ISM confirms the death of Vittorio Arrigoni

ISM

Posted on: April 15, 2011

The International Solidarity Movement is shocked and deeply saddened by the killing of our friend and colleague Vittorio Arrigoni. Vik was an inspiring activist and generous soul. Please keep his family and friends in your thoughts.

We will post more information here as it becomes available.

Press Stories

CNN: Italian activist and journalist kidnapped in Gaza is dead

NY Times: Hamas Says It Found Body of Italian Activist

Haaretz: Hamas: Abducted pro-Palestinian activist found dead in Gaza

Al Jazeera English: Body of kidnapped Italian found in Gaza

Guardian: Body of kidnapped Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni found in Gaza

Stay Human

Book Review by Kim Petersen –Dissident Voice– 9 August 2010

Vittorio Arrigoni has written an on-the-spot account of what occurred in Gaza during Israel’s Cast Lead operation. Arrigoni — who lived in Gaza working as an authentic journalist and volunteer with International Solidarity Movement — exemplifies what it is to be a humanist. This comes through in his Gaza: Stay Human — an eyewitness chronicling of destruction, misery, courage, inhumanity, and humanity in Gaza during the massacre that was Cast Lead

A few things to keep in mind

Lee Kaplan of stoptheism.com, a web site that concentrates on debunking the International Solidarity Movement, recently did an op-ed in the Israel National News outlining people who should be targeted in Gaza, including Vittorio Arrigoni, and makes no bones about his Zionist support of violence in Gaza.

Quote”

“Today, these “activists”, including Darlene Wallach and Vittorio Arrigoni are back in Gaza working as human shields for the Hamas. Their purpose is to travel in ambulances the Hamas use to transport terrorists and weapons that the IDF may neutralize in a war zone and to once again interfere with anti-terrorist operations.”

“It is high time that the IDF and Air Force kill ISM activists found to assist Hamas in the combat zone; they are purposely in the way, the same as the Hamas terrorists the ISM protects and assists. Foreign nationals were given the chance to leave Gaza and the ISM activists have refused. The Israeli government should inform the respective countries of these ISMers that they are fighting on the side of the enemy and will be treated as legitimate targets in Gaza. If their embassies won’t command them to leave Gaza, then Israel should have a free hand to liquidate them.”

You can read the article ~HERE~

Lee Kaplan is an undercover investigative journalist and a contributor to Front Page Magazine. He is also a regular columnist for the Israel National News and Canada Free Press and a senior intelligence analyst and communications director for the Northeast Intelligence Network. He heads the organizations Defending America for Knowledge and Action (DAFKA) and Stop the ISM. He has been interviewed on over one hundred nationally and internationally syndicated radio shows and been a guest on Fox Cable TV’s Dayside with Linda Vester and Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor. He is a guest every Tuesday on the Jim Kirkwood Show on Utah’s K-Talk Radio am630. He is currently working on a book about America’s colleges in the War on Terror and the International Solidarity Movement.

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Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah Speaks In Solidarity With The Arab Spring, Equates Gaddafi With Israel

Nasrallah (source)

Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah Speaks in Solidarity with the Arab Spring, Equates Gaddafi with Israel

opednews.com By Mac McKinney

March 21, 2011 at 23:09:24

Hezbollah General Secretary Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gave a powerful speech on the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and other countries on March 19th, picked up by Press TV. Nasrallah had plenty of criticism for the United States, of course (what else is new), but reserved plenty for all the tyrannies in the Middle East, welcoming their downfall. He reserved much of his scorn for Gaddafi, equating Gaddafi’s attack on his own people with the brutal Israeli attack on Gaza in late 2008-early 2009.

The above Press TV video was also posted at Information Clearing House, of which an excerpt of the accompanying text appears below:

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivers a televised speech on revolutions and unrest in multiple Arab countries:

-Our gathering today is to voice our support for our Arab people and their revolutions and sacrifices, especially in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.

-The value of this solidarity is moral, political, and ethical, and its effects are also moral. The origin of what is going on — which could decide the fate of an uprising here, a confrontation there, or a resistance there — the origin is the steadfastness of peoples, linked to their faith and high spirituality.

-You remember that during the July [2006] war, every word and statement in any state and anywhere in the world had its impact on the resistance, the people and the displaced.

-The same is the case with the Arab revolts. We tell them that we support them, that we stand by your side and we are ready to help you toward your interest and ours, with your and our capabilities.

-We have to stress that these revolutions are the will of the people themselves. Any accusation that the US manufactured and launched these revolutions is unjust speech toward these peoples, especially that we are talking about regimes which are allied with the USA, serve the American project and pose no threat to Israel.

(FULL TEXT CONTINUED HERE)

SOURCE

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Falk: Israel criminally accountable for the murder of humanitarian aid activists

By Professor Richard Falk (UN Rapporteur for Palestine)

Countercurrents.org, May 31, 2010

This incident should serve as a wakeup call for a complicit international community. There are three political imperatives that need to emerge with a sense of urgency: condemnation of the Israeli attack and an accompanying demand for the immediate end of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, appropriately by a decision in the UN Security Council; an authoritative launching of an investigation of war crimes allegations against Israel by the International Criminal Court; the widest possible endorsement and strengthening of the already growing worldwide boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign directed at Israel’s occupation policies in Palestinian Territories.

Continues >>

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Israeli general ‘tried to cover up truth about death of Rachel Corrie’

Israeli war hero accused of suppressing testimony that could reveal what really happened to Gaza activist

By Ben Lynfield, The Independent/UK, May 7, 2010

AP

The peace activist Rachel Corrie died on 16 March 2003

Seven years after the American activist Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, evidence has emerged which appears to implicate Israel’s Gaza commander at the time, in an attempt to obstruct the official investigation into her death.

The alleged intervention of Major-General Doron Almog, then head of Israel’s southern command, is documented in testimony taken by Israeli military police a day after Ms Corrie was killed on March 16, 2003. The hand written affidavit, seen by The Independent, was submitted as evidence during a civil law suit being pursued by the Corrie family against the state of Israel.

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Talking Palestine To Power

By Sonja Karkar, ZNet, April 14, 2010

Today, there is no excuse for not knowing the truth about Palestine, especially what is happening in Gaza. Even taking into account the disinformation spread in mainstream media, there are enough glimpses one gets of a ravaged Gaza and a brutalized people that should compel us to ask questions. There are enough websites and blogs easily available for anyone to learn more, even if it requires sifting through and evaluating the available information. Certainly, the alarm bells should be ringing when our political leaders declare undying fealty to Israel or cavalierly wear it as a badge of honour, despite the documented reports of Israel’s war crimes by human rights groups and official enquiries.

Continues >>

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Israeli tanks enter Gaza

Sydney Morning Herald

March 27, 2010 – 9:54PM
AFP

Israeli tanks entered the Gaza Strip on Friday night, following the killing by militants of two Israeli soldiers, sparking a clash in which a Palestinian was killed.

At least seven Palestinians were killed in the clash, which comes amid the worst spate of violence in the besieged coastal territory in 14 months.

The Palestinian medics said the death and injuries were caused by a tank shell but gave no further details.

The tanks, backed by helicopters, advanced briefly into the Khan Yunis section in the south of the Gaza Strip before retreating to Israeli territory, witnesses said.

The incursion followed a fierce clash on Friday on the border between the Gaza Strip and the Jewish state in which two Israeli soldiers, one an officer, and four Palestinians were killed, according to the Israeli army.

“An officer and a soldier were killed and two others slightly wounded in an exchange of fire with terrorists planting explosives along the security fence in southern Gaza,” an army spokesman said in a statement.

General Yoav Golan, the army’s commander for the southern region, said one of the Israelis died when his own grenade exploded and that a total of four Palestinians were killed.

Palestinian officials have not confirmed the toll.

Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza, has claimed responsibility for the killing of the two soldiers in the heaviest fighting in the territory since the end of the 2008-09 Gaza war.

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Remembering Rachel Corrie

by Neve Gordon, The Nation, March 17, 2010

Seven years ago yesterday, Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a Caterpillar D9R Israeli bulldozer while nonviolently protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, along with other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Now her parents, sister and brother are suing the State of Israel and the defense minister, claiming wrongful death.

The suit’s objective, according to Rachel’s mother, Cindy, “is to illustrate the need for accountability for thousands of lives lost, or indelibly injured, by [Israel’s] occupation…. We hope the trial will bring attention to the assault on nonviolent human rights activists (Palestinian, Israeli and international) and we hope it will underscore the fact that so many Palestinian families, harmed as deeply as ours or more, cannot access Israeli courts.”

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Is it just me, or is Zionism going out of fashion?

Sometimes it’s better to just hop on your old horse,  get rid of that new saddle and light one up.

Who’s to say that the POTUS really has any power or ever has. Poppa Bu$h’s kid, Duhbya, proclaimed that he wanted to be the War President before he was elected and he were one. When he called for war in Iraq, millions of people demonstrated, but operation Shock & Awe was put in place. Not because it was his idea, but because the shadow government with ties going clear back to the Ronnie Raygun movie set wanted to begin the occupation of the Middle East. So Duhbya called himself the commander in chief, stumbled through his speeches, and signed everything that came down the pipes. decimating every environmental law that we the sheeple fought many years for and enabled the horrors of Homeland Security.

Before Obama was elected it became evident that AIPAC would have influence on his office when Hillary said that Obama would be a good friend to Israel,which he confirmed on the podium. To clinch his allegience to corporate government the elected Democratic congress was bought and paid for by lobbyists while the senate was compromised by Joe Lieberman.

“This Time We Went Too Far”

Truth and Consequences in the Gaza Invasion

counterpunch March 3, 2010

By NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

Editors’ Note: This article is excerpted from Norman Finkelstein’s important new book about the Gaza conflict, “This Time We Went Too Far” published this month by OR Books. To purchase a copy of the complete book please visit OR Books. This book is not available from bookstores or other online retailers.

Public outrage at the Gaza invasion did not come out of the blue but rather marked the nadir of a curve plotting a steady decline in support for Israel. As polling data of Americans and Europeans, both Gentiles and Jews, suggest, the public has become increasingly critical of Israeli policy over the past decade. The horrific images of death and destruction broadcast around the world during and after the invasion accelerated this development. “The increased and brutal frequency of war in this volatile region has shifted international opinion,” the British Financial Times editorialized one year later, “reminding Israel it is not above the law. Israel can no longer dictate the terms of debate.”

One poll registering the fallout from the Gaza attack in the United States found that American voters calling themselves supporters of Israel plummeted from 69 per cent before the attack to 49 per cent in June 2009, while voters believing
that the U.S. should support Israel dropped from 69 per cent to 44 per cent. Consumed by hate, emboldened by self-righteousness, and confident that it could control or intimidate public opinion, Israel carried on in Gaza as if it could get away with mass murder in broad daylight. But while official Western support for Israel held firm, the carnage set off an unprecedented wave of popular outrage throughout the world. Whether it was because the assault came on the heels of the devastation Israel wrought in Lebanon, or because of Israel’s relentless persecution of the people of Gaza, or because of the sheer cowardice of the assault, the Gaza invasion appeared to mark a turning point in public opinion reminiscent of the international reaction to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in apartheid South Africa.

Read article at counterpunch

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Jewish Anti-Occupation Activists Send Forceful Message to Israel

By Alex Kane, The Indypendent, Feb 1, 2010

For some Upper West Side residents, their usual stroll down Broadway this evening had a surprise: a group of 20 New York Jews denouncing Israel’s occupation of Palestine were standing with thought-provoking signs while a few passed out flyers.

Challenging the assumption that all Jews support Israel no matter what, the action, organized by Jews Say No, called on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza and to end the longest running military occupation in recent history. The group was founded last year during Israel’s war on Gaza.

Continues >>

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Falk: Gaza, Afghanistan and International Law

Interview with Richard Falk Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and author of “Crimes of War: Iraq” and “The Costs of War: International Law, the UN, and World Order after Iraq” recorded October 17, 2009 in Seattle Information Clearing House, posted Dec 21, 2009

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