By Ramzy Baroud
' Dear Mary, ' wrote Italian justice activist Vittorio Arrigoni to a friend. ' You [know] will be on the boats? ... I am still in Gaza, waiting for you. I will be on the boat to greet you. Bo human. Vik.»
"Mary" is Mary Hughes Thompson, a dedicated activist, who braved seas to break the siege on Gaza isrælske in 2008.
Vittorio Arrigoni or Vik, was reportedly murdered by a fundamentalist group in Gaza a few hours after he was kidnapped on Thursday, April 14. The killing was allegedly as retaliation for Hamas ' penalty on members of the group. Everyone who knew Vik will testify that he was an extraordinary person, a model of compassion, solidarity and humanity.
Arrigonis body was discovered in an abandoned house hours after he was kidnapped. His murderers do not honour their own period of 30 hours. The group, known as Tawhid and Jihad, is one of the groups in Gaza as fringe known Salafis. They reappear under different names and manifestations of specific and often bloody-purposes.
"Killing prompted grief in Gaza, but also despair," read an op-ed UK Independent April 16. "Not only was known and well liked Arrigoni there, but it avoided no to this abduction was the first page of the BBC journalist Alan Johnson in 2007."
However, Johnson's kidnappers, hostage of the so-called army of Islam (a small group of fanatics, associated with a large Gaza clan) their in 114 days. There was plenty of time to organize and pressure criminals to release him. Arrigonis case stood just a few hours between the release of a scary video showing a half-naked and injured activist and the finding of his motionless body. Forensic report said that he was strangled. His friends said that he was tortured.
Vittorio Arrigoni assassination was an option for Isræls supporters. Daniel Pipes wrote in a brief entry in National Review Online: "Note pattern of Palestinians who murder groupies and apologists which join them to aid in their dream to eliminate Israel." Pipes, named three persons, including the Palestinian-isrælske filmmaker, Juliano Mer-Khamis and Arrigoni himself, and then continued to invite readers to send in additional examples, as I may have missed ".
Pipe list, but has no space for names such as Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, James Miller, of these people were murdered by isrælske forces. Pipes will also fail to mention the nine Turkish activists murdered on board Mavi Marmara on his way to break the siege on Gaza in May 2010 and nine activists abroad, Irene (Jewish boat to Gaza), which was intercepted, kidnapped and humiliated by isrælske troops before being deported outside the country in September 2010. 82-year-old Reuben Moscowitz, Holocaust survivor, was one of the activists aboard Irene, as Lillian Portugal, an American "who fled the Nazis as a child in Frankfurt," according to a New York Times blog.
People pipes failed to mention is really a rainbow of humanity. Men and women of all ages, races and nationalities have been and will continue to stand on the Palestinian side. But this story is selectively ignored pseudo-intellectuals of intent about dismissing humanity to maintain Israel. They refuse to see patterns in them, as they are busy concocting their own.
Type in the UK Guardian from Rome, April 15, John Hooper said was "Arrigonis life anything but safe. In September 2008, he was wounded (of isrælske troops) accompanying Palestinian fishermen at sea. Two years ago, he received a death threat from a U.S. the far right end of the site are supplied all would-be murderers with a photo and information to separate the physical properties, such as a tattoo on his shoulder. "
The group that murdered Arrigoni, like others of its kind, it was considered for a specific, violent episode before disappearing completely. In this case, the mission was to kill an International solidarity Mission (ISM) activist who dedicated years of his life to Palestine. Shortly before he was kidnapped, he wrote in this site of "criminal" isrælske siege in Gaza. He also arranged four impoverished Palestinians who died in a tunnel in Gaza and Egypt boarder while hauling food and other goods.
Before the murder, Arrigoni anticipate the arrival of another flotilla-carrying activists from 25 countries boarding 15 ships-which is scheduled to sail to Gaza in May. Isrælske prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the EU countries to prevent their nationals from ledsammenføjning boats. "I think it is in their and our common interest … to this flotilla must be stopped," he told European representatives in Jerusalem, according to an AFP report April 11.
Isrælske officials are angry over the internationals, "de-legitimizing" the State of Israel by standing in solidarity with the Palestinians. Arrigoni has done so much harm Israel carefully fabricated image as an island of democracy and progress. Together with other activists, he has broken this myth through simple means of communication.
Vik signed his messages with "Stay human". His book, describes his experiences in Gaza, was entitled Restiamo Umani (be sure to leave the United States still human). Mary Hughes Thompson shared with me some e-mail Arrigoni sent her. "I can hardly bear to read them again," she wrote. This is an excerpt from one of them:
"Regardless of how the (we) will conclude mission … it would be a victory. For human rights, For freedom. If the siege will not (be) physically broken, it will break the siege of indifference, abandonment. And you know very well what this gesture is important for the people of Gaza. As I said, we are waiting for the course on the port! With hundreds of Palestinians and ISM comrades, we will come to meet you sail, which was the first time, remember? All available boats will sail to Gaza to greet you. Sorry for my bad English … big hug … Stay human. Yours, Vik "
Viks murderers failed to see his humanity. But many of us will always remember, and we will continue to try to "stay human".
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