being, I am ashamed they exist. (Learn more about the group's hit list in this article originally published by the now defunct Palestine Think Tank: Those who want to bump off the witnesses of the slaughter)
Why was Vittorio in Gaza? What drove him to fight and place his body at risk in order to help people who desperately needed him? One reason is that he is descended from fascist and Nazi fighting grandfathers; men who fought against the occupation of Italy.
"Because he sought to do what the United Nations was failing to do, and is charged with doing, enforcing international law-- he was willing to serve as a "human shield" against violent Israeli encroachments on human freedom in occupied Gaza." (From: Arrigoni: I came here because my grandfathers fought fascist occupation in Italy - Philip Weiss Mondoweiss)
Thoughts on Vittorio from ISM Philip Weiss We mourn the lionhearted Vittorio’s death. And while we recognize that he was killed by a radical Palestinian faction, and we condemn radical Islamism, this in no way diminishes our own commitment to ending the cruel occupation. Read more
Mohammed Rabah Suliman, Gaza Now that you moved to live in our hearts, we’ll become stronger and fiercer in the battle against occupation, humiliation and injustice. Vittorio. Such an inspiration to all of us. You taught us that life isn’t worth living if one isn’t ready to fight against its injustice, and that’s what gives it a meaning, that’s what makes it all beautiful. Now, empowered by your “memory”, we’ll carry on the fight together. Read more
Statement on Behalf of Italian NGO Workers in Palestine We express our sincere condolences with Vittorio’s family, his friends and companions in the International Solidarity Movement and with all the people who have known him during the past years, when he was serving as a focal point for all of us in Gaza. Read more
ISM London ISM London are in shock and sorrow from the death of Vittorio Arrigoni. He visited London frequently and many of us knew him as a friend as well as a deeply committed activist for the Palestinian cause. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family, friends and his fellow ISM volunteers.
Read more: Solidarity Statements in honor of Vittorio Arrigoni
ISM London
ISM London are in shock and sorrow from the death of Vittorio Arrigoni. He visited London frequently and many of us knew him as a friend as well as a deeply committed activist for the Palestinian cause. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family, friends and his fellow ISM volunteers.
Read more: Solidarity Statements in honor of Vittorio Arrigoni
Apr-17-2011: I Do Not Believe That A Palestinian Killed Vittorio Arrigoni - Gilad Atzmon Salem-News.com
Apr-17-2011: Vittorio and Israel's Attack on the Intellectual Intifada - Lauren Booth Salem-News.com
Apr-16-2011: Was Israel's Shin Bet Behind Vittorio Arrigoni's Brutal Murder? - Tim King Salem-News.com
Apr-15-2011: AMP expresses deep condolences to ISM and family of Vittorio Arrigoni - Salem-News.com
Apr-15-2011: We Mourn Another Friend... Vittorio Arrigoni - Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh Salem-News.com
Apr-14-2011: Hero of Gaza: Vittorio Arrigoni, Kidnapped and Murdered - Tim King and Bonnie King Salem-News.com
Apr-14-2011: Famed Activist Vittorio Arrigoni Kidnapped in Gaza - Feared Dead - Tim King Salem-News.com
Articles regarding the death of Juliano Mer Khamis: April-05-2011: Losing Juliano - Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh Salem-News.com
April-04-2011: Filmmaker Juliano Mer-Khamis was Murdered Today in Jenin - Gilad Atzmon Salem-News.com
Articles by Vittorio on Salem-News.com: Mar-23-2011: Israel's Attack on Civilians: Two Children Killed - Vittorio Arrigoni Special to Salem-News.com
Mar-18-2011: Gaza's Youth: Hopes Broken at 15 March End Of Division Demonstration - By Vittorio Arrigoni for Salem-News.com
Mar-04-2011: 15 March Palestine: End of Division - Vittorio Arrigoni for Salem-News.com
Nov-10-2010: The First Targeted US Killing in Gaza - Vittorio Arrigoni for Salem-News.com
Also: Nov-30-2010: Israeli Soldiers Fire at Road to Hope Convoy Members - Tim King Salem-News.com
Advisory regarding comments: Comments on this story need to be of a respectful nature or they will not be approved, you have been advised.
_________________________________ Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. You can send Tim an email at this address: [email protected]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBQjzpDzcWM
Advisory regarding comments: Comments on this story need to be of a respectful nature or they will not be approved, you have been advised.
Maria 17 apr 2011
State funerals to be held in Gaza Strip for Italian activist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5jcuvVKaqI&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL6C64E38E5D1FE07F
Gaza City, Almost on the heels of the assassination on 4 April of Julian Mer-Khamis, the widely known 52-year old theatre director in the West Bank city of Jenin, on 15 April the body of an equally popular Italian peace activist and reporter, Vittorio Arrigoni, was found hanged in an abandoned building in the Gaza Strip, where he had lived for years.
In both cases it seemed at first glance as though unknown Palestinian extremists had carried out the murder. While in the case of Julian Mer-Khamis there were at least some eyewitnesses, who indicated the identity of the perpetrators as belonging to the Israeli so-called Mustaravim units the undercover units trained to carry out swift operations under the guise of typical Paletinians in Arrigoni's case there were no witnesses.
After the Italian activist had been kidnapped on 14 April, a video was posted online, in which a mysterious group, identifying themselves as Salafists, said the Italian hostage would be executed unless the Hamas administration in Gaza releases a number of their group from prison, where they are detained. But before the 30-hour deadline expired, police officers in the Gaza Strip found Vittorio Arrigoni's body. He had been murdered on 15 April in the early morning hours.
Despite the existing political friction and ideological hostility between Hamas and the Salafist groups in the Gaza Strip, all five major Salafist groups declared they had nothing to do with abduction, let alone assassination of the Italian activist. Now the Gaza Strip police chief, Abu Obeida al-Jarrah announced a reward for any police officer who helped identify and track down the killers of the Italian activist. For his part, from Ramallah Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared that the perpetrators of the murder would be charged with treason.
Mohammad Awad, the Gaza Strip administration's Foreign and Planning Minister said Vittorio Arrigoni's body would be returned to his homeland, Italy, via Egypt and the Rafah crossing, following a state funeral in the Gaza Strip.- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io3m2FFwSdo&list=PL6C64E38E5D1FE07F
- The funeral was scheduled to be held upon the arrival of Arrigoni's friends and family. Awad also said that the Gaza Strip administration plans to name a street after the Italian activist.
http://fwd4.me/zmu
Vittorio Arrigoni, the man who saw too much...... knew too much
So.... the Mossad had no other choice but to kill him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSxiQZ6iaNs&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL6C64E38E5D1FE07F
by Philip Weiss
Arrigoni documented Israeli attacks on Palestinian ambulance workers, the most heroic people I ever met
An amazing video of the late Vik Vittorio Arrigoni from May 2009. At minute 6 he documents the attacks on Palestinian ambulance drivers during Cast Lead; you see two stretcher-bearers being shot at in Gaza City. Remember, this is an essential point of the now-disputed al-Samouni case, in which ambulances were prevented from approaching the bombed family, and at least one person died who surely might have survived their injuries. Doesn't that constitute a deliberate attack on civilians?
This is from the Goldstone Report on the al-Samouni family:
[A]t around 4 p.m. [January 4, 2009], PRCS ambulance managed to come in the vicinity of the house where Ahmad was lying wounded, but was prevented by the Israeli armed forces from rescuing him. Ahmad died at around 2 a.m. during the night The ambulance had turned west off Salah ad-Din Street when, at one of the first houses in the area, Israeli soldiers on the ground and on the roof of one of the houses directed their guns at it and ordered it to stop. The driver and the nurse were ordered to get out of the vehicle, raise their hands, take off their clothes and lie on the ground. Israeli soldiers then searched them and the vehicle for 5 to 10 minutes. Having found nothing, the soldiers ordered the ambulance team to return to Gaza City, in spite of their pleas to be allowed to pick up some wounded. In his statement to the Mission, the ambulance driver recalled seeing women and children huddling under the staircase in a house, but not being allowed to take them with him.
Arrigoni speaks of 13 Palestinian paramedics who died. I will remember those martyrs as the most heroic people I ever met.
At the end of the video Arrigoni quotes the Italian poet Enzo Biagi. Enzo Biagi said Truth is like poetry, it doesn't need any adjectives, it is freedom. We will keep making poetry of our lives until freedom will be declared over the broken chains of all oppressed peoples.
http://fwd4.me/zmN
Murdered activist's mother vows to visit Gaza
In first interview with Israeli media, Vittorio Arrigoni's mother tells Ynet she plans to visit place where her son lived and for which he sacrificed his life.
The mother of Vittorio Arrigoni, the Italian peace activist who was murdered in Gaza last week, has vowed to visit the Gaza Strip. "I want to see where my son lived and died," she told Ynet in her first interview with Israeli media.
Egidia Beretta, mayor of the northern Italian city of Bulciago, noted that far right-wing activists from the US threatened her son's life two years ago over a tattoo on his hand which illustrated his love for the Palestinian people.
"Vittorio spoke a lot about Gaza and now he's gone. I plan to visit the Gaza Strip in the future. I want to see where my son lived and died, to see what he spoke of and for what cause he sacrificed his life."
Nevertheless, Beretta said she is not planning to join the international flotilla scheduled to leave for Gaza next month, due to her husband's health condition.
One of Arrigoni's friends, Maria Elena Delia, told Ynet that Beretta was very proud of her son's work. "It was hard for her that he was always away, but she was strong and proud. She wants to follow in his footsteps and told me immediately after the murder 'I want to be on that ship'."
Delia added that she herself had plans to board the Gaza-bound vessel in March and was spurred on by Arrigoni's death. "Vittorio was meant to return to Italy and join us on the ship. Now that Vittorio's spirit is with us, the flotilla will be that much more powerful."
Meanwhile, Egypt has agreed to allow Arrigoni's body to be transferred into its territory via the Rafah crossing and flown to Italy from there.
Hamas Foreign Minister Muhammad Awad declared that Gaza security forces have closed all overland and naval crossings in order to prevent Arrigoni's murderers from escaping.
He added that Gaza authorities were interrogating the two suspects and that Hamas plans to name a street after the Italian activist.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4058130,00.html
Man arrested in the Arrigoni murder case suspected of collaboration
GAZA, (PIC)-- The murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni raised the serious question as to who stands behind such a gruesome act, especially after the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu declared he has plans to thwart solidarity with the Gaza Strip at any price.
The Palestinian security awareness website Majd has revealed a few surprise discoveries as the case unravels and after several men were taken into custody over suspected involvement in the abduction and murder.
It has come to light that one of the suspects that has been arrested is also suspected of collaboration and has a number of violations on his list, while others appeared naïve.The website said that one of the men got orders to abduct and kill Arrigoni on the internet.
Analysts have not ruled out that Israeli intelligence was behind the crime, as the Israeli occupation faces a crisis in not being able to stop pro-Palestinian activists from going to Gaza and the publicity that accompanies such solidarity activities. That is in addition to growing western popular awareness regarding the facts about occupation which is effectively blowing the occupation's cover of legitimacy.
The group responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Arrigoni killed him before the deadline it made for the government to release some of the group's elements, a step which implied premeditation.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya is scheduled to meet with the foreign press at the Council of Ministers in Gaza on Sunday to talk about Arrigoni's death and the steps the government has taken to pursue the case.
The crime stirred widespread popular anger amongst Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They have declared that the crime only serves the Israeli occupation.
http://fwd4.me/zlA
Michael Jansen: Murder of Vittorio Arrigoni
Hammas has accused Israel of indirect responsibility for the abduction and murder of Italian rights activist Vittorio Arrigoni whose body was found Thursday in an empty flat in Gaza city. Israel certainly bears much of the blame. If Israel had not imposed a punitive siege and blockade on the coastal strip, Arrigoni may never have gone to Gaza to protest its harsh treatment of 1.5 million Palestinians. His initial trip to Gaza was in August 2008 aboard one of the tiny, frail boats that made the passage from Cyprus to Gaza on the first successful mission mounted by the Free Gaza blockade-busting movement. The 44 crew and passengers, who sailed into Gaza's small fishing port, were accorded a spectacular welcome by Palestinians imprisoned in the strip for years.
These two small boats Greek island-hopping ferry and fishing vessel were the first for centuries to reach Gaza without passing through controls by occupying powers.
Arrigoni and the others were awarded honourary passports by Gaza's de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, which had seized control of the strip in 2007. During their stay, Hamas put them up in the best hotel on the beach front and, fearing that its rival Fatah or Israel could harm the activists, provided security.
The Free Gaza movement made several other voyages to the strip, carrying activists and medical supplies, the last being at the end of October 2008. Arrigoni went on that trip and stayed on through Israel's war on the strip, which began on December 27th and ended January 18th, 2009. During this terrible onslaught, when 1,445 Gazan's were killed, 900 of them civilians, and 5,000 wounded, Arrigoni and other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), to which he belonged, assisted ambulance teams and reported on what was happening on the ground.
Many of the more than 500 journalists who had assembled in Jerusalem but were not permitted by Israel or Egypt to enter Gaza depended on news received over tenuous mobile phone connections to ISM members volunteering with ambulance crews and undertaking other war work. Before and after the conflict Arrigoni went to sea with Gazan fishermen seeking to cast their nets within the 20 nautical mile limit prescribed in the Oslo accords.
Over the past few years Israel cut down the permitted fishing zone to six and then three miles. Israeli coastal patrol boats routinely harrass these fishermen, arresting and firing on them and ramming their small craft. Arrigoni was wounded when Israeli sailors fired on a Palestinian fishing boat. Arrigoni accompanied Palestinian farmers seeking to cultivate their land and harvest their crops in the 300 meter-1.5 kilometer buffer and free fire zone imposed by Israel on the Gaza side of the frontier. This land amounts to a significant percentage of cultivable land in the densely populated strip and poor Palestinian farmers simply cannot afford to be denied the right to work it.
Many have been shot, wounded and killed, doing so. The presence of internationals deters Israeli shooters. Arrigoni also wrote a blog and articles for Italian news-papers and, once the war was over, a book about Gaza and its people.
His friends believe Israel had a hand in his death. Hamas security officials who found Arrigoni's body said he had been killed soon after being kidnapped on Thursday although his abductors had demanded the release by Friday evening of their leader and two members of their group as the price for his life and freedom.
It is curious that the abductors made such a demand and killed Arrigoni before seeing whether Hammas was prepared to release the detained members of the group. Some sources speculate that the abductors became afraid of capture and killed him in panic while others suggest that they did not belong to a group at all but simply wanted to harm Hammas and intimidate the ISM and the Free Gaza movement which are planning to challenge Israel with a summer flotilla to Gaza.
The cuprits claimed they belonged to Tawhid-wa-Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War), a radical, puritan Muslim (Salafi) group. But Tawhid and the other Salafi factions condemned the murder as against the teachings of Islam and denied involvement. Since Hammas took power in Gaza, Salafis have been both tolerated and suppressed. There are five main groups formed by defectors from both Fatah, which formerly ruled the strip, and Hamas, which is regarded as too moderate by radicals. They have burned or trashed internet cafes, hair salons, and restaurants and are blamed for the murder of a Christian book seller.
They shot at the convoy of the former head of operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, John Ging, and set fire to UNRWA summer camps for children. Ging, who left UNRWA this year, was a higher profile hero figure in Gaza than Arrigoni. Ging was constantly giving satellite television interviews chas-tising Israel for its cruel treatment of the Palestinians and for its disporportionate use of force.
Arrigoni was the third ISM activist to die in Gaza, the first allegedly slain by Palestinians. US citizen Rachel Corrie was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer when she tried to block it from demolishing Palestinian homes and Briton Tom Hurndall was trying to protect Palestinian children when he was shot by an Israeli soldier.
Arrigoni's murder occurred only ten days after the fatal shooting by a masked man in the West Bank Jenin refugee camp of Juliano Mer-Khamis, director of the city's Freedom Theatre. Film-maker and actor Mer-Khamis son of a leftist Israeli Jewish woman and a Christian Palestinian sought to use drama to raise the hopes and expectations of deprived Palestinian children and to promote ties between well-meaning Israelis and Palestinians.
The question that must be asked about the assassination of Arrigoni is: cui bono? Who benefits? Not the Salafis. Hammas is certain to strike them with an iron fist. Not Hammas. It has been exposed as having failed to provide security in the strip although Arrigoni's kidnapping is the first since Hamas took power nearly four years ago. Not Gazans who count on the support given by ISM internationals who interpose between Israeli forces and threatened fishermen and farmers and report to the excluded outside world what is taking place in the strip.
Foreign activists, who had felt safe among welcoming Palestinians, may now have doubts about their security when they go about their work.
Israel, however, can claim that Salafis connected to Al Qaeda the current bogey-movement of the Western world are asserting themselves in Gaza and, consequently, the siege and blockade must remain. Israel can also contend that the ostracism of Hamas, which has, allegedly, permitted the Salafis to prosper, must continue. Cui bono can also be asked about the murder of MerKhamiss, but that is another story.
http://fwd4.me/zl3
Egypt offers to help slain activist's family enter Gaza
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities have offered to make arrangements for the family of murdered Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni to enter Gaza, Egyptian Ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Yaser Othman said.
"Egypt will work on allowing the activist's family to enter Gaza via Rafah as well as facilitating moving his body through the same crossing back to Italy," Othman said.
The ambassador said the arrangements would be made Sunday, and added that Egyptian authorities were ready to help the family in any way they could.
Arrigoni, 36, who was working with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was found dead by Hamas security forces in a house in northern Gaza early on Friday.
He had been hanged, security officials said.
Arrigoni was kidnapped a day earlier by a Salafist group which had demanded that Hamas release Salafist prisoners within a 30-hour deadline that was to have expired on Friday afternoon. It was not clear why they killed him.
Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Friday called Arrigoni's mother to express his and his government's condolences for the death of her son. He explained the efforts the government is making to prosecute those responsible, Hamas officials said.
Haniyeh said the government would consider Vittorio a Palestinian martyr and name a street after him.
The government has sent its condolences to the Italian government and people. It ordered the foreign ministry and government media office to intensify efforts to coordinate with concerned parties and took a decision to form a delegation to Italy to pay its respects to the victim's loved ones.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379323 18 apr 2011, 14:51 , Respect
Maria 18 apr 2011
Gaza Says Farewell to Vittorio Arrigoni In Palestine's Hearts He Remains Forever
photographed by Magdi Soliman
by occupiedpalestine
A winner is a Dreamer who never gives up
These words of Nelson Mandela are those which Vittorio Arrigoni wanted to be quoted on his gravestone.
Been in danger but unmovable for many years, he stoods side by side in dangers the Palestinian's in Gaza undergo day by day. Not a moment he forsaked to support, motivate and fight for the cause he believed in. Justice for Palestine and it's people. Human rights, dignity but above all, to make a change in the faith of people who are undergoing day in day out atrocities, violence, Israeli aggression and the ongoing massacres.
Due to these circumstances hard and sometimes even impossible to imagine he kept fighting for achievable change for humanitarian rights, life to stay human, whatever happens.
Since his previous abductions by Israel, the daily reality which he was undergoing like any Gazan, he decided to stay, to keep resisting these violations on humanity and realizing this , chosen his quote. For someone who keeps fighting for his belief in Justice can never loose.
He lost his life which is the greatest sacrifice a person can give for a cause. A tremendous shock to many who loved him. And even those, not knowing him in person are in disbelief about the how, the why and the many questions which have been risen by this horrible assassination of a person, who gave all a man can give. All of it.
Without specualtions, the ones who caused his death with the purpose to silence him have failed. The have achieved exactly the opposite. I guess, they never expected, the death of an Italian activist would shock the world and carve Vittorio's name and legacy in their souls, to stay there forever.
When a human dies, we go the way we came, with nothing at all. The only change we make, the only legacy we left behind, is that which we leave in the hearts of those we left behind. Vittorio touched many, many people in their hearts and lives there for eternity.
As for the death can't speak, his voice is not dead. His voice has become and will stay eternally in a strong echo for mankind striving for human rights, remembering us of our duty towards eachother, as he never forsake to stand by the side of oppressed, wounded, the mourning. In good times with laughter, in hard times with his tears.
Vittorio's voice has become louder than it has been ever before during his life. His words, are carried around the world. His achievements will never be forgotten nor his sacrifice. This has to be an example and a lesson for the world.
His treasure of experiences, motivation and steadfastness, were and will be, and have to be, a drive for many people who are already walking or those who will be following his footsteps. For his battle was and stays a joint struggle. The struggle for change, hope, faith and ideal. And it has not stopped with his heartbeat. It will go on.
Vittorio never was as much alive as he is now
These are the words his mother Egidia Beretta Arrigoni spoke today.
Vittorio is alive. Not in this worldy life as we know it. But his death made him more alive then ever, for he won the unity of spirits, awakened a global awareness in the whole world and became a loud , not mutable call for his cause.
I -as many others- remember him, mourn him and in his honour I pledge to continue his, ours, Palestine's and Palestine's Solidarity's joint struggle:
To stay human and fight injustice.
'Inna Lillahi wa 'Inna 'Ilayhi Raji'un
I salute and honour the Shaheed Vittorio Arrigoni, killed in Gaza on April 14, 2011 during his struggle for the people he lived with in Gaza, the place he loved, committed to their fate, lives, for their justice and truth and what he did for humanity.
May Allah Subhana wa Ta' ala grant the Shaheed Vittorio Jannatul Firdaus, ease it for his family, his fiancee, his loved ones and the many friends who mourn and miss him.
May Allah Subhana wa Ta' ala guide us all to the right path of humanity and the justice and reunite us in the Hereafter.
Allahumma Ameen ya Rabbil Alameen.
In the meanwhile, striving on, on the path of many struggling for humanity, he also paved his achievements. The path goes on till it reaches it's goal. No man will be able to stop people, and as Vittorio and the many shuhada of Palestine proof, even their souls and legacy moving it forward.
So we say farewell but only for now. We are and I also am going to be his and the voices of the martyred and will carry it on. But formost, we will try to overcome this loss. But how many are already lost or will be lost we will not give up to try to be as he wanted everyone to be:
To Stay Human
http://fwd4.me/zqy
Hamas hunts Vittorio Arrigoni's killers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgLtpZ8STvc
Hundreds in Gaza honour Italian activist... - no comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VLHni2ymwA
l'ultimo Saluto da Gaza all'eroe Vittorio Arrigoni 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KqN8Le8Ag
GAZA ONORA L'AMICO ITALIANO funeral Vittorio Arrigoni
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeQS0WywE4k
Italian Mother and Father of Activist enter Gaza
Islam Times The mother and father of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was recently assassinated, entered Gaza yesterday afternoon through the Rafah Crossing.
Islam Times reports that the Arrigoni family was warmly welcomed by the people of Palestine. A number of Palestinian officials were also present in the welcoming ceremony. They entered Gaza with the purpose of retrieving the body of their murdered son.
Before this, Ismail Haniyeh, the elected prime minister of Palestine and Sami Abu Zuhri, the speaker of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, spoke with the mother of Vittorio Arrigoni on the phone. They expressed their pain to the grieving family and promised that they would find and punish those who were responsible for his murder.
Muhammad Awad, the foreign minister of the elected government in Palestine, stated in a news conference yesterday that the body of Vittorio Arrigoni will be handed over to his family during an official ceremony attended by a representative of the Italian consulate.
Vittorio Arrigoni was kidnapped last Friday by an unknown group in Gaza. His body was later found in the northern district of the Gaza Strip.
http://fwd4.me/zps
Thousands of Gazans Participate in Slain Italian Activist's Funeral
Gaza City - PNN - On Monday, politicians, NGO workers, and activists took part in the funeral of Vittorio Arrigoni who was killed last Friday by a Salafist group in Gaza. Palestinian police officers carried Arrigoni's coffin and marched in the funeral. Those in attendence carried his picture and, in reference to his killers, chanted, "death for terrorists!"
According to Palestinian security sources, the body of Arrigoni was transported from Gaza City to Rafah, to be handed to his parents at the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Palestinian police officers told local media that they would continue to investigate the murder of Arrigoni and that they will bring the murderers to justice.
Police officers themselves decided to participate in the funeral on Monday to honor this solidarity activist that sacrificed his life for Gaza.
http://fwd4.me/zqB
Hundreds in Gaza honor slain Italian activist
(Reuters) - Hundreds of Palestinians marched in a symbolic funeral procession on Monday in memory of a pro-Palestinian Italian activist killed by al Qaeda sympathizers in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
"Vittorio, Vittorio," the crowd chanted as Vittorio Arrogoni's body, in a wooden coffin wrapped in a Palestinian flag, was carried by policemen from a morgue to an ambulance for transfer to neighboring Egypt and then on to Italy.
Arrigoni, 36, was found strangled in an abandoned house on Friday. A jihadist Salafist group aligned with al Qaeda had abducted Arrigoni and threatened on Thursday to execute him unless their leader, detained by Hamas last month, was freed.
Arrigoni had lived in Gaza since arriving in 2008 aboard a humanitarian aid boat that Israel had admitted despite imposing a blockade on the territory.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip posted pictures on its website of three suspects sought in the killing. Two other suspects are already in custody.
The killing was an unprecedented challenge for Hamas, whose diehard hostility to Israel has deepened the isolation and poverty of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.
"We have lots of information and I believe that we are not far from reaching the killers in the nearest time possible ... We have all information," said Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas government official.
Hamas vehemently opposes Salafists who espouse a more extreme form of Islam and appear to be attracting recruits, including from among its own ranks.
http://fwd4.me/zpY
Ken O'Keefe: Israeli Mossad Assassinated Vittorio Arrigoni
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b6TR2KMT3Q
Gaza police: one of Arrigoni's killers is Jordanian
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian police in Gaza said one of the men accused of killing Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni is a Jordanian national.
The Gaza police released pictures of the killers including the Jordanian citizen and described them as the most wanted men in the Strip.
The wanted men, according to a statement by the police, are Abdulrahman Al-Berizat, from Jordan, Bilal Al-Omari and Mahmoud Al-Salfiti. The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the last two.
Spokesman for the police Ayman Al-Battniji said any member of the police who helps arrest the killers of Arrigoni will be rewarded.
http://fwd4.me/zpK
Update: Gaza police up stakes for arrests in activist murder
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Chief of police in the Gaza Strip Abu Ubayda Al-Jarrah announced Sunday a reward to any security officer who helped locate the killers of an Italian solidarity activist found dead two days earlier.
"All security officers who help reveal and arrest the killers ... will be rewarded," Abu Ubayda said in a statement, the day after President Mahmoud Abbas declared that those behind the murder would be charged with treason.
The statement was made despite the arrest and questioning of four men currently being interrogated over the murder of Italian reporter and activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was found hanged early Friday morning.
Arrigoni had been abducted and his kidnappers posted a ransom video online Thursday, identifying themselves as a Salafist group. They said the activist would be executed unless Hamas officials in Gaza freed a number of Salafists from prison within 30 hours. Twelve hours ahead of the deadline, the activist was found hanged.
On Sunday evening, Hamas foreign affairs and planning minister Mohammed Awad told reporters that Arrigoni's body would be moved to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Monday after a funeral in Gaza.
"We're waiting for his friends and relatives to arrive in Gaza. Some are already here but there are others we are waiting for, and then there will be a state funeral," Awad said.
"We expect afterward that his body will be taken to the Rafah crossing and then on to Cairo, according to the wishes of his family."
Earlier in the week, Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had said that the murder "does not reflect the values, morals, or the religion of the Palestinian people. This is an unprecedented case that won't be repeated," and called for a criminal investigation into the matter.
Tensions between Salafist groups and Hamas
In the video, the kidnappers said they were part of a previously unknown Salafi group Sarayat As-Sahabi Al-Humam Muhammad bin Muslima (the Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima). Larger Salafist groups have said they had nothing to do with the abduction or murder, which was harshly condemned.
There are five major Salafist groups in Gaza, all of which espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the early days of the faith.
Their religious observances and refusal to abide by various ceasefires have set them on a path of confrontation with Hamas.
Though small in numbers, the groups have had a disproportionate impact.
By launching hundreds of crude rockets from the coastal enclave into Israel, they have attracted the wrath of both Israel and Hamas.
The recent history of bad blood between Hamas and the Salafists picked up in 2007, when a Salafist group called the Army of Islam (Jaish Al-Islam) claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston.
Hamas severed ties with the group and helped free Johnston after four months in captivity.
Tensions boiled over in August 2009, when Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Partisans of God) announced the creation of an Islamist "emirate" in Gaza, during a sermon at a mosque in the southern city of Rafah.
That prompted a furious response from Hamas, whose forces stormed the mosque, prompting clashes which left 24 people dead.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379549
Gaza police identify murder suspects
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza police on Monday released the photos of four men identified as the prime suspects in the murder of Italian activist and journalist Vittorio Arrigoni.
Police said the four were currently fugitives, and apparently in hiding.
The four were identified as Abdul-Rahman Al-Breizat, Mahmoud Muhammad Nimir Salfiti, Muhammad Al-Breizat, and Bilal Al-Umari.
Police did not say whether any of the men were affiliated with a political, religious or military group in the coastal enclave.
Two men detained earlier were not directly involved in the murder, police said.
Police gave no indication as to who identified the four, or whether they were suspected to be behind the hanging of Arrigoni, or connected to his abduction last week.
Arrigoni was kidnapped in Gaza City, and his captors released a ransom video Thursday threatening to execute him unless Hamas released Salafi prisoners within 30 hours. Before the deadline passed, the Italian activist was found hanged in an abandoned home northwest of Gaza City.
On Sunday, Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh offered police a reward for the arrest of those involved, and police announced a closure of sectors of the Strip in an attempt to close in on suspects.
Haniyeh also announced that Arrigoni would be granted a state funeral, and that his body would be transferred into the custody of family via the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Arrigoni's mother told the Italian newspaper Agenzia Giornalistica Italia that she would not allow her son's body to return from Gaza via Israel.
"Israel did not want him when he was alive and won't have him when he is dead," she told AGI.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379833 19 apr 2011, 10:04 , Respect
Maria translation of the letter written by Egidia Beretta Arrigoni, mother of Vittorio Arrigoni
One has to die to become a hero, to hit the headlines and to have TV crews around the house, but does one have to die to stay human?
I recall Vittorio in the Christmas of 2005, detained and incarcerated in the Ben Gurion Airport, the scars left by the handcuffs that cut his wrists, the denial of any contact with the consulate, the farcical process.
And I recall Easter that same year, when just across the Allenby Bridge at the Jordanian border the Israeli police blocked his entrance in the country, put him on a bus and, seven against one (one of the seven was a policewoman), they beat him up with skill, without leaving any external marks, like the real professionals they are, then hurling him to the ground and throwing at his face, as a last scar to add to the others, the hair they had ripped off him with their machines.
Vittorio was unwanted in Israel. Too subversive, for having joined his friend Gabriele one year earlier and demonstrated along with the women and men of the village of Budrus against the Wall of Shame, teaching them the lyrics and singing together our most beautiful partisan song 'O bella ciao, ciao...'.
Back then no TV crew came by, not even when in the Fall of 2008 a commando attacked in Palestinian waters off Rafah the fishing boat he had boarded. Vittorio was incarcerated in Ramle and soon after sent back home with nothing but the clothes on his body.
Nevertheless, I cannot but be thankful to the press and television that have approached us with composure, that have 'besieged' our home with restraint, without excesses and that have given me the chance to talk about Vittorio and about his ideals and the choices he made.
This lost child of mine is more alive than ever before, like the grain that has fallen to the ground and died to bring forth a plentiful harvest. I see it and hear it already in the words of his friends, above all the younger among them, some closer, some from afar.
Through Vittorio, they have known and understood, and now even more, how one can give 'Utopia' a meaning, like the thirst for justice and peace, how fraternity and solidarity still stand and how, as Vittorio used to say, 'Palestine can also be found at your doorsteps'.
We were a long way from Vittorio, but now we are closer than ever, with his living presence magnified at every passing hour, like a wind from Gaza, from his beloved Mediterranean, blowing fierily to deliver the message of his hope and of his love for those without a voice, for the weak and the oppressed, passing the baton.
Stay human.
http://fwd4.me/zqw
Kidnapped in Gaza | Reports From Vittorio's Blog
by Vittorio Arrigoni (Photo courtesy of Daniela Loffreda)
The following was sent to us by Daniela Loffreda, a close friend of Vittorio Arrigoni. She writes: This is a chilling account from Vittorio's blog http://fwd4.me/zrt of what happened to him and other ISM activists when they were kidnapped by the Israeli military in 2008. The media keeps focusing on how Hamas doesn't have control of Gaza and security http://fwd4.me/zru . And I ask myself, had Vittorio tried to leave via Israel what would of happened to him, again? He was jailed and captured (and tortured) by IDF twice.
Vittorio Arrigoni
Last Tuesday the sea was a placid, liquid blanket, unruffled and as smooth as oil when Darlene, Andrew and I, human rights activists with the ISM sailed from the port of Gaza on three Palestinian fishing boats. The warm sun, clear blue sky and complete absence of wind had led us to expect a plentiful day's catch for our fishermen friends. Around 11 AM we were intercepted and circled by eight Israeli military boats opening fire against the fishing boats, obstructing our way, after which they proceeded to kidnap us three internationals and fifteen Palestinian fishermen.
They abducted us and stole the boats, leading us and the boats from the Palestinian water zone right to the border with Israel's. We were about six miles from the coast of Gaza, which according to international laws is unequivocally in Palestinian waters (the Oslo Treaty gives the Palestinians sovereignty up to 20 miles from the coast of the Strip), meaning ours wasn't an arrest but a full-blown abduction, with the fishing boats being stolen rather than confiscated.
A veritable terrorist blitz. Israeli Navy special forces, commandos, balaklava-wearing, unfathomably armed, all to stop just three small wooden boats that could barely stay afloat.
I tried to speak to the Israeli Officer who seemed the highest in ranking, asking him whether they were planning to kill me. I could see more than ten pistols, guns and cannon barrels pointing at me, following my every move.
Before the Israeli soldiers jumped on board the fishing boat, I asking him and them what kind of obsessive fear Israel nurtured, what degree of extreme danger for its domestic security could be represented by a bunch of simple Palestinian fishermen going offshore, within their own sea zone, to catch just enough fish to feed their families with.
The Israeli Officer, so iron-willed and authoritarian when barking orders in Hebrew at his soldiers and in English (with a distinctly Australian accent) at me, had nothing to say in reply to my simple query. These soldiers, all muscles and stony coldness, are trained to kill a man in less than a second (or less when he's Palestinian), without even batting an eyelid.
But it's obvious they're unable to willingly grasp the meaning of simple terms such as right to exist and right of sustenance.
Since we were far from Israeli borders, I told the Israeli Officer I didn't recognize his authority, nor their right to kidnap myself and my friends, the fishermen. I therefore decided I would resist passively, non-violently. I climbed onto the cabin roof, and from there onto the iron structure used as a jib to lift the fishing nets, at the boat's stern.
Three soldiers followed me, pointing guns in my face. Their eyes behind the black balaklavas seemed to me like the best representation of hatred that I had ever seen, a hatred taught in years of lessons learnt off by heart, on how to best defeat an enemy, even when that enemy doesn't exist. Not in the least bit intimidated, I asked them whether they intended to kill me, and if so to go ahead and finish off their job then and there.
Go ahead and kill a civilian, a disarmed Italian on a Palestinian fishing boat, gone fishing with his Palestinian friends on Palestinian waters. A fourth soldier came forward, and I recognized the weapon he was holding, a taser gun. I told him the truth, that I have a heart condition. His weapon could have given me a cardiac arrest. The soldier got closer, the Officer gave him the order and I turned my back on both of them, so as not too feel too much compassion for them.
The soldier shot me in the back, an electric shock that knocked me right out, then all four soldiers tried to push me down the three-meter leap, down onto the stern's steel floor that could have provoked serious fractures in me. I lunged forward and leapt into the sea, swimming slowly with what strength I had left. I swam towards the shore on the horizon, towards Gaza, towards my home.
Indifferent to the intimidating bullets hitting the water a few centimeters from my head, I swam for a good half hour, followed at a short distance by the eight war ships. But when my teeth started to chatter uncontrollably and the palms of my hands turned blue, I had to give in and let the soldiers pull me out of the water, beating me up as they did so. I narrowly missed hypothermia.
When we got to the port of Ashkelon, myself, Darlene and Andrew were marched out of the Israeli war ship and were met by a scenario reminiscent of the Holocaust. It was something that reminded me of Schindler's List, or the horror-imbued prose of Primo Levi. All the fishermen were made to kneel, stark naked, chained at the ankles and handcuffed with their arms behind their backs, blindfolded. These were the conditions they had been made to travel in, on an open deck for 50 nautical kilometers.
Why so? For what reason on earth does Israel, through its army and government, soil its reputation with such crimes against the civilians of Gaza on a daily basis? Why does it impose these collective punishments? Preventing harmless fishermen from catching fish a few miles from the coast, in their own water zone, and more generally starving Gaza's population held captive in its siege, certainly doesn't favor the peace process, nor will it give Israel more security. The exact opposite is true.
Us three internationals were lead into a prison at Ben Gurion, followed by another one in Ramle, where we immediately went on a hunger strike to ask for the immediate release of the Palestinian fishermen, which eventually took place.
I was held for six days in that Israeli jail in terrible conditions, in filthy and claustrophobic cells, crawling with insects and parasites that feasted on my skin. But coming from Gaza, I was used to being held under chain. Through Israel's will, Gaza is the biggest open-air prison in the world. All the industries have had to close down, over 80% of the population survives under the poverty line and the highest rates of unemployment in the world are recorded in Gaza. There's no electricity or fuel. Hospitals need medicine, the vast majority of the population need food and the bare essentials. The Israelis only conducted me from one open-air prison to another of their own smaller ones, where at least, unlike in Gaza, they regularly serve rations and both electricity and drinking water are available almost daily.
But I was denied the most basic of human rights, such as the faculty to contact my attorney or consulate at my own discretion rather than my jailers. Furthermore, I am keen to speak out against the prison of Ramle, twenty kilometers from Tel Aviv, where hundreds of African refugees, mostly Ethiopian, Eritrean and Sudanese, are virtually buried alive. They have perfectly valid UN visa passes; in any self-styled civilized country they would have been assigned accommodation and the bare essentials to survive. They're fleeing from war they're no terrorists. But once again, when it comes to human rights, and more generally to international law, Israel have demonstrated that it's just a bunch of hollow words to them outside their borders, as well as within them. I'll do everything in my power to let the inhuman conditions of my inmates be known I promised them I would.
In the end, Andrew, Darlene and I were deported. We didn't appeal to an Israeli court so as not to legitimize our arrest, which is considered a kidnapping under international law.
Our lawyers will battle it out to have the fishing boats returned. Besides the financial loss suffered by the boats' owners, what's really aggravating us is the thought of fifty unemployed fishermen, and about thirty Palestinian families without a means of sustenance for the last week.
Those boats robbed by Israel are a symbol of the siege under which Gaza is forcibly held, the illegality bordering on terrorism with which the Israeli Army operates outside its territory. Personally, I, Vittorio Arrigoni, declare that I'm a lion. The more I get flogged, the more they jail me, the steelier my will to fight for human rights becomes. It was no laughing matter for Gandhi and his companions to shake off the British occupation, nor for Mandela to defeat the Apartheid that reigned supreme in South Africa. Neither the wounds inflicted upon me in these months in Gaza, nor has my last confinement sufficed to make me take a single step back on the path towards the non-violent civic struggle I undertook. It's a moral matter that spells freedom for the Palestinians, and simultaneously peace and security for the Israelis.
Stay human,
Vittorio Arrigoni
http://fwd4.me/zrs
GAZA AFTER THE KILLING OF VITTORIO ARRIGONI .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHQlNqPvJOI
Maria 19 apr 2011
Vittorio Arrigoni, a winner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKSAC1XVj1Y
Arrigoni killer pursuit ends after suspect takes life
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Gaza Ministry of Interior and National Security has confirmed that the pursuit of dangerous suspects wanted for the murder of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza ended after one of the men threw a grenade injuring both of his accomplices.
The suspect Abdurrahman al-Bureizat, a Jordanian citizen, then opened fire on himself taking his own life.
Three Gaza security service men were moderately injured in the operation.
Palestinian police had demanded that the suspects surrender as they had surrounded the Abu Ghoula residence where the men were taking cover, a PIC correspondent reported. They had declared that they wanted to take them into custody alive.
The suspects were identified as Mahmoud al-Salfiti, Bilal al-Omari, and Abdurrahman al-Bureizat, also known as Mohammed Hassan. Faris Abu Ghoula, one of the residents, had joined the men as they took refuge in the home west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, our correspondent said.
Gun shots echoed at the scene as the Ministry of Interior and National Security declared the area a closed security zone, the correspondent added.
He said the suspects did not obey orders by the security forces to surrender themselves, but instead fired at police injuring a policeman. One of the men fired at his father who was present to coax his son into surrender. He was however uninjured.
Sources in the Interior Ministry said the men's families were summoned in an effort to convince them to turn themselves in to the authorities, but they had not responded.
Those sources told our correspondent that security chiefs ordered that the men be taken alive in order to investigate mysteries left unanswered in the crime, including who was behind it and his motives.
http://fwd4.me/zvN
GazaYBO Islamic Salafies don't commit suicide under an circumstances! There is something strange about this group!
Sameeha88 I am very surprised the man who is supposed to be an extremist salafee committed suicide. So paradoxical !!
Two main suspects in slaying of Italian activist killed in Hamas raid
Security forces from Hamas-run government exchange fire with suspected killers of the pro-Palestinian activist, also arrest three more suspects during siege on their home in Gaza refugee camp.
Two of the main suspects in the killing of a pro-Palestinian Italian activist in the Gaza Strip were killed during a raid by Hamas security forces seeking to detain them, a security official said.
A third was wounded, the official added. Three of their associates, part of the same group of al Qaeda sympathisers, were arrested in the raid at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The suspects were captured alive following a gunfight with security forces at a building where they were hiding in the refugee camp of Nuseirat.
Members of the Hamas security forces had surrounded a building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip in the operation to capture the al Qaeda sympathizers believed to have killed Vittorio Arrigoni, found strangled on Friday.
The security source said the owner of the house in Nuseirat refugee camp and his two sons were arrested during the siege on Tuesday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details of the Hamas operation with the media.
Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni who had been helping local Palestinians in Gaza was strangled to death last week, shortly after he was kidnapped and after a video showing him beaten and blindfolded surfaced online.
Hamas has suspected a small renegade Islamist group, inspired by al-Qaida, of killing Arrigoni.
http://fwd4.me/zvA
nicolealjazeera Hamas statement: Jordanian suspect shoots himself in Hamas raid. And wounds his 2 colleagues by opening a grenade. They've been arrested.
1 dead, 1 hurt in clash with murder suspects
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- One person died and another sustained injuries Tuesday when security forces in the Gaza Strip raided a building to arrest men suspected of murdering an Italian activist, officials said.
http://fwd4.me/zv7
MP Mansour: World should follow footsteps of foreign solidarity activists
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Hamas MP in Nablus Mona Mansour highly appreciated the Italian solidarity activists for their insistence on supporting the besieged Gaza Strip.
She said in a statement that the Italian supporters including the family of slain activist Vittorio Arrigoni said that they came to break the siege on Gaza and would not give up this demand and would remain there despite the murder of Arrigoni at the hands of a deviated group.
The MP urged the world to follow the path of those foreign activists in backing Gaza and to take lessons from their "honorable stands towards this just cause".
Mansour said that Gaza would remain the symbol of patience and resoluteness in face of conspiracies and smear campaigns, adding that all free people of the world are responsible for lifting the siege on Gaza or else remaining silent would mean collusion to what crimes are being committed against the coastal enclave at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.
http://fwd4.me/zv0
Witnesses: Gaza police surround suspects in Italian activist's murder
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Security forces have surrounded a home in the central Gaza Strip where several men suspected of killing an Italian activist are believed to be hiding, witnesses said.
Special forces closed in on a home belonging to the Abu Ghulah family near Wadi Gaza and evacuated several homes in the area, onlookers said.
The owner of the home, Amer Abu Ghulah, surrendered to police, and security officials were urging suspects remaining inside to give themselves up, witnesses said.
The Gaza interior ministry declared the area a closed security zone.
On Monday, the Gaza government released photos of three suspects in the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, who was found hanged in a Gaza home on Friday hours after his abduction by a group demanding the release of Salafi prisoners.
The men were identified as Abdul-Rahman Al-Breizat, Mahmoud Muhammad Nimir Salfiti and Bilal Al-Umari.
On Sunday, Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh offered police a reward for the arrest of those involved, and police announced a closure of sectors of the Strip in an attempt to close in on suspects.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=380262
Lifeline for Gaza: Berizat did not enter Gaza through our convoys
AMMAN, (PIC)-- The Jordanian committee of "Lifeline for Gaza" aid convoys denied that Abdulrahman Al-Berizat who is accused of killing Italian Vittorio Arrigoni had entered the Gaza Strip through one of its convoys.
Quds Press quoted head of the committee Wa'el Al-Saka as saying that there was no one by that name on any lists of the Lifeline convoys that crossed into Gaza for humanitarian purposes.
Lifeline for Gaza committee is getting prepared to participate in Freedom Flotilla 2 slated to sail for Gaza next month.
Lawyer of the Islamic organizations in Jordan Mussa Al-Abdalat told Quds Press that Berizat, hailing from the Jordanian city of Madaba, was a member of the Lifeline aid convoy which joined the first Freedom Flotilla that was attacked by the Israeli navy last year.
Abdalat said the accused, according to his acquaintances, stayed in Gaza working as a driver for a charity, affirming that Berizat was not known as a supporter of the Salafi trend.
The Palestinian police in Gaza had revealed that one of the men accused of killing Arrigoni was a Jordanian national and published his photo along with the other accomplices.
http://fwd4.me/zsF
From Gaza to Vittorio with love Your name is carved in our souls
by Omar Ghraieb
Dear Vik, I decided to write you a letter today to tell you what you have missed since you have passed away. Let me go back to the black Friday of your death, Gaza was very sad and devastated. We couldn't handle losing you because it was something too big to be handled, but what I knew later on is that you were loved worldwide not only Gaza. Vik you touched so many lives here, the people who knew you, the people who heard about you, your friends, your close friends, the farmers you endangered your life to protect, the fishermen who could never forget your bravery while you were on board with them trying to protect them and document the Israeli violations, your ISM family, your folks back home and hundreds of people around the world who were inspired by you.
Vik wallah I got emails from around the world from people who were huge fans of you, they read ur books and were really looking forward to meeting you one day. The emails expressed such grief for your loss; people were upset that you left us all early before they got the chance of meeting you. The emails were from many countries around the world but you cant imagine how much Italians you touched and inspired. I kept asking myself why are those Italians so touched by you more than others, I forgot that you are Italian and I know if you were alive you wouldn't blame me, you are more Palestinian and Gazan than many of us.
Last Saturday I went to TedxRamallah, the cab ride was aweful. On my way there I kept watching Gaza's streets and skies, they looked different. Gaza isn't the same without you Vik, its like something is wrong or just not right or maybe something is left undone that's how I feel. Police in the streets felt useless for me, they did their best to release you while you're still alive and I believe that but for me that isn't enough. We looked useless too, I felt like we should have protected you but I don't know what could we have done to save you but we owed you that. I want to be honest Vik, when I heard you passed away I was angry and sad and kept thinking you hated Gaza and Gazans at your last moments but then I knew I was wrong when I calmed down. You loved Gaza more than we did, you fought for Gaza just like we do if not more so you will never ever hate Gaza or Gazans no matter what.
At tedxRamallah Huwaida Arraf had a word to say, she wasn't going to attend after hearing about your death but then she decided to come and dedicate her segment to you, they showed a video about you and your numerous good deeds for Palestine and Gaza. She was in tears, Ramallah was in tears, Gaza was in tears and everybody else watching through VC or online. But then we smiled because we remembered something nice about you and we wished you were there sitting between us. I truly felt that day that you were watching from above.
Rim Banna dedicated a song for you and Juliano Mer Khamis, you were both a huge loss for Palestine. Every speaker mentioned you, knew you and loved you.
Gaza vigil for Vittorio
Gaza held many vigils and funerals for you, people here showed how much they loved you and cared about you, you were an inspiration for us all. I cant believe those who call you a murderer, a terrorist and all these crappy biased untrue things. I always considered you as the HUMAN in Human Being. You were so humane that you touched numerous hearts around the world. You fought for Palestine and Gaza's freedom viciously but you only used determination and passion as your only weapons. How could you be a terrorist and how could you be a threat to any one? I wished those who are trashing you really knew your human side or knew you before they opened their filthy mouths. I couldn't understand how one person can be considered as an enemy to a whole country and a heavily armed army??? Well that just shows how much you were touching people and inspiring them.
Vik I have a few good news for you: They renamed Freedom Flotilla 2, its now called Stay Human taking after ur words and the name of one of your books on Gaza, and listen to this: your mom is coming with Stay Human to Gaza, we are so happy. We are planning to go meet her and show her how much we loved you, I truly cant wait to meet her and hug her and tell her thank you for bringing you to life and tell her how many heart you touched. Alessandra wants to come too maybe soon, she cant make it now but she told me that she would love to come to Gaza when she can.
A street will be named after you in Gaza to honor some of your most noble deeds for Palestine and Gaza. Your friend Claudia came to Rafah today to take your body back to your family in Italy. Honestly, I would rather have seen Alessandra here at Rafah today to take you back to your second home since you considered Gaza as your home too. Let me tell you a new secret, I always asked myself why do you love Gaza and Palestine that much, and always wondered if I was Palestinian and Italy went through the same would I be as passionate as you are?
Gaza vigil for Vittorio
You are among few activists who loved Palestine and Gaza enough to die for them. You passed away here; god answered your prayers as you always prayed for dying in Gaza. You wanted to die in Gaza so bad that you never left Gaza during Israel's war on Gaza 2008-2009. You stayed and volunteered in a hospital and took a shrapnel in your arm. You also attended most of the buffer-zone protests and kept shouting Shaheed there. You joined the ISM family to protect the Gazan farmers and fishermen, something I never dared to do.
Your friends here wanted your family's permission to burry you here and I wanted that also because everyone knew you would want that too, but I wont be selfish enough to be angry at your parents for wanting your body back to burry you in Italy. We all know that your soul will never ever leave us or leave Gaza. I told everyone that I feel you are watching over us and Gaza from above like a guardian angel.
London Vigil for Vittorio
Vigils around the world are taking place to honor you, you are globally loved. You were so down to earth; you loved every cm of Gaza. You never hesitated to meet anyone here or visit any place, you always felt so safe here which is remarkable because Gaza is a war zone but you cared less for violence and more for humans. You are like no other person I have ever met, knew or heard of.
I keep thinking about stuff we can do to honor you, like the street thing or maybe a charity holding your name or anything that keeps your legacy alive. I then realized that you never asked us to pay you back for your love to Palestine because it came from within you. You considered Palestine as your country and us as your family. Your legacy represents your books, friends, love for Palestine and Gaza and the unbeatable flame of your passion towards Palestine and Gaza.
I promise you Vik we will never ever forget you, not one day will pass without 1 person here or around the world thinking of you and what you gave for Palestine and humanity. You are a role model for hundreds around the world.
Vik Gaza misses you, we miss you, Gaza loves you, we love you and you will always be carved in our souls very deep inside. May you rest in peace and rest assured that many will complete what you started. You aren't silenced, instead your voice became louder because many people around the world are using your voice now.
I miss you.
From Gaza to you Vik with all our love.
http://fwd4.me/zrv 21 apr 2011, 09:55 , Respect
Maria 20 apr 2011
Hamas Raid on Arrigoni's Killers- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1i9M7NrNI
- By Hanitizer
As someone who never misses an opportunity to hate on Hamas, I must say I am very impressed with how they caught the Salafi guys who are being charged with the abduction and the murder of International Solidarity Movement activist Vittorio Arrigoni.
Knowing that they are walking a fine line by going after these cold blooded murderers. the Ministry of Interior of Gaza filmed the whole ordeal. The three Salafi operatives were hiding in a home in the Nusyrat Camp in Gaza's middle area. The police force surrounded the home from all sides. The police evacuated the nearby homes and evacuated the residents of the home where those operatives were hiding.
Once the Gaza police took control of the area, they brought a number of relatives and associates of those men to try to persuade them to surrender. The relatives had no luck in their efforts. Video of those efforts were made available (above).
When those attempts failed, the police attacked. What happened during the raid is unclear. The official story of the police is this, One of those men the guy from Jordan threw two hand grenades. One at the direction of the Hamas police officers (three were hurt) and another toward his two brethren, killing one and hurting the other, then he took his own gun and shot himself dead Two of the Salafis are dead and one survived with non-critical wounds.
The family of the Jordanian suspect do not believe the official story and disputes the Hamas account. As for the locals, not too many are disputing the official story. A number of Gaza based human rights groups are asking for an investigation in the matter, but I think most are happy that those murderers are no l0nger with us.
Rest in peace Vittorio Arrigoni.
Public Relations-wise, Hamas learned the lesson of their operation in Rafah against that Salafi group late 2009: document your side of the story and do not be too gun happy (Israel also, by the way, tried to document its use of force against the Gaza flotilla, but so did the people on the flotilla).
It is a balance: Hamas is still fine with Salafi groups as long as they are not violent or militant. Those videos help in communicating that as policy. Hamas wants to show it, like other governments, retains a monopoly on the use of force.
Watching the exchange between the father and those clowns, I am so relieved how aware the Palestinians of Gaza and how serious the crime of killing Vittorio Arrigoni viewed by all people in Gaza. Hamas had no problem killing troublemakers, but now they seem to build a better case for their actions. They see the importance of furthering their narrative of the events.
http://fwd4.me/zzr
Vittorio's murderers killed in Gaza
Interior ministry: Two killers of Arrigoni die in a house raid
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian ministry of interior said the police attack on Tuesday on the whereabouts of the three men accused of killing an Italian activist was an important lesson for everyone tempted to tamper with the security and stability in Gaza.
In a news conference yesterday, spokesman for the ministry Ihab Al-Ghussein explained that a force of policemen in Annuseirat refugee camp found and encircled on Tuesday afternoon the hideout of the three fugitives wanted for murdering Vittorio Arrigoni.
Spokesman Ghussein affirmed the policemen acted wisely and responsibly and demanded the suspects to surrender themselves and show no resistance, but they refused to comply and started to open fire at the police force wounding three of its members.
Despite what happened the police force showed restraint and brought mediators to the scene including families of the fugitives in order to convince them to surrender and avoid bloodshed, but they, especially Abdulrahman Al-Berizat declined all mediatory efforts and insisted on dying instead of turning themselves in, the spokesman elaborated.
He noted that Berizat fired one shot beside one of the fugitives' father, but he did not hurt him.
After the failure of all mediations that lasted over six hours, the police force moved to control the house in an attempt to arrest the suspects and as two policemen climbed on the roof, Berizat spotted them and threw a grenade causing them to sustain moderate injuries.
He also threw another grenade in the second floor killing one of his accomplices, Bilal Al-Omari and wounding Mahmoud Al-Salfiti before shooting himself dead, the spokesman added.
A reporter for the Palestinian information center (PIC) had said earlier that the Palestinian security leadership issued orders to policemen to necessarily arrest the wanted men alive so as to interrogate them and find out more about the crime and its motives.
At an early hour last Friday, the police found Arrigoni dead in an abandoned house north of Gaza just hours after he was kidnapped by a group declared itself as Salafi.
http://fwd4.me/zyk
Italian peace activist's killers die in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hkmuxesZcE
A stakeout at a refugee camp in Gaza between Hamas security forces and men suspected of the killing of an Italian peace activist has ended in violence.
Two people were killed, a third wounded and three others captured.
Hamas has been searching for those responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, whose body was found on Monday. He had been hanged.
Hamas says all six suspects were members of a Salafist group which has alleged links to al-Qaeda.
Father of Arrigoni suspect: Hamas killed my son
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The father of a Jordanian man who died Tuesday during a raid on a building in the Gaza Strip suspected of housing the killers of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni says Hamas killed his son.
"It does not make sense that he killed himself. Islam forbids that. They killed him," Mohammad Al-Birizit said in Amman, disputing the interior ministry's claim that his son Abdul-Rahman committed suicide.
"My son used to read the Koran, pray and fast Ramadan. We do not know what to do now. If we are officially informed of his death, the family will meet to decide," he told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=380400
Bethlehem memorial for slain international activists
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Officials in Deisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem announced Monday plans to unveil a memorial statue honoring four activists slain in the course of their service to Palestine.
A day in solidarity with the "martyrs of humanity" was declared for Wednesday for slain activists Vittorio Arrigoni, theater director Juliano Mer-Khmais, solidarity activist Rachel Corrie, and Takaw Himora.
The event will begin with a basketball match at the Catholic Action Center at 7 p.m. followed by the inauguration in Dheihsheh of a statue at 9 p.m. and a film at 9:30 p.m. at the Ibdaa Cultural Center.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=380025 24 apr 2011, 23:45 , Respect
Maria 21 apr 2011
Foreign Ministry clarifies Arrigoni murder stance in diplomatic campaign
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian government in Gaza has organized a diplomatic campaign to clarify its position on the murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni by armed men in the Gaza Strip.
A fresh statement by the ministry says the men involved in the crime are being prosecuted.
The ministry said it has sent a number of official letters to several countries explaining the position of the government under Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya.
The ministry confirmed that those involved in the Arrigoni murder have been arrested and are facing trial, adding that the government in Gaza has a keen interest to uphold security and stability in the Gaza Strip and firmly deal with any breaches in security and order.
It stressed that Gaza's security is self-sustaining and that the Arrigoni slaying will not affect the arrival of activists and sympathizers to the Gaza Strip, assuring that the government will provide necessary protection for them.
http://fwd4.me/002B
Thoughts on Vittorio Arrigoni & Surfing in Gaza - April 20, 2011 - Ken O'Keefe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ0abc8GQKo
This is Israel, blatant lies are just a matter of course. %uFEFF Never once have I said I "beat the crap" out of anyone, what I did say and do was help disarm two commandos. I could have killed them (as they did us), with their own weapons no less, but of course I and the other survivors of the Mavi Marmara are not the killers. TJP
Gaza authorities release details of arrest raid
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The government in Gaza made every effort to reveal the details of Vittorio Arrigoni's murder and catch those responsible, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior Ehab Al-Ghusein said Wednesday.
Two suspects in the murder of the Italian activist died and another sustained injuries Tuesday when Hamas security forces raided a building in Gaza City after a short standoff outside.
On Wednesday, Al-Ghusein briefed reporters on the specifics of the operation.
At a news conference in Gaza City, he displayed images in which the mother of Bilal Al-Umari, one of the suspects, tries to convince him to surrender saying she had received assurances about his treatment.
Authorities also brought Hisham Al-Saidni, the leader whose release the suspects had allegedly demanded, and he urged them to give themselves up, Al-Ghusein explained.
His ministry has released dramatic footage showing the events leading up to the raid. Relatives of the suspects are seen pleading with them to surrender to police. Eventually, a gunshot is heard.
"Let this be a lesson for those seeking to disturb the security of Gaza," Al-Ghusein said.
"Those behind this crime have failed to disrupt life for Palestinians by creating a state of terror against the International Solidarity Movement," he added.
Al-Ghusein gave reporters a timeline of events since the kidnapping:
- Forces arrested two Palestinians within "moments" of the kidnapping on Thursday, Al-Ghusein said. They admitted their role in the abduction and actions with the rest of the group.
- After the murder, investigations revealed the location of the three fugitives. Security forces surrounded the home and repeatedly asked the suspects to surrender in accordance with the law, he said.
- When the suspects opened fire, a member of the security was moderately injured.
- After six hours of trying to convince the suspects to surrender, security forces attempted to take control of the house. Two men went to the roof of the building where the men had barricaded themselves.
- When Abdul-Rahman Al-Breizat noticed them, he threw a grenade at the forces which moderately injured one of the security forces outside.
- Al-Breizat then threw a grenade on the second floor, critically injuring Bilal Al-Umari and lightly hurting Mahmoud Muhammad Nimir Salfiti.
- Al-Breizat then shot himself in the head, Al-Ghusein said.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, meanwhile, has called for an investigation into the deaths of the two wanted persons killed during the clash with security services.
The PCHR urged the attorney general to investigate the deaths and publish the findings.
The rights group also reiterated its condemnation of the "hideous crime" against Arrigoni and stressed the importance of finalizing the investigation into the abduction and murder.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=380748
Activists restart work after Gaza murder
GAZA CITY (AFP) -- Members of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement resumed their activities in Gaza on Wednesday, days after the murder of an activist from the group.
Five members of the organisation gathered at a dock in Gaza City to restart work monitoring Israeli treatment of Palestinian fishermen seeking to ply their trade on a small strip of ocean off the coast of Gaza.
Such monitoring was done frequently by Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian member of ISM who was found hanged last Friday, hours after his kidnap by a radical Islamist Salafist group.
The activists, from Belgium, Italy and the United States, were joined by around 200 Palestinians for the ceremony, and observed a minute of silence in Arrigoni's memory.
Flowers were also sprinkled over five boats preparing to take part in the monitoring activity, as people waved the Palestinian flag.
Inge Neefs, a member of ISM, said the activity had been Arrigoni's favorite way to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinians.
"The idea is to have a human rights monitoring boat out in Palestinian water to document potential human rights violations at sea," she told AFP.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, caretaker prime minister Salam Fayyad mourned Arrigoni's death at a conference honoring non-violent protest against Israel's separation barrier in the village of Bilin.
"Killing Arrigoni was a hurtful blow to us and all international volunteers, but this huge participation today assures us that the International Solidarity Movement is still strong," he said.
"Despite what happened, international solidarity with us continues," he added, noting the presence of dozens of foreign representatives at the conference.
Arrigoni, 36, was a long-time member of the International Solidarity Movement and had been living and working in the Gaza Strip for much of the past three years.
A previously unknown radical group claimed responsibility for his kidnapping in a video that was posted online and showed Arrigoni, his face bruised and bloodied and his hands bound behind his back.
The group demanded the release of Salafist prisoners, including a senior Salafi leader, and threatened to kill Arrigoni within 30 hours if their demands were not met.
Hamas security forces found his body shortly afterwards, ahead of the stated deadline, in an abandoned house in northern Gaza.
Security forces in Gaza have so far arrested three suspects in the case. Another two were killed during a Tuesday raid in central Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=380764
Ramallah to name streets after slain activists
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Two streets in the West Bank city of Ramallah will be named after pro-Palestinian activists from Israel and Italy killed in recent weeks, Palestinian Authority officials said Wednesday.
Juliano Mer-Khamis and Vittorio Arrigoni will be remembered by streets named in their honor, the Ramallah municipality said in a statement cited by the official PA news agency WAFA.
The municipality said the decision honors the activists' "immense contribution to the Palestinian cause," according to the report, which hailed both men's efforts to expose "Israeli crimes to the world."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=380759