Tag: Vittorio Arrigoni

Remembering Vittorio Arrigoni–Stay Human summer camp

7 July 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza 

At Vittorio’s funeral in Gaza the crowds chanted “Viktor is with the fisherman, Viktor is withthe farmers”, Vittorio is still with the people of Gaza. He lives on in their hearts. He has been honored with a football tournament in Rafah, with a street in Gaza, with a school in the JordanValley, but I think that perhaps the honor that would be closest to his heart is the VittorioArrigoni – Stay Human summer camp in Beit Hanoun. Vittorio had worked in Beit Hanoun his entire time in Gaza. Riding in ambulances during Cast Lead and supporting the weekly demonstrations against the buffer zone since then. The Fursan Al Ghad Youth Center honored him by naming their summer camp in his honor, the Vittorio Arrigoni – Stay Human summer camp.

Fursan Al Ghad is a small center, just a small three room building, a courtyard, and a van. It is a center with big goals though. It seeks not only to provide the children with a safe spacefor summer fun, but to remind them that they are part of something bigger than themselves. The children not only participate in art and music programs, but they also perform community service and protest the occupation.

The Vittorio Arrigoni – Stay Human camp opened in mid-June. It serves sixty children from age eight to fifteen. Sixty children in one small building. Every morning the children stream in at nine A.M.  Soon the entire building is alive with singing, dancing children. Like Vittorio, the teachers at Fursan Al Ghad love to sing, Bella Ciao, Inadakoom, traditional Palestinian songs. The children love to both sing and dance debka. Many of them are surprisingly good, eight year old Fred Astairs.

The children also do art projects, both in the classrooms and outside. The wall across fromFursan Al Ghad is now covered in a beautiful new mural. The most beautiful project though,was building kites. A dozen amazing kites with beautiful geometric designs. The kites had longtails made from old homework cut into strips, perhaps to celebrate the end of the school year.On the kites the children wrote messages, messages like “the children of Gaza deserve freedom”and “end the siege”. We went out to the hills east of Beit Hanoun, on a beautiful Tuesday morning to fly the kites. The wind was brisk, the air was beautiful, the kites soared into the air. After admiring them for a while, the strings were cut, the kites sailed across the wall towards Sderot, hopefully the messages carried by the kites will be read and understood.

Kids being kids, the camp also provides games and sports. Days were organized to play football,basketball, volleyball and jump rope. The children participated in a 1k race; the five winners received t-shirts. There was even a trip to the beach so the children could go swimming. That was, obviously, a very popular day for the children. Going to the beach is one of the few trips that children can take in Gaza; the siege prevents them from leaving, even from going to the West Bank or Jerusalem.

The children also learned about being part of a community. One day was devoted to cleaning the streets of Beit Hanoun. Sixty hands makes light work. They left a mural across from Fursan Al Ghad for everyone to appreciate.

Perhaps the best day though, was the last day. The children went to club where they could ride horses and camels. After being entertained for a few hours of singing dancing clowns, the horses were brought out. The children were entranced. Even the ones that were afraid couldn’tpass up the opportunity to ride the horses. They also enjoyed seeing their teachers ride horses,some for the first time. After they were finished riding horses the children came to the port of Gaza. At the port, they boarded boats, and went to sea, some for the first time. They did this in memory of Vik, who loved the sea, and loved the fishermen that worked there.

Fursan al Ghad strove to not only provide the children with fun things to do over the summer,but to show the children that they can have a positive effect on their community, to help themfind their voice in the struggle for freedom and justice. Fursan Al Ghad remembered not onlythe music of Vik, not only Bella Ciao, but also that struggle was part of Vik. The children notonly sang, like Vik, they raised their voices against the occupation. For this, thank you Fursan AlGhad, for remembering all of Vik.

Gaza summer camp teaches service, struggle

6 July 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Vittorio Arrigoni – Stay Human summer camp
Vittorio Arrigoni – Stay Human summer camp

At Vittorio’s funeral in Gaza the crowds chanted “Viktor is with the fisherman, Viktor is with the farmers”, Vittorio is still with the people of Gaza. He lives on in their hearts. He has been honored with a football tournament in Rafah, with a street in Gaza, with a school in the Jordan Valley, but I think that perhaps the honor that would be closest to his heart is the Vittorio Arrigoni – Stay Human summer camp in Beit Hanoun. Vittorio had worked in Beit Hanoun his entire time in Gaza. Riding in ambulances during Operation Cast Lead and supporting the weekly demonstrations against the buffer zone since then. The Fursan Al Ghad Youth Center honored him by naming their summer camp in his honor, the Vittorio Arrigoni – Stay Human summer camp.

Fursan Al Ghad is a small center, just a small three room building, a courtyard, and a van. It is a center with big goals though. It seeks not only to provide the children with a safe space for summer fun, but to remind them that they are part of something bigger than themselves. The children not only participate in art and music programs, but they also perform community service and protest the occupation.

The Vittorio Arrigoni – Stay Human camp opened in mid-June. It serves sixty children from age eight to fifteen. Sixty children in one small building.  Every morning the children stream in at nine A.M. Soon the entire building is alive with singing dancing children. Like Vittorio, the teachers at Fursan Al Ghad love to sing, Bella Ciao, Inadakoom, traditional Palestinian songs. The children love to both sing and dance debka. Many of them are surprisingly good, eight year old Fred Astairs.

The children also do art projects, both in the classrooms and outside. The wall across from Fursan Al Ghad is now covered in a beautiful new mural. The most beautiful project though, was building kites. A dozen amazing kites with beautiful geometric designs. The kites had long tails made from old homework cut into strips, perhaps to celebrate the end of the school year. On the kites the children wrote messages, messages like “the children of Gaza deserve freedom” and “end the siege”. We went out to the hills east of Beit Hanoun, on a beautiful Tuesday morning to fly the kites. The wind was brisk, the air was beautiful, the kites soared into the air. After admiring them for a while, the strings were cut, the kites sailed across the wall towards Sderot, hopefully the messages carried by the kites will be read and understood.

Kids being kids, the camp also provides games and sports. Days were organized to play football, basketball, volleyball and jump rope. The children participated in a 1k race; the five winners received t shirts. There was even a trip to the beach so the children could go swimming. That was, obviously, a very popular day for the children. Going to the beach is one of the few trips that children can take in Gaza; the siege prevents them from leaving, even from going to the West Bank or Jerusalem.

The children also learned about being part of a community. One day was devoted to cleaning the streets of Beit Hanoun. Sixty hands makes light work. They left a mural across from Fursan Al Ghad for everyone to appreciate.

Perhaps the best day though, was the last day. The children went to club where they could ride horses and camels. After being entertained for a few hours of singing dancing clowns, the horses were brought out. The children were entranced. Even the ones that were afraid couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ride the horses. They also enjoyed seeing their teachers ride horses, some for the first time. After they were finished riding horses the children came to the port of Gaza. At the port, they boarded boats, and went to sea, some for the first time. They did this in memory of Vik, who loved the sea, and loved the fishermen that worked there.

Fursan al Ghad strove to not only provide the children with fun things to do over the summer, but to show the children that they can have a positive effect on their community, to help them find their voice in the struggle for freedom and justice. Fursan Al Ghad remembered not only the music of Vik, not only Bella Ciao, but also that struggle was part of Vik. The children not only sang, like Vik, they raised their voices against the occupation. For this, thank you Fursan Al Ghad, for remembering all of Vik.

Kite flying in Beit Hanoun

29 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Every Tuesday morning there is a demonstration against the Occupation in Beit Hanoun, when people march into the buffer zone, demand an end to the occupation, and are met with more bullets from the occupation.  Today was different and yet the same; today we didn’t go into the buffer zone, but none the less we were still met with the bullets of the occupation.

School is out for the summer, summer camps for the children are in full swing.  In Beit Hanoun the Vittorio Arrigoni, Stay Human summer camp has been up and running for the last two weeks.  Instead of going into the buffer zone like we do most Tuesdays, today we took the children from the summer camp to fly kites.  The children had prepared beautiful kites, simple colorful geometric designs fringed with strips of paper cut from their old homework.  Kites that remind you how beautiful the simplest things in life can be.

We drove east out of Beit Hanoun, toward the wall that imprisons the people of Gaza. As we left Beit Hanoun we entered a lunar landscape of destruction, no crops, no trees,  the occasional destroyed and damaged buildings surrounded by the thistle plants that seem to grow everywhere. This is where farmers had once grown their crops.  The landscape here wasn’t always like this, the fields lining the road used to be full of trees, oranges, and olives mostly. The area used to be green, it used to support life, it used to be beautiful.  Then the Israelis destroyed all of this, with tanks and bulldozers and bombs.  Now, only the thistles remain, that and the green fields of one brave farmer who has not given up, whose fields are an oasis of green among the destruction.  The woman sitting behind me points out the aluminum propellers that the farmer has attached to his fence to scare away birds, they spin quickly in the wind, a reminder that this is someone’s land, that he is still here.

We arrive with the children on a hill  about 700 meters from the wall.  There is a restored well nearby, and a shepherd  resta under the shade of the only tree on the hill with his sheep.  In the distance you can see Sderot, built on what used to be lands of Beit Hanoun. The children stood poised, ready with their kites. As they prepared to launch their kites the Israeli guns start firing.  The wall is lined with giant Israeli gun towers operated by remote control.  One of them had started to shoot.  Shooting into the ground a couple of hundred meters from us, the shells kicked up giant clouds of dust.

What are they shooting at? Nobody knows, perhaps an unlucky shepherd, perhaps they are shooting to remind the children who the real boss is here, that the skies are not free, that they can shoot at them whenever and wherever they want.

The children launched the kites,  with the strong wind kicking them up to sail high.  The kites were amazing, red and green with white streamers fluttering in the wind.  The children had written messages on the kites: “The children of Gaza want to be free,” “No to the occupation,” “No to the siege.”

These were messages for the occupiers, for these kites are not meant merely to be seen in the distance by the soldiers who are firing guns in the distance, they are meant to infiltrate Israel, to breach the wall that imprisons Gaza, the wall that helps hide what Israel does here.  The kites soar higher and higher, the children cut the strings on the kites, the wind takes them, some crash, but some survive, some make it over the wall.

Inshallah they will find themselves caught in the branches of the children’s grandfather’s olive tree, of the orange trees which their grandmothers used to eat from.  They will be found, and their messages will be read with the freedom and the will like the universal wind that carried such messages of hope

My speech for Vik’s memorial in Faraheen

29 May 2011 | Nathan Stuckey, International Solidarity Movement – Gaza

Many of you here have known Victor longer than I. I will not tell you about what a great person Victor was, you already know that. I will instead offer you a Victor you might not have known, a Victor that fate never allowed.

Victor was a writer. He had “Muqawama”, Resistance, tattooed onto his arm. The same ink that had inscribed Resistance onto his arm flowed from his pen to inscribe resistance onto paper when he wrote.

Victor studied accounting as a young man. Imagine, a young Victor dreaming of being an accountant; the accountant of resistance.

You are all familiar with Yasser Arafat’s famous speech to the UN with the gun and the olive branch. Try to picture Victor giving a speech there instead of Arafat. Victor strides out to the lectern. He raises his arm. The crowd can see that he does not have a gun in his hand, what he has is Resistance inscribed onto his arm. I have never been able to write his speech, but I can imagine it. It is about the importance of fighting for justice, for freedom, the importance of not closing your eyes.

Victor came to Gaza three years ago. He came to be part of a struggle for freedom, for justice; to oppose a modern state intent on erasing a people; to protest a Kafkaesque world where fisherman fish in tunnels carved from sand deep under the earth instead of in the welcoming arms of the sea; a world where concrete is forbidden; a world where farmers are forbidden to plow their lands while their children live on food from cans.

Victor had inscribed resistance onto his body. Look around yourself. Look at the person sitting next to you, your friends here, your family. How many of you have resistance inscribed on your bodies? I do not know many of the people here, but I do know the family of Jabur Abu Jeila. I cannot think of a family more appropriate to host this memorial, to have hosted Victor in their home so many times. This is a family with Resistance inscribed on their bodies. Just as the house we stand in front of is scarred by the bullets of the occupation, so too is Jabur’s family. Jabur has a bullet in his stomach, Leila has a bullet of the occupation in her hip, Etufa’s face is washed by tears for her murdered friend, killed just days before the murder of Vik. Look around yourself, think of your friends and neighbors, think how many of them have resistance inscribed on their bodies. They are all Victor. When you resist, you are Victor. As long as there are people with Resistance inscribed on their bodies, as long as you are willing to inscribe resistance on your body, Victor lives. He lives on in you. Thank you. Stay Human.

With love and respect from the bottom of my heart to my Italian Family

22 May 2011 | Rewa’ Ahmed

Since the day I heard about the Italian convoy that is coming to Gaza I was longing to meet Vitorrio’s friends, and dreaming of the day they would arrive in Gaza. The 12th of May was the arrival day. It was a long day because some friends and I had to wait for the convoy in their apartment in Gaza as we did not have permission to welcome them at the Rafah crossing or even to invite them to our homes.

Words can not express how happy I was when I met those great people. They are one of my great sources of inspiration. Their love to Gaza is just wonderful – they taught me how to love my land, to stick by my principles, to fight longer seeking freedom and to stay stronger: “stay human”.

Vittorio’s folk, as I like to call them, are brave enough to visit Gaza and show the whole world that they are not afraid to come to the place where their friend was kidnapped and murdered. Their love for Palestine and Gaza is just unbelievable – they would sacrifice their souls for the sake of any of us!

This was illustrated when we were at Erez crossing and all of them wanted to go further and further in order to witness and experience the atmosphere that most of the Palestinians have to suffer. Besides, they wanted to experience what Vittorio used to do with many of the ISM members in Gaza: such as the farming actions; going to the buffer zone areas; supporting many of the farmers and fishermen; and participating in many of the demos that were held to raise awareness of the human rights of the Palestinians.

One of the things that I loved most about those beautiful Italian souls is that they appreciated the instructions of our religion, traditions and culture. They did not want to cause us any kind of difficulty; they cared a lot about us and wanted to do anything to make us feel equal. In addition to that, I felt that they have clear, pure, modest and charming characters. Each one of them has a special thing about their character.

The moment when we had to say goodbye was so emotional that none of us could hold back our tears. Men cried in front of women and we tried to make it easier by comforting each other – we promised that we would all meet again soon. I was looking at their busses as if I was longing to go back home with them. I really felt I was Italian and they had become Palestinians!

This is my message to all the convoy members who shared much pain, sorrow, tears, joy, happiness and laughter with us,

Since the day you arrived here my life has changed because you guys are amazing, and the moment of saying goodbye was so emotional – filled with love, respect and hope. You guys are astonishing and unforgettable just like Vittorio. I will never forget you! We will meet again inshAllah. Much respect and love to all of you my new Italian friends.