Italian peace activist murdered by Islamist militants in Gaza

[S.A.M.]

Some more info come to light. Apparently Vittorio was an eyewitness to Israeli atrocities in Gaza and has taken video of Israeli attacks on the Samouni family [of the Goldstone "retraction" fame] and the ambulances which were not allowed to reach them.

From the Goldstone report:

[A]t around 4 p.m. [January 4, 2009], PRCS ambulance managed to come in the vicinity of the house where Ahmad was lying wounded, but was prevented by the Israeli armed forces from rescuing him. Ahmad died at around 2 a.m. during the night… The ambulance had turned west off Salah ad-Din Street when, at one of the first houses in the area, Israeli soldiers on the ground and on the roof of one of the houses directed their guns at it and ordered it to stop. The driver and the nurse were ordered to get out of the vehicle, raise their hands, take off their clothes and lie on the ground. Israeli soldiers then searched them and the vehicle for 5 to 10 minutes. Having found nothing, the soldiers ordered the ambulance team to return to Gaza City, in spite of their pleas to be allowed to pick up some wounded. In his statement to the Mission, the ambulance driver recalled seeing women and children huddling under the staircase in a house, but not being allowed to take them with him.

From Vittorio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSxiQZ6iaNs&feature=player_embedded

The story is documented in "To Shoot an Elephant" a documentary following paramedics and hospital workers in Cast Lead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dZuWAzX6hg&feature=player_embedded

The filmmaker Alberto Arce is also on the Israeli "hit list"

source: mondoweiss

 

[CptBork]

 

[S.A.M.]

There is nothing wrong with skepticism. I've yet to see similar skepticism applied when it comes to mythical figures like Mohammad and Khalid for which there is zero contemporary evidence (and good contemporary evidence they didn't exist).



The live video seems like good evidence Hamas had to take some fundamental garbage out to the curb.

Sure, but note that I take almost all Israeli news from Israeli or Jewish sources. Most of them are not reported in western media OR Arab media or if they are, then they are also from Israeli or Jewish sources. By your criteria then, almost everything I have reported did not happen.

 

[Michael]

Maybe I missed something, it seemed you were suggesting an Israeli Jewish plot, a conspiracy of Jews, maybe even Israeli Jews themselves, chopped that Italian peace activist's head off - NOT a group of fundamental Muslim Palestinians.

Is that your position?

 

[S.A.M.]

Actually I report on both Jewish views on Israel and Jewish criticisms of Jewish views on Israel. History is generally most relevant to the people who report it. My reasons for viewing the I-P debate from a predominantly Jewish lens are somewhat more sophisticated [similar to reasons why I report on American problems predominantly through American lenses] but most English speakers here are comfortable with it because it is "their side" of the equation. If I reported exclusively from the Arab side I doubt it would be met with the same equanimity

 

[CptBork]

Actually I report on both Jewish views on Israel and Jewish criticisms of Jewish views on Israel. History is generally most relevant to the people who report it. My reasons for viewing the I-P debate from a predominantly Jewish lens are somewhat more sophisticated [similar to reasons why I report on American problems predominantly through American lenses] but most English speakers here are comfortable with it because it is "their side" of the equation. If I reported exclusively from the Arab side I doubt it would be met with the same equanimity

Well I reported from the Arab side and, you treated it with the same equanimity you usually reserve for Jewish sources, so... try us.

 

[GeoffP]

Sam's unique form of backpedaling in action, I see.

 

[S.A.M.]

Well I reported from the Arab side and, you treated it with the same equanimity you usually reserve for Jewish sources, so... try us.

Sorry, your reporting does not meet the basic criteria of news - who ,what, when, where, why. Its all opinion

Back on topic:

Vittorio's mother has decided to join the Gaza flotilla and the flotilla will be renamed in Vittorio's honour. If Juliano and Vittorio's murders were intended as covert ops to detract from the flotilla, they have not only failed but they have failed publically and grandiosely

Agidea Prata, the mother of Vittorio Arrigoni, the Italian activist and journalist killed in Gaza on Friday, said that she will be sailing to Gaza on May with the Free Gaza flotilla.

Prata on Saturday told Italian news sources that “I want to see Gaza that my son loved and sacrificed for, I want to meet the good people living there that my son Vik always talked about”. She added that Vittorio work will go on though his friends.

Vittorio’s mother added that her son received death threats from a right wing American group on their website two years ago because of his photos published online and the pro Palestinian tattoo he has on his shoulder.

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress....za-flotilla-change-name-in-honor-of-vittorio/

What will the Israelis do now?

 

[CptBork]

What will the Israelis do now?

They'll probably laugh at you, and then later they'll release a Mossad-trained shark in your coastal waters in a conspiracy to harm your tourism industry.

 

[Cowboy]

This is my surprised face: :bugeye:

 

[S.A.M.]

I meant with reference to the freedom flotilla. Now that they have provided free advertising for it. Will the IDF embark on the flotilla and threaten Vittorio's mother as they did Hedy Epstein? That would be something

“The media is saying that one of the radical groups in Gaza, not affiliated with Hamas, was responsible,” Epstein says. “There was a video: You see him blindfolded, with some kind of wound on his face, and you see an arm and hand grabbing hold of his hair, and there is a flag with writing on it. These radical people never write on the flag. I don’t think that’s who took him.

“Two weeks earlier, another wonderful man, Juliano Mer-Khamis, was killed,” she continues. “He was sitting in his car and was shot several times by a masked person. His mother is Israeli and Jewish; his father a Christian Palestinian. Years ago, Juliano’s mother started the Jenin Freedom Theater in the West Bank, so children could act out their fears and their feelings.” Mer-Khamis, who’d taken over as director, was shot on the street in front of the theater.

“I think these two deaths so close together were meant to scare anyone who is going on the flotilla,” Epstein says. “But they won’t. They will only make us more determined.”


http://www.stlmag.com/Blogs/SLM-Dai...ries-mdasha-Fifth-Time-mdashto-Sail-to-Gaza/#

How many activists can they kill?

 

[CptBork]

I meant with reference to the freedom flotilla. Now that they have provided free advertising for it. Will the IDF embark on the flotilla and threaten Vittorio's mother as they did Hedy Epstein? That would be something

How many activists can they kill?

I forgot to mention, the Mossad sharks have laser beams attached to their heads. They can kill many activists, for they are legion.

 

[Michael]

Isn't the land Israeli? If so then they would be within their rights to prevent any people from landing there without passport and visa.

Imagine a flotilla of Greeks landing in Constantinople crying "Free Byzantium". I'm sure the Turks would prevent that ship from landing. Especially if there was a freedom movement and armed insurgence.

 

[CptBork]

Isn't the land Israeli? If so then they would be within their rights to prevent any people from landing there without passport and visa.

Imagine a flotilla of Greeks landing in Constantinople crying "Free Byzantium". I'm sure the Turks would prevent that ship from landing. Especially if there was a freedom movement and armed insurgence.

Technically they're sailing for Gaza, so under normal circumstances it would be up to Palestinians whether the flotilla is allowed to enter. Because Gaza's elected government is in a declared state of war with Israel, they're under blockade and so international law permits Israel to seize ships for inspection. Turkey would be a good analogy though, if it were flotilla protesters sailing to deliver uninspected aid to PKK members and refusing to recognize Turkish authority in those waters.