Vittorio Arrigoni

Vittorio Arrigoni
Born	(1975-02-04)4 February 1975 Besana Brianza
Died	15 April 2011(2011-04-15) (aged 36) Gaza Strip
Cause of death	Executed by strangling by Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin
Nationality	Italian
Occupation(s)	International Solidarity Movement activist, journalist, blogger

Vittorio Arrigoni (4 February 1975 – 15 April 2011) was an Italian reporter, writer, pacifist and activist. Arrigoni worked with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the Gaza Strip, from 2008 until his death. Arrigoni maintained a website, Guerrilla Radio, and published a book of his experiences in Gaza during the 2008-09 Gaza War between Hamas and Israel. He was murdered by suspected members of a Palestinian Salafist group in Gaza. The murder was condemned by various Palestinian factions.

Biography

Arrigoni was born in the town of Besana in Brianza, near Milan, Italy. He claimed that it was in his blood to fight for freedom as his grandfathers fought against the former fascist regime in Italy. He had the Arabic word for resistance (muqawama) tattooed on his right arm. Once he passed his maturità exams in Italy, he left his hometown of Bulciago, a small village near lake Como, and began traveling around the world. In 2002, he visited Jerusalem which according to his mother was the "moment he understood his work would be concentrated there." His mother, Egidia Beretta, is the mayor of Bulciago.

Political activism

Arrigoni was credited as one of the many activists who revived the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian group that works in the Palestinian territories. In August 2008, he participated in the Free Gaza mission that aimed to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, in place since June 2007 when Hamas took power in the territory. He was on the first boat that arrived in the Port of Gaza, describing that moment as "one of the happiest and most emotional" of his lifetime. While volunteering to act as a human shield for a Palestinian fisherman off Gaza's coast in September 2008, Arrigoni was injured by flying glass after the Israeli Navy used a water cannon to deter the vessel. In November, he was arrested by Israeli authorities after again acting as a human shield for fishermen off Gaza's coast.

He returned to Gaza prior to the Israeli military offensive Operation Cast Lead, which lasted from December 2008 to January 2009. Arrigoni was one of the few foreign journalists in Gaza during the war; he worked with Radio Popolare and as reporter for the Italian newspaper Il manifesto. He later published a book, Restiamo umani (en: Gaza, Stay Human), a collection of his reportage from Gaza. It is translated in English, Spanish, German, and French with a preface by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé.

Political views

Arrigoni was described as having a "fervent commitment to the Palestinian cause." Arrigoni described the four Palestinians who died in a tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt frontier as "martyrs." One of his last posts on Guerrilla Radio, which he wrote hours before he was kidnapped and killed, praised Palestinian efforts to smuggle goods into Gaza via underground tunnels as an "invisible battle for survival."

Arrigoni criticised Muslim extremists for trying to impose a hardline version of Islam in Gaza. In an interview to PeaceReporter, he said: "Personally, as an activist for human rights, I don't like Hamas at all. I have something to say to them too: they have deeply limited the human rights since they have won the elections."

In his website, Guerrilla Radio, and Facebook page, Arrigoni described the government of Israel as one of the worst apartheid regimes in the world. He said the Israeli blockade on Gaza was criminal and villainous.

Praise and criticism

According to The Guardian's correspondent in Italy, Arrigoni was "first and foremost a pacifist."Khaleel Shaheen of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, a friend of Arrigoni, described him as a "hero of Palestine".

Prof. Steven Plaut of the University of Haifa said that Arrigoni's Facebook page "includes the medieval blood libel charge that 'Zionists' would arrest Jesus if he were to come back today" and that "a photo that Arrigoni included – and thought was just delightful – is a sign in a store that announces that dogs and Israelis may not enter." Plaut characterized the page as "a cornucopia of blind hatred".

Italian parliamentarian Fiamma Nirenstein, vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in Italy’s Chamber of Deputies and chairwoman of the Committee for the Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, wrote that Arrigoni was a "fan of political Islamism because he was an enemy of the Jews". She further stated that Arrigoni described Zionists as "rats".

Noah Pollak, executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel, wrote that "Arrigoni devoted himself to helping Hamas try to destroy Israel. He was a warmonger, an anti-Semite and a supporter of the repression of Palestinians under terrorist rule in Gaza."

Kidnapping and death

Arrigoni was kidnapped on April 15, 2011, by suspected members of a Salafi militant group espousing Salafist jihadism operating in Gaza known as Tawhid and Jihad. In a video posted on YouTube in which they identified themselves as belonging to a previously unknown group, "The Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima,"" Arrigoni was blindfolded with blood seen around his right eye. The captors demanded the release of their leader Walid al-Maqdasi, imprisoned by the de facto government in Gaza a month earlier, as a ransom and threatened Arrigoni's execution if a 30-hour deadline was not met. The captors accused Arrigoni of "spreading corruption" and his home country Italy as an "infidel state."

Execution

For uncertain reasons, before the deadline expired, the captors executed Arrigoni in an empty apartment in the Mareh Amer area in northern Gaza. "It is believed he was either hanged then laid down, or strangled on the ground". After being led to the house by a member of the suspected Salafi group, Hamas security forces stormed the building and found Arrigoni's body. "The doctor who performed the autopsy said Mr. Arrigoni’s killers had used a plastic cord to strangle him", but "Journalists were not allowed to see the body in the morgue and could not independently confirm the cause of death given by Hamas" Tawhid and Jihad denied responsibility for the killing, but stated it was "a natural outcome of the policy of the government carried out against the Salafi." Iyad ash-Shami, a leader of another Salafi group based in Gaza, denied involvement of Salafi militants and said the killing went against Islam. Security forces in Gaza arrested four suspects in connection to the incident, and Haniya ordered an investigation by the Interior Ministry, and called Arrigoni's mother to send his condolences.

Manhunt

Hamas police initiated a manhunt after members of the Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin involved in the murder. Hamas sealed off parts of the Gaza Strip before the beginning of the operation, during which "heavy gunfire and at least one explosion were heard".

Hamas security men laid siege on a house where the suspects were staying,in the Nusseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza. The suspects refused to surrender and a gun battle ensued. Hamas policemen entered the home and killed Balal al-Omari and Hirdani Abbad a-Rahman al-Brizat (one of the two dead men may have committed suicide). A third suspect, Muhammad a-Salpiti, was wounded and detained. Three of the suspects' associates were also captured. Ihab Ghussein, Hamas interior ministry spokesman, reported that five Hamas policemen were injured as well as girl who was caught in the crossfire.

Reactions to the murder

Several hundred Gazans rallied in the Unknown Soldier's Square to mourn Arrigoni while about 100 Palestinians and internationals marched through Ramallah to a house of mourning in nearby al-Bireh in the West Bank. In Bethlehem, a candle-light vigil was held outside the Church of the Nativity. Egyptian authorities offered to allow Arrigoni's family to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing and his body to be sent back to Italy via the crossing.

Palestinian response

An official statement from Hamas described the killing as a "disgraceful act" by a "mentally deviated and outlawed group." Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniya stated the killing "does not reflect the values, morals, or the religion of the Palestinian people. This is an unprecedented case that won't be repeated." He also said Arrigoni would be designated a martyr and a street would be named after him. Foreign minister of Hamas told he will get a state funeral. After this the body will be transferred to Egypt. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum "condemned the killing as 'shameful'.

Various condemnations of Arrigoni's killing were released by other Palestinian factions with Fatah decrying it as an "act of betrayal," the Popular Resistance Committees calling it "cowardly," Islamic Jihad calling it a "grotesque crime," and Mustafa Barghouti saying it was a "shocking criminal act." A spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas condemned it as an "act of treason".

International response

The foreign ministry of Italy expressed "deep horror over the barbaric murder," calling it 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 pressed the Gaza government to bring to justice "the perpetrators of this appalling crime."

Blaming Israel

Although Arrigoni was executed by the Gaza branch of the Palestinian Salafist group Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin, some blamed Israel for the murder. In spite of the fact that Hamas identified the perpetrators with a Palestinian group affiliated with al-Qaeda, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said he suspected Israel might be responsible since the death appeared to be timed to deter foreign activists from joining a flotilla due to sail to Gaza in May to break Israel's naval blockade of the area.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a member of the Hamas leadership, indirectly accused Israel of engineering the killing of Arrigoni in an attempt to scare off international activists from coming to Gaza. He said that "such an awful crime cannot take place without arrangements between all the parties concerned to keep the blockade imposed on Gaza". Al-Zahar offered no evidence to support his accusation.

German politician Inge Höger said that both Arrigoni and Israeli actor Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was shot dead by masked gunmen in Jenin eleven days earlier to Arrigoni's murder, were actually killed by Israelis. In her website Höger wrote that "The question one must pose is: Who profits from this terrible crime? First of all, now two of the activists most 'dangerous' for Israel, because they were the most engaged, well known and noted, are eliminated." Based on this and other statements Höger was denounced as an antisemite by a fellow politician and the Die Welt daily newspaper.

Further reading

• Arrigoni, Vittorio (2010). Gaza: Stay Human. Kube Publishing. ISBN 978-1847740199. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Francesca Borri Restiamo liberi, peacereporter, 18/04/2011
• English-language obituary for Arrigoni on Max Ajl's blog.

External links

• Guerrilla Radio, Vittorio Arrigoni's blog from Gaza.
• Vittorio Arrigoni's Facebook page.