Pro-Palestinian Peace Activist Antonio Arrigoni Killed By Palestinian Extremists
Palestinian teen claimed killed by IDF “returns to life”
The Palestinian Idea of Peace...
Palestinian Children Attacked By Illegal Israeli Settlers
Congressman Goes After Pro-Palestinian Campus Group
Palestinian Child Beaten By Israeli Occupation Troops
Pro-Palestinian peace activist, 36-year-old Vittorio Arrigoni, went to Gaza in 2008 as a fierce critic of Israel and defender of Palestine. There as a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), he spent his time advocating for the Palestinian cause. An ISM press release stated that Arrigoni was "monitoring human rights violations by Israel, supporting the Palestinian popular resistance against the Israeli occupation and disseminating information about the situation in Gaza to his home country of Italy." He was considered a hero by most over there, but obviously not by some.
Last Thursday he was kidnapped by a group of militants even more extremist than Hamas, and was subsequently beaten, videotaped and then murdered after their demands were not met: the release of fellow Salafi extremists in Palestinian jails.
In the videotape posted on Youtube, the kidnappers said: "We kidnapped the Italian prisoner Vittorio and we call on the Haniya government ... to release all our prisoners. If you don't respond quickly to our demands, within 30 hours from 11:00 am (0800 GMT) on April 14, we will execute this prisoner."
In spite of the fact that he was found dead in an apartment belonging to a member of the Salafist group, and days later one of the suspected kidnappers committed suicide after attempting to kill two other fellow suspects rather than be captured alive by Hamas police, there are those already blaming Israel. A typical response by those who refuse to acknowledge the evil in their midst, and prefer to blame others rather than condemn their own. The truth is, that there are ultra-conservative extremists in the form of the Salafi movement that are spreading across the Middle East, and even Hamas is too liberal for their tastes. Until people start accepting that these fundamentalist religious fanatics actually exist, and that they will do anything to establish their way of living on the rest of the world, people will continue to die.
And what irony- a man killed by the people he was there to help and defend. I'm sure he had no idea his life would end this way.
Sources: Huffington Post, Al Jazeera
