Italian hostage found murdered in Gaza April 15, 2011 ROME (JTA) -- An Italian pro-Palestinian activist was killed by Palestinian Islamic extremists who had kidnapped him in Gaza on Thursday. Gaza police on Friday found the hanged body of Vittorio Arrigoni when they stormed an apartment in Gaza City where he was being held. Hours earlier, his kidnappers, a group inspired by Al Qaida calling itself "Monotheism and Holy War," had posted a video showing Arrigoni, 36, blindfolded and with cuts on his face. His head was held up in front of the camera by a hand gripping his hair. Israeli media reported that Hamas officials had arrested two men in their investigation of the killing, and were searching for others. Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano called the killing an act of "terrorist barbarism," and the Foreign Ministry branded it a "vile and irrational gesture of violence on the part of extremists indifferent to the value of a human life." Arrigoni had lived in Gaza for several years working with the International Solidarity Movement. The ISM's web site describes the group as a "Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli apartheid in Palestine by using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles." And no innocent bulldozer was hurt.
yea, I just read this here; snip- Political naivete is not a crime, at least not in the West. But Italian Vittorio Arrigoni, a 36-year-old pro-Palestinian activist, was not in the West when he was kidnapped by an al Qaeda offshoot and strangled to death with a plastic cord. He was in the Gaza Strip, where terrorist furies make no exceptions for Western fellow travelers. Arrigoni, who filed dispatches from the Strip for a leftist Italian newspaper and a blog called "Guerilla Radio," was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group that is in the business of ferrying Western sympathizers to Palestinian territories to denounce Israel. His killing came as a "complete shock" to ISM leader Huweida Arraf, who added that she "didn't think there was even a one percent chance they would kill him." His kidnappers clearly thought differently, saying in a video clip that "The Italian hostage entered our land only to spread corruption." Hamas, which controls the Strip, was quick to denounce Arrigoni's murder, insisting it "does not reflect the values, morals and customs" of the people of Gaza, according to spokesman Ehab al-Ghussein. That's rich coming from a group that has produced scores of suicide bombers and fired thousands of unguided rockets at civilian Israeli targets. Last week, Hamas's paramilitary wing took responsibility for firing a guided antitank missile at a yellow Israeli school bus. One teenage boy was critically injured; it was only good fortune that the bus was near the end of its route and had dropped off most of its young passengers. more at- Review & Outlook: A Death in Gaza - WSJ.com
BRUSSELS, (PIC)-- Israel may have had its fingers in the recent abduction and murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, said Mohammad Hanoun, a Freedom Flotilla 2 activist said in a press statement Friday. He said the hit served as a warning message for activists on board the Gaza-bound flotilla to back down before the convoy's expected arrival mid-May. Senior Israeli officials had warned that they were ready to attack the convoy if it tried to break the Israeli military blockade on the tiny enclave of the Gaza Strip. The Italian pacifist, who worked with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), had been living in Gaza since August 2008 and spent another six years in the West Bank before he was ejected by Israel. We do not rule out that Israel or elements belonging to it were behind the kidnapping, as a message of threat and influence to the arrival of activists on the Freedom Flotilla 2, said Hanoun, who is a member of the European campaign to end the siege on Gaza in Brussels. If Vittorio's abduction was to pressure a Palestinian party to have demands met, then why did these [suspects] not abduct a member of the Palestinian party, for example, the activist said, suggesting that the kidnapping which preceded the hit was not actually designed to pressure Hamas to release Salafist men it was holding. Activist hints Israel was behind Arrigoni killing
GAZA, (PIC)-- The murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni raised the serious question as to who stands behind such a gruesome act, especially after the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu declared he has plans to thwart solidarity with the Gaza Strip at any price. The Palestinian security awareness website Majd has revealed a few surprise discoveries as the case unravels and after several men were taken into custody over suspected involvement in the abduction and murder. It has come to light that one of the suspects that has been arrested is also suspected of collaboration and has a number of violations on his list, while others appeared naïve.The website said that one of the men got orders to abduct and kill Arrigoni on the internet. Analysts have not ruled out that Israeli intelligence was behind the crime, as the Israeli occupation faces a crisis in not being able to stop pro-Palestinian activists from going to Gaza and the publicity that accompanies such solidarity activities. That is in addition to growing western popular awareness regarding the facts about occupation which is effectively blowing the occupations cover of legitimacy. The crime stirred widespread popular anger amongst Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They have declared that the crime only serves the Israeli occupation. Man arrested in the Arrigoni murder case suspected of collaboration
