Akashma Online News

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Marivel Guzman

“Take some kittens, some tender little moggies in a box”, said Jamal, a surgeon at Al-Shifa, Gaza’s main hospital, while a nurse actually placed a couple of bloodstained cardboard boxes in front of us. “Seal it up, then jump on it with all your weight and might, until you feel their little bones crushing, and you hear the last muffled little mew”. I stared at the boxes in astonishment, and the doctor continued: “Try to image what would happen after such images were circulated> The righteous outrage of public opinion, the complaints of the animal rights organizations…” The doctors went on in this vein, and I was unable to take my eyes of the boxes at our feet. “Israel trapped hundreds of civilians inside a school as as if in a box, including many children, and then crushed them with all the might of its bombs. What were the world’s reactions?
Almost nothing. We would have been better off as animals rather than Palestinians, we would have been better protected”.

At this point the doctor leans towards one of the boxes, and takes its lid off in front of me. Inside it are the amputated limbs, legs and arms, some from the knee down, others with the entire femur attached, from amputees injured at the Al-Fakhura United Nations school in Jabalia, which resulted in more than 50 casualties.
Pretending to be taking an urgent call, I took my leave of Jamal, actually rushing to the bathroom to throw up. A little earlier I’d been involved in a conversation with Dr. Abdel, an ophthalmologist, regarding the rumors that the Israeli Army had been showering us with non-conventional weapons, forbidden by the Geneva Convention, such as cluster bombs and white phosphorous. The very same that the Israel Army used during the last Lebanese war, as well as the US Air Force in Falluja, in violation of International norms. An Excerpt from Vittorio Arrigoni from his book Gaza Stay Human.

4 workers were killed last night and because of the collapse of a tunnel dug by Palestinians in the Rafah border. Through the tunnel pass all the necessary goods that have enable the survival of the population of Gaza strangled by four years by criminal Israeli siege. Can enter tunnels in the Gaza Strip’s main assets such as food, cement, livestock.
Even the hospitals in The Gaza Strip from the black market will cater for the tunnel.
Since the beginning of the siege at more than 300 Palestinians have died at work in the ground to allow a population of nearly 2 million people to feed themselves.
It ‘an invisible war for survival.
The names of past martyrs: Abdel Halim and his brother Samir Abd Al-Rahman Alhqra, 22s years and 38 years, Haitham Mostafa Mansour, 20, and Abdel-Rahman Muhaisin 28 years.
Remain Human
Vik from Gaza City
April 13, 2011

Silvio Berlusconi today: “We will try to prevent the departure of the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza.”
According to Israeli radio reports second Berlusconi flotilla’s mission would not work in support of peace in the region.
Proposing negotiations to be held in Sicily,(in the estates of Vittorio Mangano?), The premier “bunga bunga” reminded once again that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country friendly to the West, and should become part of European Union.
Berlusconi is pushing for the accession of Israel to the European Union, while Italy will kick in soon.
Please tell me which is the usual joke…

Stay Human
Vik from Gaza City
Abril 13, 2011

All the reports from Vittorio Arrigoni from Gaza City in Guerrilla Radio Guerrilla Information imprisonment. Corruption of the media, the bigotry of the middle classes, the unforgivable slumber of civic consciousness. The longing for truth before every longing, the abrasive complaint to the dissolution of any preconceived solution, infanticide of all certainty induced.The black powder of coercion within the nostrils of a crisis of rejection. The binge of Naked Lunch, raw bitter enough not to be digested.

Vittorio Arrigoni, 8th January 2009: “My toothpaste, toothbrush, razors and shaving foam. The clothes I’m wearing, the cough medicine I’m using to get rid of a persistent cough, the cigarettes I bought for Ahmed, and some tobacco for my arghile. My cell phone, the laptop onto which I compulsively type eyewitness accounts from the hell surrounding me. All that’s needed for a modest, yet dignified, existence in Gaza comes from Egypt, and arrives onto the shop shelves through the tunnels. These are the same tunnels the the Israeli F16s haven’t stopped bombing heavily in the last 12 hours, destroying thousands of Rafah houses near the border.

“As sit here writing this, there are 821 Palestinians dead. 93 being women, 235 children. Twelve Paramedics were killed while fulfilling their duty and three journalist died with cameras hanging round their necks. A good 3,350 are among the injured, with more than half being under 18 years ofe age. According to the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights bases in Jabalia, renowned for its reliability they make up 85 % of the Palestinian civilian casualties massacred in the last two weeks. The death toll on the Israeli side has thankfully remained at four.” Vittorio Arrigoni from Gaza City, 10th January 2009, Total Destruction Work in Progress Excerpt from Gaza Stay Human.

I read Vik mention “The death toll on the Israeli side has thankfully remained at four.” I can tell what was in his mind, as we have seen since Israel makes sure there is always 4 to 1 deaths of Palestinians, but this time in Gaza Massacre was over their normal ratio.B’tselem– The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel.

On 27 December 2008, the first day of the operation, the army bombed the main police
headquarters in Gaza City, killing 42 police cadets who were standing in formation. The same
day, Israel also bombed some 18 police stations in the Gaza Strip. In total, 248 police officers
were killed that day.
Israeli officials stated, in interviews with the media and in official announcements, that
attacks on the police were justified because police officers would in the future take part in
hostilities against Israel, and that every object belonging to Hamas was a legitimate target,
regardless of the actions of the persons attacked.

With so many eyewitness on the Ground regarding Gaza Massacre 2009, voices like Vittorio Arrigoni that did not stop reporting from Gaza since 2009, so why will UN will need the voice of a men than never set foot in Gaza, Richard Goldstone?
The Goldstone report was the first evidence in what has since become a pattern – the failure of the Israeli leadership to register diplomatic achievements following the use of military power. Israel had no troubles achieving its victory in Gaza. One could argue – as many Israelis do – that operation Cast Lead helped deter the Hamas from launching more missiles on Israeli towns. Yet it also made Israel more isolated than ever in the world. The military operation boosted the BDS movement, mobilized public opinion in support of the Palestinians, and led to the Gaza-bound flotilla last spring, which resulted in a partial lifting of the blockade on the Strip.
Most people who criticize the Goldstone report in the US have never been to Gaza, not even before Cast Lead. But Congressman Brian Baird from the state of Washington (D) visited the strip after the Israeli offensive, and these are the wise and sensitive words he had for his fellow legislators, just before an overwhelming majority of them (344-36) backed a resolution calling “the President and Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the [Goldstone] Report“:

Page 52 of Vittorio Arrigoni Book Gaza Stay Human:
“Visiting the wards of Al-Shifa Hospital, crowed with injured patients awaiting treatment, you can bump into a doctor who doesn’t not look very arab. Mads Gilbert is a Norwegian doctor from the NGO Norwac. Gilbert, an anaesthetist, confirms our suspicion regarding the use of forbidden weapons by Israel on Gaza’s civilians: “Many injured arrive with extreme amputations, with both their legs reduced to a pulp, which I suspect is an effect of DIME weapons this is happening while Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reports that ‘extremely serious violations possibly constituting war crimes’ are taking place”

DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) Bomb is an innovative explosive made with a warhead of carbon and epoxy resin integrated with steel and tungsten. This explosive was designed for urban guerrilla warfare, and was made to strike specific targets and cause a much damage as possible.

Gaza: Stay Human is an authoritative and deeply moving eyewitness account of the terrible 22 day Israeli offensive against the people of the Gaza Strip in 2008-09. Vittorio Arrigoni, a volunteer with the pacifist International Solidarity Movement, served as a human shield while working with the Palestinians Red Crescent ambulances, during the offensive. As a freelance journalist with the Italian daily II Manifesto, Arrigoni’s daily dispatches, written between bombing raids and patchy Internet access, ended with the plea, ‘Stay Human’, which became the motto of anti-Israel peace protest in his native Italy. The English translation is updated to include Arrigoni’s new dispatches on the difficult situation in Gaza after Operation ‘Cast Lead’ and features a preface by the renowned Israeli historian and human rights activist, Ilan Pappe
-Ilan Pappe, Professor of History, University of Exeter. Stay Human ISBN 978-1-84774-019-9

When it comes to human compassion and lending a hand to the voiceless I think Vittorio Arrigoni showed to the world how to do it, even thought his presence in Gaza as freelance journalist and International Solidarity Movement eyewitness was mostly ignored by the world, now his legacy will be known and his work will speaks for itself. All the accounts of the crimes committed by Israel inside the Gaza strip since September 2008 when he arrived in The Gaza Flotilla are being read around the world since he was murdered. If we have a purpose to fulfill in this world, I think Vittorio is fulfilling his, even after his death his accounts are been told and spread as he will never imagine it will. All the work that he did for Gaza, all the moments of anger that he went through seeing how the media was ignoring Gaza Plight, now every bit of information he transmitted on the Internet, every line that he wrote is being distributed, only fate could have given his sacrifice the color that have tainted his memory. His memory stays in Gaza and the Israel crimes will be vastly known all because of his death. It is not that I m happy for his departure, for the ones that have say that his death does not serve any purpose, All wrong on that. His death is mourned and we all sad, but Israel can not stop Vittorio Arrigoni any more, Israel crimes are imprinted in a Book that is more real than The Goldstone Report.
Gaza Stay Human with its 130 pages tell the story of a population being slaughter in front of the cameras, in front of the world that stays silence, might this book be the Post Mortum Witness that the world needed to open their eyes.
As I write this article April 17, 2011 Israel already had strike Gaza again, but now there are more Vittorio that are telling the tale. Thousands of facebook profiles are telling you Gaza and Vittorio Arrigoni Story, thousands of Vittorios are dispersing the truth, The Real Gaza Story..Catch a glimpse and do your deed. Stay Human
RIP Vittorio Arrigoni your memory will live forever in Gaza.
At the end no one can make you believe whats is not there, you are the Opinion Makers, Where The Truth Is the News and You the readers are the Opinion Makers always.