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Inside the Middle East
April 17, 2011
Posted: 955 GMT
Vittorio Arrigoni at the port in Gaza City celebrating the arrival of the ship Dignity that departed from Cyprus to protest against the Israeli sanctions. A Salafist group of radical Islamists killed the Italian activist after kidnapping him in Gaza Getty Images AFP.
Vittorio Arrigoni at the port in Gaza City celebrating the arrival of the ship Dignity that departed from Cyprus to protest against the Israeli sanctions. A Salafist group of radical Islamists killed the Italian activist after kidnapping him in Gaza Getty Images AFP.

An Italian humanitarian activist and journalist who was kidnapped in Gaza has been found dead and one person is in custody, the Hamas Interior Ministry said Friday in a statement.

Police investigating the case learned where 36-year-old Vittorio Arrigoni was being held and went to the location, where they found the body, the statement said.

An autopsy revealed that he had been killed hours before police entered the location, it said.
Medical sources said his body was taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

The grisly outcome came hours after a video was posted on YouTube showing a man identified by his colleagues as Arrigoni. A black blindfold covered his eyes; his right cheek appeared red as though it had been hit; his hands appeared to be bound behind his back. A hand belonging to someone outside of the view of the lens appeared to be grasping his hair on the back and pointing the captive's head toward the camera. Read more...

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Filed under: Gaza •Hamas •Palestinians


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John A   April 17th, 2011 11:07 am ET

Mossad and the USA will make every attempt possible to destabilize the region and derail the founding of a Palestinian state as UN have proposed should happen in September 2011.

Sadly between now and next September, you can be sure loads of bad things will happen as the Zionist forces attempt to prevent Palestine from taking shape.

Palestine, tell the USA to stuff their aid (or should I say their Chinese debt). Israel is an illegal, racist regime.

Israel will soon need to pay reparation costs for over 60 years of supression and illegal occupation, mass murder etc, add every olive tree destroyed and every bulldozed house. Israel reparation to the Palestinians will dwarf Germanys reparation to the Jews.

University Rector   April 17th, 2011 11:25 am ET

Last week a pro Palestinian actor gets murdered. This week a pro Palestinian Italian aid worker gets murdered. In both cases America and Israel point the finger at Hamas.

For those who haven't figured it out yet, Israel and America are determined to have Fatah and Hamas fighting with each other, to stop them uniting in their claim for a recognized Palestinian state.

As the UN moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state next September, Israel and America will pull every dirty trick possible to divide the people and cause anarchy. Which is more or less the strategy that Israhell and America currently have towards all Arabic states.

Allgrown up   April 17th, 2011 3:05 pm ET

Amazing how the grizly death of a misguided pro-palestinian activist by Palestinian terrorist group can lead to a rant against Israel. Amazing how twisted some thoughts are out there. Why is it that the supporters of Palestine can never, never admit that they are supporting terrorists, that as proven by the death of this Italian would just as soon turn around and kill them to? Israel just arrested two youths 18 and 17 that butchered a family with knives. Innocent children were hacked to death by these two Palestinian youths, yet some sick indiviuals out there will again blame Israel but never the perpetuators of the crimes, the Palestinians.

Gera Neufeld   April 17th, 2011 3:54 pm ET

I am surprised that the murderous Islamic groups in Gaza are so popular in the eyes of supposedly "liberal" journalists such as Mr. Arrigoni. The Hamas and the Islamic Jihad who were democratically elected by the Gaza strip residents brought misery to hundreds of thousands Israelis who have to live under a never ending barrage of rockets has lasted for years. These same people shot their own Phatah comrades in the knees and dropped them of buildings just because they thought differently. They accuse Israel of enclosing them and restricting their movement yet Israel is not occupying the Gaza strip and were they to stop shooting they could enjoy the economic prosperity that is now enjoyed by their counterparts in the west bank.

I think that this murder reveals again the true face of the Islamic Jihad, in all is guises, that is shared by all these groups in Gaza. He who sleeps with snakes, even if with good intentions, should not be surprised if they bite him.

deuspater   April 17th, 2011 4:25 pm ET

And the arab world needs to pay back the jews for the land and assets they seized from the Jewish exodus from arab lands in the last century, land that, if summed up, would be many times the land area of israel.

You are hopeless propagandists. I am italian, and what these extremists did to my countryman is despicable. the truth is it was a rival of Hamas that did the deed, not Israel, and you can check this version on the web elsewhere.

Maksim   April 18th, 2011 2:17 am ET

This is just the latest barbaric act perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists in the long list of cruel, vicious, inhumane attacks by these monsters. Last week attach on a school bus with an anti-tank missile, killing Israeli schoolboy is another... The list goes on an on and nobody seems to mind!!!

We are all condition by leftists media like CNN to side with Palestinian side of the story completely ignoring all Palestinian are doing to others and their own selves.

Israel quit Gaza in 2005 and this is the result. it will be no better if Israel quits West Bank!

4Benji   April 18th, 2011 6:19 am ET

" Mossad and the USA " , "Zionist forces" Why not stick to the facts? There are many colors to the Palestinians most various shades of blood.
The Arabs have had many occasions for another state of their own starting in 1948, sadly they have chosen the call to throw the Jews into the sea. Dear John A, All the recent uprisings in Arab countries are about racist, undemocratic, racist (no other religion except Islam is tolerated) and illegal regimes that are being passed on from father to son. Israel is the only democratic state, yes even with moslem political parties and full rights for women, gays and peoples of all religions.
The problem is the thirst of Islam for blood, Moslem, Christian or Jewish. Get rid of that thirst and peace on earth returns.

Bruce   April 18th, 2011 10:48 am ET

4Benji you are a funny old racist aren't you.

Lets be clear, America currently bombs Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Libya.

Israel illegally occupies parts Syria and Palestine with its military.

Both Israel and America have killed more civilians with bombing than any other nation on earth.

Both America and Israel routinely use unmanned drones to attack civilians and each year for the last decade we usually witness another Muslim wedding party getting blown to bits in a supposed accident caused by unmanned drones.

Israel continues to bull doze Palestinian houses, destroy their farms and refuses the grant building licenses for Palestinians to build on their own land (which Israel illegally occupies)

Every year Israel assassinates a human target (without a court hearing to establish potential guilt) and usually the targets kids who were traveling in the same car also get incinerated.

Every year it seems Israel targets a suspect with its air force and "accidentally" blows up the targets neighbors by mistake.

Israel has a long and sad history of killing aid workers from the red cross and other organizations which it claims were also "Mistakes".

And you pretend the Muslims are blood thirsty. 4Benji your distorted ideas can easily be defined as insane. The killing and invasion of land has been carried out on an industrial scale by America and Israel.

America and Israel are a threat to world peace. Many Jews are protesting against the illegitimacy and murder carried out each year by Zionist Israel.

Many Americans feel their government actions do not represent them at all. Actually many Americans are desperately trying to regain control over their own government and lets hope it can be done peacefully.

But in summary it is ridiculous for any American or Israeli to point figures at others, when it is only American and Israeli armies that occupy other peoples countries.

Peter   April 18th, 2011 11:28 am ET

@4Benji

Don't you know murder is the biggest hobby of American and Israeli troops? You should read the news papers. Here's an article from the Washington Times.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/17/afghanistan-death-squad-killings-fail-get-media-po/

Reports of a U.S. “death squad” in Afghanistan, complete with the publication of gory photographs, have failed to attract the intense political or media attention afforded a previous war scandal — the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

In 2004, CBS News broadcast an array of photographs showing American jail guards abusing Iraqi detainees. The most famous: a forced pyramid of naked, humiliated prisoners. The depictions touched off an avalanche of media coverage. In Congress, liberals called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Democrats launched inquiries and held a string of well-covered hearings.

In recent months, another wartime embarrassment has emerged. The Army charged five soldiers with murder in the deaths of Afghan civilians in what amounted to a “death squad.” The German magazine Der Spiegel published several digital photos of soldiers posing with the dead last month.

Yet the U.S. media have given relatively little coverage, and no one in Congress has called for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to quit, planned hearings or raised questions at budget hearings.

Conservatives, while not seeking negative coverage of the armed forces, say it is another example of a blatant double standard. The reason the mainstream media have barely touched the story, conservatives say, is because it happened under President Obama, not George W. Bush.

I think any assignment editor would think a story about soldiers murdering people is a bigger story than soldiers putting prisoners in a naked pyramid,” said Tim Graham, an analyst at the Media Research Center, which seeks to expose what it says is liberal press bias. “When you reverse those, what you’re seeing is political opportunism.”

Mr. Graham offered an example. Time magazine, which devoted much coverage to Abu Ghraib and the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha during the Bush presidency, had a “tiny paragraph in the front of the magazine” a few issues ago on the death squad photos, he said.

“If you put Abu Ghraib in the Time magazine search engine, you get 17 pages of results,” Mr. Graham said. “When Abu Ghraib happened, the news media operated under the assumption that it came from the top. All the coverage came with the assumption that the president or the defense secretary ordered it. And if they didn’t, they had to deny and prove that they didn’t. In this case, there is no assumption the president would know or approve.”

Even someone at Time is struck by the lack of “death squad” coverage overall.

Jim Frederick, who covered the Iraq War and is now the managing editor of Time.com and the magazine’s executive editor, wrote in a March 29 blog that the Afghan story was remarkable for two reasons, the first of which is the depravity of the crimes.

ahem   April 18th, 2011 3:43 pm ET

Israel did it

Meir   April 18th, 2011 4:30 pm ET

To all of you Antisemitists (or today: Anti Israeli):
You do not know what is happening here and clearly don't want to know the truth. So to all of you I won't start and telling you how living here really is.

My grandparents went to the gaschambers in 42. This shall not happen again, and if we have to play rough in order to stay alive, so be it.

Remember: IT is the Arab world which wants us destroyed, not the other way around. But clearly you love more the "Goebelian" propaganda than the truth, so be happy with that and remember what we now think about that type of persons.

Ariely   April 18th, 2011 7:32 pm ET

Islamists killing count calling Allah Akbar.

Mar-766kills--Feb-565kills–­-Jan-762kills
(April -counting)
Year 2010-9175kills

From-India to Russia-Philippin to England-Thailand to New York-Argentina to China- France to Kenya-all 58 Muslim countries.

*Have you seen Muslim&so called human right organization demonstrating to stop:
*Islamism Killing Ideology?
*Teaching,preaching hate worldwide funded by Arab/Iran countries?

-The free world sleeps and Islamism marches!
Expect more terror and wars

Gerald   April 19th, 2011 6:33 am ET

Israel is totally to blame for the killing of Vittorio Arrigoni. Those so-called "Al-Qaida" members in Gaza work for the MOSSAD.

MOSSAD: (Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations) is the national intelligence agency of Israel.

The Mossad allegedly informed the FBI and CIA in August 2001 that based on its intelligence as many as 200 terrorists were slipping into the United States and planning "a major assault on the United States." The Israeli intelligence agency cautioned the FBI that it had picked up indications of a "large-scale target" in the United States and that Americans would be "very vulnerable." A month later, terrorists struck at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

TRUST ME ISRAEL'S DIRT ZIONIST, DEVIL WORSHIPPING CRETINS AKA "MOSSAD" ARE 10000% BEHIND THE KILLING OF THIS PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST. There was NO reason at all for any Palestinian or Muslim to want any harm to this person or to any person(s) that are in support of the Palestinian struggle and cause. This is a bunch of BS.. Those "Al-Qaida wanna-be thugs" have no affilation with Islam or Palestinians. They are strictly Mossad agents.. Those sneak SOB's clearily got busted in the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai.. They talk, dress, and pretend to be Arabs or whatever undercover stuff they do. And they perform illegal things such as steal money and mainly murder Muslims... Thats because they worship Satan.

proud zionist   April 19th, 2011 9:48 am ET

gerald

dah

Ariely   April 19th, 2011 5:44 pm ET

Gerad said:Israel is totally to blame for the killing of Vittorio Arrigoni. Those so-called "Al-Qaida" members in Gaza work for the MOSSAD

-
We are what we repeatedly do; is not an act but a habit.—Aristotle

Arabs and their supporters are repetedly telling faked stories .
Leing is not an act – It is a habit.

*Israel organized the demonstrations in Arab counties
*Israel units fight forQuadafi
*Mosad organized the Shark attackes

*Mosad committed the 9/11
*Israel secrete device cause the Indian Ocean tsunami

*Israel spreads AIDS among Arabs
*Israel is breeding supernatural rats to chase Arabs

*Israelis engineered the crash of Egypt Air Flight 990 in 1999.

Keep telling fakes stories – I am collecting, later to publish

FRANK OLIVER   April 19th, 2011 7:29 pm ET

This is complete handi work of mossad / CIA to discourage the democratic revolution going on middle east .To achieve democracy and freedom in the middle east we must some how sacrifice something....ie U.S must sacrifice its Zionist Israhell (israel) entity. we must remember one thing No sacrifice ! No Victory !

Zubeida   April 19th, 2011 10:50 pm ET

am not going to bother addressing the turmoil of text on here because it's just tiring to read people's rambling comments that show they read only one or two news sites and have no interest in reading multiples and – possibly – seeing other sides to a story.

as to the italian activist being killed: amazing, shocking, but outright disgusting. amazing especially as here is a man who actually was fighting for the same cause, and yet even that did not 'protect' him. possibility of a pleasant future my ass.

proud zionist   April 20th, 2011 8:17 am ET

and now Hamas killed the killers so they should not be able to tell who sent them. Hamas!

miriam   April 20th, 2011 1:57 pm ET

Gerald et al,

It's no surprise you would come up with some conspiracy theory concerning the Mossad and it's supposed omnipotent, ubiquitous abilities, especially supporting your argument with dubious cut and pastes that have little basis.

Ignore the fact that Arrigoni's murderers were Islamic Salafists who take issue with anyone who does not support their demands for a return to 7th century Arabian early Muslim society and were trying to secure the release of their own men in Hamas detention.

Ignore the fact that every current protest in the Arab/Islamist world is not
against Israel but against the leaders of the authoritarian regimes they
have to live under.

Ignore the fact that, in contrast to terrorist groups and many dictatorial regimes, the US and Israel and other Western democracies do not have
official policies of targeting innocent civilians in their operations that are
aimed to protect those or other civilians who are vulnerable to terrorist
attacks. That innocents are sometimes accidentally killed is an unfortunate, realistic result of unfortunate war and is investigated with those involved being tried if necessary.

Finally, Americans and the citizens of any other of Israel's many allies should be thankful of the role that the Israeli intelligence agencies do play in their protection and appreciate that their defense systems and national security is intrinsically dependent on the Jewish state.

Ignore the fact that in contrast

Susan Rochester   April 20th, 2011 10:00 pm ET

He was killed because he was living as an openly gay man in Gaza. That's the reason.

John A   April 21st, 2011 8:29 pm ET

There has been no valid investigation into this mans death. But our Zionist American bloggers, with their Arab paranoia should remember two thing:

1. Hamas was actually initiated with Israeli funds as a means to divide the PLO. This is a declassified fact and not a theory.

2. More foreign tourists are murdered in America each year than in any other country.

For our paranoid Zionist American friends, the Amish community also have deep religious beliefs and long hairy beards. Do you think they are Dutch Al Qaeda? hahaha

marat   April 23rd, 2011 7:48 pm ET

This Italian journalist has a long history as a rabid anti-Jew/anti-Israel propagandist. He sided with the terror monsters, getting "high" off of their demented ideology. And in the end, they had no use for him at all and slaughtered him as well. What a wasted fool. The International Red Cross this morning issued a statement that "there is NO Crisis in Gaza" and NO "Seige" (except of the tyranny of Hamas's creeping Sharia dictatorship and brutality). Moreover, all you anti-Israeli folks out there, listen up–they ALSO reported that the markets are fully stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables and the pharmacies equally well stocked. In short, these Islamist "Flotilla Circus" runs have only ONE agenda–to condemn Israel for the misery of Palestinians. Gee, the annual income of Palestinians actually EXCEEDS that of the average person in Egypt. But there IS a Force of TYRANNY that continuously hangs over the Palestinians. It is called ISLAM and it is replete with repression, brutality, totalitarianism and essentially no respect or protection for Human Free Will and Conscience. Coupled with Sharia so-called "law" (the oxymoron of the century), Islam runs TOTALLY in opposition to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and should be monitored carefully in the U.S. Moreover, I do not believe that U.S. taxpayers would approve of Islam receiving Tax Free "religious" status in the U.S., as it is simultaneously a theo-political ideology that is opposed to democracy and sanctions its clerics to demand the execution of ANYONE who is deemed to be "A Threat to Islam." Sorry folks, that is NOT religion....it is fascism.

thor   April 23rd, 2011 10:16 pm ET

Am I missing something? Everything seems to point at the murderers being a Palestinian group. In fact, when this first happened, the local Middle East papers were quoting Hamas as blaming the murder on this anti-Hamas extremist group. A week later, with no new news revealed, they launch two Grads at missile claiming to be in retaliation for the death of this "Peace" activist – who by his pics and his writings was far from a peaceful guy. So where is any proof at all that this murder has anything to do with Israel or the US?

Israeli   April 26th, 2011 5:37 am ET

I'm an Israeli and I'm proud to be one. I can't believe people doubt the existence of Israel, well actually I can. The Israeli Hasbara caused all of this mess, if we had better leaders and spokesmen we could've been in a better position. Well about Vittorio Arrigoni – why are you linking it to Israel? He was kidnapped and killed in Gaza by Arabs, not in Jerusalem by Israelis... Between, isn't time to bring Gilad back home? What makes Arrigoni more important than him?

RossTrex   April 27th, 2011 4:50 am ET

It was Mossad Agents disguised as Llamas that snuck across the border into Gaza. Then they donned their ultimate disguises One as a falafel, one dressed as a tv repair man and the last dressed as a giant stick of chewing gum. Together the three Zionist Agents infiltrated the port pretending to be there to repair the television on Mr. Arrigoni's boat. Once the television was repaired Mr. Arrigoni was strangled with the ultimate Zionist weapon the famous hammina yamika. Oh yes don't be fooled by Zionists trying to tell you it was the followers of Mohammed that did it.... because we all know how peaceful Islam is and that those precious harmless sons of Mohammed would never kill a european.

onlyme   April 27th, 2011 1:36 pm ET

I like it how you twist the truth whenever it doesn't fit your ideas
the Mossad and USA did this?? really? those super professional secret agencies have nothing better to do other than kill some Italian guy?? no Iranian bomb anymore? no Islamic archi-terrorist around the world? no Hizzballa's officials? only this guy?!?! really??
it is just another case of "If shit happens- blame it on the Jews/Zionist/USA"

proud zionist   May 2nd, 2011 1:48 pm ET

Hamas just condemned the killing of Bin Laden

Anybody still questioning who Hamas are?

miriam   May 4th, 2011 2:27 pm ET

proud zionist,

It's worse than that.

They don't question, they simply accept them and their ideology.

It true, it was on TV   May 6th, 2011 7:20 pm ET

Proud Zionist, Hamas are right to denounce the killing of Bin Laden. After all it's really twisted to execute a 10 year old corpse.

proud zionist   May 8th, 2011 1:01 pm ET

It true, it was on TV
I am really sorry you had no relatives working the the WTC on 9/11, you silly nitwit

Patricia   May 10th, 2011 12:55 am ET

oh, those idiot people...always blaming Israel for what they didn't do ... do me a favor , and check on the Internet about bomb attacks and terrorrism....I don't think they are related to jews...by the way ...these kind of mass murders are always caused by a certain unpeaceful religion...but I don't have to tell you guys what it is , do I?


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