Vittorio Arrigoni (1975-2011)...  Vittorio Arrigoni Gaza will not forget you, brother RIP

15 apr 2011

Friends of murdered Italian activist 'devastated'

"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.

Abbas: Murder of activist 'grotesque, disgraceful'

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.

Rest in Peace Vittorio

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.

Vittorio Arrigoni Kidnapping, Who Benefits? ISRAEL - Ken O'Keefe

Salafist Group Claims No connection With Murder Of Italian Activist

From the place he loved, in memory of Vittorio.

Hamas condemns murder of Italian ISM activist

Palestinian factions denounce murder of Italian activist

14 apr 2011

Italian activist killed in the Gaza Strip

"I remember this day as one of the happiest and emotional of my life, thousands of Palestinians came to the port to welcome the first international boats since 1967."

That year, he and 15 other foreign activists revived the International Solidarity Movement, which had been disbanded when American activist Rachel Corrie was killed in 2003. George Hale is a journalist with an independent Palestinian news network.

GEORGE HALE: The entire Gaza strip was like his home. There's nowhere he would really avoid, there's no person he would think to avoid. He didn't feel uncomfortable at all, you know moving around in this place that would scare most people from this country.

JESS HILL: Mr Arrigoni went missing on Thursday morning. A few hours later, a radical Salafist group posted a video on YouTube. The activist appeared bloody and blindfolded.

Reporter George Hale:

GEORGE HALE: Text they'd scrawled across the screen listing their demands which were Hamas has arrested people affiliated with them and this group wants them released and this is the way that they decided that they could get Hamas to give in to their demands.

JESS HILL: The group, known as Tawhid and Jihad, gave Hamas 30 hours to respond to their demands. Early Friday morning, less than 24 hours later, police received a tip-off about where Mr Arrigoni was being held hostage. They stormed an abandoned house, and after a clash with his abductors, found the Italian activist dead.

Abu Yazan, a close friend of Mr Arrigoni, had just identified Mr Arrigoni's body when I spoke to him.

ABU YAZAN: Yes, I've seen the body in (inaudible). They didn't shoot him, they just like hanged him. Right now I can't understand why. Why did they kill him? What did he do to those guys?

JESS HILL: Hamas officials say they have already arrested two suspects. Ihab Hussein is a spokesperson for the Hamas Government.

IHAB HUSSEIN (translated): The Palestinian Government condemns this ugly crime which does not show our traditions and habits and we confirm that we will continue to go after all the members of this group and arrest them and implement the law against them.

JESS HILL: Mr Yazan says people in the Gaza Strip will demand a harsh punishment for those responsible.

ABU YAZAN: Vittorio was the greatest one. He was here during the war. He was the resistance. We should reward him by dragging those arseholes in the streets of Gaza trip.

JESS HILL: There are several radical Salafist groups operating in Gaza. They all say that Hamas, which is also an Islamist movement, is too moderate. George Hale describes the Salafist groups as a 'constant headache' for Hamas because they often fire rockets into Israel during Hamas-imposed ceasefires and agitate for a more aggressive form of resistance against Israel.

Mr Hale says that people in Gaza will be unnerved by this killing and that it raises serious questions about how much control Hamas has over the territory.

GEORGE HALE: I think in most civilians' heads they really did think Hamas is in control and maybe it was naïve, in retrospect it sounds ridiculous but everyone that I spoke to today, even the people who are most concerned about him, were sure that Hamas would have this resolved by morning.

And the fact that they didn't and the fact that it ended so horribly, I think is definitely going to have a change, you know going to change people's perceptions. It already has changed mine.

MARK COLVIN: Palestinian reporter, George Hale ending Jess Hill's report.

ISM volunteer Vittorio Arrigoni killed in Gaza

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.

Body of abducted Italian activist found in Gaza City

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.

Palestinians call for release of Italian activist kidnapped in Gaza

Palestinian group in Gaza threatens to execute an Italian pacifist

A Palestinian Jihadist group in the Gaza Strip aligned with al Qaeda threatened Thursday to execute an abducted Italian it is holding within hours, unless Hamas Islamists release the group's leader.

A You Tube clip the group posted Thursday said the man they were holding, Vittorio Arrigoni, would be killed Friday at 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. EDT) unless Hamas releases Hesham al-Sa'eedni, whom it detained last month.

"We kidnapped the Italian prisoner Vittorio and we call on the Haniya government ... to release all our prisoners,"

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."

"If our demands are not met within 30 hours starting from 11 a.m. of 14.4.2011 the captive will be executed when the period is over," a text on the video clip said.

Arrigoni, an Italian pacifist, has lived in the Gaza Strip for some time. He was shown blindfolded with blood around his right eye and a hand can be seen pulling his head up by his hair to face the camera.

Italian national kidnapped in Gaza

Salafist radicals in Gaza have kidnapped an Italian citizen and are threatening to kill him, a video posted Thursday by the "Salafi Jihadi" group warned.

The footage shows Vittorio Arrigoni bruised and blindfolded. Text scrolling across the screen threatens that he will die unless Hamas releases Salafist prisoners by 5 p.m. Friday.

Arrigoni was in Gaza working with the International Solidarity Movement, Palestinian associates who confirmed that the video showed their colleague said. The Italian national was last seen at a building popular among internationals in the port area of Gaza City, an ISM worker said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Hamas government which controls Gaza. Its security forces have in recent years taken a hard line against Salafi activists in the enclave, and ISM co-founder Huwaida Arraf said the government was "working hard to secure his release."

Palestinians were planning to meet in Gaza City's central Jundi square at 4 p.m. for a protest demanding Arrigoni's immediate release, the Gaza Youth Breaks Out group announced. "Gaza people won't let you down Vittorio," the group wrote on its Twitter and Facebook pages.