Vittorio Arrigoni Humanist, Peace Activist and Lover of Humanity

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Marivel Guzman

Vittorio Arrigoni Humanist, Peace and Social Activist, political writer and lover of humanity, He was not given the chance to continue his work in Gaza. Some will think that life is fair and that we die paying our sins, and there is a popular saying: “who lives by the sword dies by the sword”, when you know bad people you will understand and even proclaim your disgust for that person, but for the people of Gaza that knew Vittorio, the ones that lived the struggles in Gaza with him, because Vittorio was another Gazan under the Bombs, how will they explain his violent death, even if they are Religious and think that Allah is fair and rightful in all his decisions, how will they understand that Allah choose a cruel death for this men they knew to be lovely, funny, giver, caring and unselfish. For the ones that knew his humanitarian work thru his writings and the videos, and to all member of International Solidarity Movement; how they see his death?.

There were so many rumors of the reason of his death, some outrageous claims were circulating in the internet about his kidnapping, and lets not repeat those slanderous claims because there were senseless, cruel and clueless.

For my part I m inclined to believe that he was used, I go further to claim that because he was so loved and respected in Gaza he was chosen to be the lamb for sacrifice, who ever did this horrible crime they never thought that anybody was going to be killed. They thought that Vik being so loved and appreciated in Gaza was going to be swapt, that the government was going to make the exchange without questions.

I wonder what went wrong in the last hours, why the negotiations did not succeed?, why Vittorio life was not secured before any armed man came to the scene of the holding?.

Gaza is a place where kidnappings have happened before, they always negotiated, is not like they have a policy of No to Negotiate with “terrorists” as the US has, at least in public. There were many reports that Vittorio was death hours before the incident took place, that is the official, the forensic finding. I was not there and I did not see Vik leaving in stretchers from the place of the crime, but I only can see that there are many things that went wrong that day. In my opinion I sense a kind of cover up.
Vik how was known in Gaza have very good relations with the local government. I have been told by few people that live in Gaza and by others that have been in Gaza either in the convoys or as a reporters that the local authorities take good care of the foreigners that live in Gaza, meaning that they are or protected, or continuously followed for various reasons. Hamas would not want to have bad propaganda. In the past before Hamas came to power, it was very often the kidnapping but since they assume the power there was not other cases inside Gaza.

It is terrible to feel unable to find the truth to his dead, I m a very skeptical mind, and the official version of the facts will always be adorned and twisted for public relations benefit. I will refuse to accept that he was murdered in cold blood just because the demands were not meet..
I could be all wrong of all my judgements, my ideas, my thinking but I can not help it but doubt the official history. That’s not make sense at all.

I know that we refuse sometimes to see the simplest of the truth, and we go looking for hard ones, because the eaiest don,t make sense to us.
There is such a denial to see ourselves and understand sometmes that we act for equivocal reasons. Ken O’keefe and maybe millions around the world they resist the idea that a Palestinian will be able to do such aterrible crime specially because works against our cause of Palestine.
We live in a world so ravaged by wrong ideas, there are groups around the world and this include Palestine..that have ostricied their minds, their ideas are so radical that cross the logic. Usually the most “religious” minds..I need to quete the word religious because I need to make the impression that what we see in the world as religious groups, they are driven for other motives, others than God itself, because God is love and there is nospace of other feelings .. Now the supposely group that inicialy took responsability and asking Abu Al Waleed in exchange they called Sulfist Jihadist. They are not Alqueda followers or supporter, simply because Alqueada is an invention of the CIA, second they can’t be called Sulfist or any other classification in Islam , because Islam des not recognize division.
And also Islamist word does not exist, so.to finalize let me say that Vittorio was killed for the wrong reason, following wrong ideas and ho ever did it are just criminals, no other classifiation need.
VITTORIO was a beautiful men with golden heart, what ever his political ideas were, or religion affiliation does not take away his compassionate spiritand fighter spirit.
We mourn his death as a brother. RIP
The following is an article that was published on April 23, 2011 by IMEMC (International Meddle East Media Center)

Video Shows Family Members Of Arrigoni Kidnappers Urging His Release

Saturday April 23, 2011 13:47 author

by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies

“All of the Muslims in the world are wrong, and you three are the only ones who are right?!!” pleads the father of Mahmoud Salfity, one of the kidnappers, in a video published on a the website of the Palestinian Interior Ministry on Wednesday.

The Father Of Mahmoud Salfity

Two Parts Video

The video shows one family member after another begging the kidnappers of an Italian activist to let him go. Vittorio Arrigoni was killed by his kidnappers just hours after being abducted last week in Gaza. (According to the Official Story)

On Wednesday April 20th, (Five Days After the Murder)the Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza, released new details on pleads made by the families of the kidnappers to release Arrigoni.

The kidnappers were barracking themselves in the second floor of a home in Al Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The video first shows Hisham Al Sadeeni, detained by Hamas, trying to talk to one of the kidnappers, identified as Abu Amer, urging him to release Arrigoni, and telling him that he would be released by Hamas forces, and that the only thing that delays the release and resolving the issue of the other gunmen depends on the release of Arrigoni. (Where is the Whole video, you can see there are already gun shots holes in the wall, in the two part of the video, un less they are old gun shots)

The second scene of the video shows the father of Mahmoud Al Salfity, one of the kidnappers, trying to speak to his son and bring some since to him, while the voice of another gunman was heard in the background as he was refusing the plead.

“It is my right to speak to my son”, the father said, “I will stay here, I will sleep here if necessary, I urge you, I beg you let me speak to my son”, the father was telling one of the gunmen, “Do you consider yourself right and millions of Muslims in the world wrong?! You three do not represent the Muslims, what you are doing is wrong, the Salafists, the Islamic Jihad and everybody do not approve of what you are doing, everybody… your brothers are begging you to come down, they don’t want you to die, you should be more reasonable than that, please have some sense, please ‘brother’, for your own sake just come down son, I raised you, I took care of you, and you are doing this impiety?!”

The father was also telling his son that Islam is a moderate religion, a humanitarian belief, and does not accept what is happening.

On the third scene the mother of Bilal Al Omary, one of the kidnappers, was urging the release of Arrigoni and assuring him that the Hamas security forces vowed not to harm him.

In the fourth scene, the uncle of Bilal was also urging him to release Arrigoni and telling him that nobody will abandon him and his friends, and will stand by them.

“Do you hear me? Come down my dear Bilal, please come down”, the uncle said, “have some mercy on your father, on your mother, just come down”.

The fifth scene shows the brother of Bilal telling him that Abdul-Rahman, one of the captures of Arrigoni will be allowed back to his country. And that he will be allowed to go wherever he wants without being harmed.

The mother was desperately pleading the release of Arrigoni, and a peaceful ending to the whole ordeal.

The pleads of ended with gunshots fired by the abductors from the second floor at their own family members downstairs.

While the attempts to release Vittorio inside the building occur there is activity of what if seems to be Palestinian Commandos, getting into the roof of the building in Al Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where reports in the official Palestinians News were already circulating since early, at 2 PM PST the tweets mention of negotiations already going on to secure the release of Vittorio, while the commotion is recorded inside the building Aljazeera Arabic Channel is recording the action outside the building.

The arrest of one accused of killing the Italian solidarity in Gaza (English Subtitles of the Video)

القبض على أحد المتهمين بقتل المتضامن الايطالي بغزة

This is the Official Version of the Events

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.