Vittorio Arrigoni facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Vittorio Arrigoni
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| Born | 4 February 1975 Besana in Brianza, Italy
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| Died | 15 April 2011 (aged 36) Gaza Strip, Palestine
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| Cause of death | Murdered by al-Qaeda affiliates |
| Nationality | Italian |
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| Movement | International Solidarity Movement |
Vittorio Arrigoni (Italian pronunciation: [vitˈtɔːrjo arriˈɡoːni]; 4 February 1975 – 15 April 2011) was an Italian journalist and activist. He worked with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement (ISM), through which he arrived in the Gaza Strip in 2008. He maintained a website called Guerrilla Radio and also published a book about his experiences in Gaza City during the 2008–2009 Gaza War between Hamas and Israel. In 2011, he was abducted and murdered by a group of Salafi jihadists. The Hamas government, which identified the perpetrators as Palestinian and Jordanian affiliates of al-Qaeda, subsequently initiated a manhunt and arrested the accused suspects during a raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp. Arrigoni was the first foreign national to have been involved in such an incident in the Gaza Strip since the kidnapping of British journalist Alan Johnston in 2007.
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Biography
Arrigoni was born in the town of Besana in Brianza, near Monza, on 4 February 1975. He claimed that it was in his blood to fight for freedom as his grandfathers fought against the former fascist regime in Italy. He had the Arabic word for resistance (muqawama) tattooed on his right arm. Once he passed his high school exams in Italy, he left his hometown of Bulciago, a small village near Lake Como, and began working as a volunteer around the world (Eastern Europe, South America, Africa and Middle East).
In 2002, he visited Jerusalem which, according to his mother, was the "moment he understood his work would be concentrated there." His mother, Egidia Beretta, is the mayor of Bulciago.
Political activism
Arrigoni was credited as one of the many activists who revived the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian group that works in the Palestinian territories. In August 2008, he participated in the Free Gaza mission that aimed to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, in place since June 2007 when Hamas took power in the territory. He was on the first boat that arrived in the Port of Gaza, describing that moment as "one of the happiest and most emotional of his lifetime."
While volunteering to act as a human shield for a Palestinian fisherman off Gaza's coast in September 2008, Arrigoni was injured by flying glass after the Israeli Navy used a water cannon to deter the vessel. In November, he was arrested by Israeli authorities after again acting as a human shield for fishermen off Gaza's coast.
He returned to Gaza prior to the Israeli military offensive Operation Cast Lead, which lasted from December 2008 to January 2009. Arrigoni was one of the few foreign journalists in Gaza during the war; he worked with Radio Popolare and as reporter for the Italian newspaper Il manifesto. He later published a book, Restiamo umani (en: Gaza, Stay Human), a collection of his reportage from Gaza. It is translated into English, Spanish, German, and French with a preface by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé.
Political views
Arrigoni was described as having a "fervent commitment to the Palestinian cause."
Arrigoni criticised Muslim extremists for trying to impose a hardline version of Islam in Gaza. In an interview with the newspaper PeaceReporter, he said: "Personally, as an activist for human rights, I don't like Hamas at all. I have something to say to them too: they have deeply limited human rights since they have won the elections."
In his website, Guerrilla Radio, and Facebook page, Arrigoni described the government of Israel as one of the worst apartheid regimes in the world. He said the Israeli blockade on Gaza was criminal and villainous.
Kidnapping and death
Arrigoni was kidnapped on 14 April 2011. In a video posted on YouTube they identified themselves as belonging to a previously unknown group, "The Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima." The captors demanded the release of their leader Hisham Al-Saedni (aka Abu al-Walid al-Maqdisi), the head of the so-called Jahafil at-Tawhid wa al-Jihad fi Falastin, the local al-Qaeda branch in Gaza, who was imprisoned by the de facto government in Gaza on 2 March 2011, as a ransom. The captors accused Arrigoni of "spreading corruption" and his home country Italy as an "infidel state."
For uncertain reasons, before the deadline expired, the captors killed Arrigoni in an empty apartment in the Mareh Amer area in northern Gaza. After being led to the house by a member of the suspected Salafi group, Hamas security forces stormed the building and found Arrigoni's body.
Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniya ordered an investigation by the Interior Ministry, and called Arrigoni's mother to send his condolences.
Manhunt and trial
Hamas police initiated a manhunt for people involved in the murder. Hamas authorities sealed off parts of the Gaza Strip before the beginning of the operation.
The four Salafist extremists captured in the raid were charged over Arrigoni's abduction and murder in a Hamas military court. Mahmoud al-Salfiti, 28, and Tamer al-Hasana, 27, were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor. Khader Jram, 24, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and Amer Abu Ghouleh, 23, was given a prison term of one year for sheltering fugitives. Following an appeal, a military court reduced the sentences of Salfiti and al-Hasana from life to 15 years on 19 February 2013.
In June 2015, after being granted a furlough from prison, Mahmoud al-Salfiti managed to escape from Gaza to Iraq, where he joined ISIS. On 28 November 2015 he was reportedly killed fighting for ISIS in Anbar province.
Reactions to death
Several hundred Gazans rallied in the Unknown Soldier's Square to mourn Arrigoni while about 100 Palestinians and internationals marched through Ramallah to a house of mourning in nearby al-Bireh in the West Bank. In Bethlehem, a candlelight vigil was held outside the Church of the Nativity. Egyptian authorities offered to allow Arrigoni's family to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing and his body to be sent back to Italy via the crossing.
