Beit Ula names garden after slain Italian activist

25 April 2011 | Ma’an News Agency

Hebron’s Youth Development Association re-named a small garden west of the city after murdered Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in a Sunday ceremony.

Beit Ula Mayor Rateb Al-Omla presided over the event, thanking the development association for its initiative in commemorating Arrigoni, who was murdered in Gaza City on 15 April.

Organizers invited solidarity activists working in the southern West Bank to the commemoration event, thanking them for their service to the Palestinian people.

A French worker addressed the commemoration ceremony, thanking organizers for their reaffirmation of the strong relationship between the solidarity activists and the Palestinian people.

“Arrigoni supported justice, through his work he contributed to the cause of the Palestinian people, and he will be remembered by the people of this community for his efforts,” Al-Omla said.

Palestinian Authority Minister of Local Government Khalid Qawasmi thanked all of those in attendance on behalf of the PA, saying such events reaffirmed the “authenticity of the Palestinian people in their cries against the brutal act of murder.”

International convoy to Gaza

English – Italian

Let’s go to Gaza!

On the 21st April, a meeting regarding the discussions and reflections on the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni was held in Rome amongst different activists. From the gathering, the need to organize a convoy to Gaza through Egypt was decided.

Let’s start this process by sharing those points:

– We want to go to Gaza through Rafah Border Crossing with all in the world that need to say aloud what Vittorio used to say: Stay human! We want to do it from Egypt because, in the post Mubarak era, that border must be opened to break the siege imposed for too long on the people in Gaza.
– We want to be in Gaza on the 15th May which is the 1 month anniversary of Vittorio’s death. It will be also Nakba day, when thousands of young Palestinians, as already announced, will go back to the street all over the world to ask for the end of the occupation and also, a new unity and the end of the internal division within the Palestinian authorities.

We want to go to Gaza for different reasons:

– Although Vittorio was killed, it has to be clear that they can not stop the international support for the Palestinian people. Also thanks to him now the international support is much stronger and united against the occupation both of Gaza and of the West Bank.
– We want to give voice and continuity to the work that Vittorio, together with palestinian men and wemen was bringing forward. Partucularly the independent information that he managed to pass to the world from the besieged gaza strip. For this reason, we will bring materials, tools and all we need to give life to a Media Center dedicated to Vittorio.
– The Freedom Flotilla will soon sail towards Gaza. Even though the two initiatives are organised separately, the two journeys, both via land and via sea, could reinforce each other to break the siege of Gaza.

Further info:
– The convoy will last six/seven days in order to give the possibility to participate for as many people as possible.
– It will take place between the 11th and 19th May.The exact dates will be agreed in few days with the people in Gaza that will host us.

So, lets start to get ready!
– It will cost around 450/500 Euros all included. And depending on the number of participants, it might be cheaper.
– For any question and to join the caravan please contact us using this e-mail vik2gaza@autistici.org or this phone number
+39-3333666713.These contacts will be running from monday 25th of April.
– We are opening a website called ‘vik2gaza’ to publicise information.
– We will activate a bank account where we will start to collect feas for accommodation and transport costs and the visas from Egypt.
– We will need some personal preparation to engage in this trip.

CO.R.UM.- Convoglio Restiamo Umani – Stay Human Convoy

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

ANDIAMO A GAZA!

A Roma il 21 Aprile si è svolta una assemblea cittadina frutto delle discussioni e delle riflessioni scaturite dopo l’assassinio di Vittorio Arrigoni. Dall’assemblea è uscito un largo consenso e una ferma convinzione della necessità di andare a Gaza adesso, passando dall’Egitto.

Iniziamo questo processo condividendo i seguenti punti:

– Vogliamo andare a Gaza passando dal valico di Rafah con tutti e tutte coloro che nel mondo condividono l’urgenza di gridare forte e chiaro quello che la voce di Vittorio ci ha detto tante volte: Restiamo Umani! Lo vogliamo fare dal confine egiziano perché reputiamo nell’era post Mubarak che quel valico deve aprirsi per rompere un assedio a cui la Striscia di Gaza è ormai da troppo tempo costretta.

– Vogliamo stare a Gaza il 15 maggio, ad un mese dall’uccisione di Vittorio, il giorno della nakba, quando migliaia di giovani palestinesi hanno annunciato che torneranno in piazza in tutto il mondo per chiedere la fine dell’occupazione ma anche una nuova unità e la fine delle divisioni interne all’Autorità Palestinese.

Vogliamo entrare per diversi motivi:
– Perchè anche se hanno ucciso Vittorio deve essere chiaro che non possono fermare la solidarietà internazionale verso la popolazione palestinese e che grazie a lui è ancora più forte e unita control’ occupazione di Gaza e della West Bank.

– Perchè vogliamo continuare a dare voce ai percorsi che Vittorio, insieme agli uomini e alle donne palestinesi, stava portando avanti, soprattutto quel lavoro di informazione indipendente che Vittorio aveva saputo trasmettere da una Gaza continuamente assediata. Per questo porteremo giù le nostre attrezzature per dar vita ad un Media Center dedicato proprio a lui.

– A breve partirà anche una Flottilla internazionale alla volta di Gaza e le due iniziative via terra e via mare, anche se diverse e organizzate separatamente, si possono rafforzare a vicenda per rompere l’assedio.

Alcune informazioni pratiche per iniziare:

– la durata del convoglio sarà di circa 6/7 giorni per poter dare modo a tante persone di organizzarsi con cosi poco anticipo.
-il periodo sarà incluso tra l’11 e il 19 maggio, le date saranno definite in maniera più dettagliata entro pochi giorni. Intanto
cominciate a tenervi liberi e libere!
– il costo di tutto il periodo sarà di circa 450/500 euro, sperando di abbassare la cifra con il crescere delle persone.
– stiamo aprendo un sito internet per raccogliere tutte le informazioni necessarie si chiamerà vik2gaza
– abbiamo attivato una e-mail (vik2gaza@autistici.org) e un numero di telefono (+39-3333666713) per raccogliere le adesioni.
– stiamo attivando un conto presso il quale sarà possibile versare una quota di partecipazione per organizzare gli spostamenti e i
pernottamenti.
– saranno necessari dei momenti di preparazione per poter affrontare nel migliore dei modi questo viaggio.

Gaza children draw to honor slain activist

24 April 2011 | Ma’an News Agency

Children in southern Gaza spent Saturday drawing pictures to honor slain Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni.

Over a hundred children and their mothers participated in the memorial event, organized by a charity in Khan Younis.

Children also wrote letters expressing their condolences to Arrigoni’s mother. The letters would be sent by email, and would include an invitation to the activist’s mother to visit the coastal enclave “and see how the people love and appreciate her son,” organizers said.

“We wanted to tell, through drawings, that we are a people who love peace and what happened was nothing to do with our religion or morals,” 11-year-old Tasneim Al-Farra said.

“I cried after I learned that the man had abandoned his homeland and came to defend us. He deserved to be honored, not murdered,” she added.

Asmaa Khalafallah, 12, said she would never forget Arrigoni, and that he would “live forever in the minds of Palestinian people.”

Vik’s not gone

22 April 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Vittorio Arrigoni and Adie
Vik and Adie

Vik, habibo, you’re not gone, not for me at least. In life you brought the warmth every time I met you, and to everyone else. You did not see it as a duty or a service but it was just how you were, to rouse and stir the best things inside us all for the better, every day, starting with ‘yallah habibo!’

I’m sorry Vik, for a few days there was the shock and the sorrow, which still re-emerges when I think of what happened to you or read another account of how you touched or brightened someone else’s life in Gaza and beyond. Don’t worry, I’ll stay on the right track, the joyful track, the human track, for the overlying feeling left with me is of your warmth, the comforting feel that a big friendly giant is still escorting me onwards, your huge heart and boundless humanity that is the lifeblood of your actions, so strong that it wraps us all up and takes us with you.

I don’t know when or how it was exactly that your life became an indomitable, unswerving and relentless drive for the cause of others more hard done by and wronged than yourself. You joined the Palestinian struggle for justice and liberation nearly 10 years ago and since I met you it’s been routine for you to use any means at your disposal to put justice for the Palestinians first before anything else.

There have been dedicated people for the Palestinian cause but why so much love for you Vik? Why so much affection? I’ve heard Palestinians saying they cried more for you than when they lost a brother or a sister. Because, probably a long time before your decision to tirelessly and bravely dedicate your life to justice in Palestine, it also became your priority to remind everyone of their humanity for every living minute you were around them.

As you recounted for me that meant attempting to fight your own anguish in Gaza during Israel’s Cast Lead attacks as you met people in Gaza hospitals or ambulances that you aided and reported from, trying to stay strong and positive for the many men, women and children you met who had lost limbs, or loved ones. ‘Stay human’, you titled your book so eloquently describing life during this devastation. With me I saw you entertain kids everywhere we went, them hanging off your enormous arms tattooed with ‘Handala’, ‘Guevara’ and ‘resistance’. Or your time jostling and joking with the fishermen who took you in as their crew and comrade, accompanying them into the perils of fishing under fire from Israeli gunships.

And the laughter, your bellowing roar coming from the gut, bringing us to life in harder times. The story of your arrival on the first Free Gaza boat to huge Gaza crowds while you stood on top waving just a stick around for half an hour not realising the Palestinian flag had blown away a long time before. Our attempts to communicate with Taxi drivers (mumkin! mushkila! Ah mish mushkila! akid!) Our macabre jokes before facing the Israeli firing while accompanying farmers or demonstrations – Abu Tunis was happy to be your sidekick as we faced the music while you sang ‘Ounadikkum’, ‘I’m calling you’. The games we had, spoons, cheat, football with shisha, chai, shawarma, barbecues and our own variations of debka dancing.

Like our brothers and sisters in Palestine who so endeared themselves to us with their generosity of spirit, you too put out there your big warm heart no matter who they were, a dedication to staying human amidst the good and tragic times. Such humble and equal treatment of everyone brought out the humanity in those around us, as did your accepting of your own strengths and weaknesses. And just as people in Gaza loved you, it was their compassion that inspired your love for them, and your unbreakable commitment to their cause.

After arriving and breaking the siege on the first Free Gaza boat to dock at Gaza’s port in 40 years, you wrote:

Our message of peace
is a call to action
for other ordinary people like ourselves
not to hand over your lives
to whatever puppeteer is in charge this time round
But to take responsibility for the revolution
First, the inner revolution
to give love, to give empathy
It is this that will change the world

You had obviously had this inner revolution Vik, and no doubt battled to constantly renew it. You won the battle, you brought more love and empathy than most of us will ever do, and it will warm my heart for years to come. Vittorio you are the dreamer who never gave up and we won’t give up. Like the love, the humanity, the laughter and the courage, your dreams live on inside all of us and through your life you taught us that this victory counts the most.

Your habibo,
Adie

Thousands of Gazans participate in slain Italian activist’s funeral

19 April 2011 | Palestine News Network

Palestinians carry the body of Vittorio Arrigoni. Photo: Independent.
Palestinians carry the body of Vittorio Arrigoni. Photo: Independent.

On Monday, politicians, NGO workers, and activists took part in the funeral of Vittorio Arrigoni who was killed last Friday by a Salafist group in Gaza. Palestinian police officers carried Arrigoni’s coffin and marched in the funeral. Those in attendance carried his picture and, in reference to his killers, chanted, “death for terrorists!”

According to Palestinian security sources, the body of Arrigoni was transported from Gaza City to Rafah, to be handed to his parents at the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Palestinian police officers told local media that they would continue to investigate the murder of Arrigoni and that they will bring the murderers to justice.

Police officers themselves decided to participate in the funeral on Monday to honor this solidarity activist that sacrificed his life for Gaza.