The Murder of Vittorio Arrigoni: Wise Words from Fiamma Nirenstein

Earlier this month, an Italian national and pro-Palestinian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, was strangled to death in Gaza. Tawhid wal-Jihad, an al-Qaeda-linked group, had acknowledged that it was holding Arrigoni, whom they said would only be released if their own leader was freed by Hamas (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2011/04/italian-national-vittorio-arrigoni.html). Notwithstanding this admission by Tawhid wal-Jihad and the video clip of the bruised and blindfolded Arrigoni it released on the Internet, Hamas, the International Solidarity Movement and various leftist polticians in Europe (see: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=217667) have seized upon the opportunity to blame Israel for Arrigoni's death.

Ms. Fiamma Nirenstein, Vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, has responded to these obscene allegations in an essay appearing in her website (http://www.fiammanirenstein.com/articoli.asp?Categoria=3&Id=2577), which states in part:

"To understand the death of this Italian activist, one important fact must be grasped: his death was triggered by the spurious way he mixed his humanitarian ideals with the cause of fundamentalist Gaza, by the fact that he mixed his life with that of his potential enemies, that he thought about as his best friends. But fundamentalists do not have stable affinities. Only their interpretation of Quran counts. Hamas Gaza, where Arrigoni has been killed, is for us a land ruled by awful and distant laws. Arrigoni loved the Palestinians, but he remained a total foreigner for them. It is for us unconceivable, even if you are a militant like Arrigoni, to live alongside those who fire missiles on civilians, wear belts packed with explosives and hand out sweets when an Israeli family is killed in Itamar, including a three months baby, a four years old child and another of nine.

This is a crucial issue: when you go to Gaza, or Afghanistan, you have to realise that our conception of life, is complitely different from any Islamic political conception of life. You can die because you are Jewish, because you are Italian, or Christian, because you are an apostate, or a corrupt Westerner... the extremist mentality, make no bones about it, cancels out friends and allies. No matter how much you have worked against the «Zionist power» or that you have called Zionists «rats» (and Arrigoni did this), nothing is of any worth if you break their rule, a rule which will remain unclear until the knife blade comes. Arrigoni was [a] fan of political Islamism because he was an enemy of the Jews, but this did not save him from a cruel execution in front of the camera, just as the one of many others friends or enemies of Hamas or the Islamic Jihad, never mind.

So it is intellectually sad and even dangerous that a demonstration in front of the Italian Parliament blamed Israel and Italy for Arrigoni’s death; or that the ISM, the pro-Palestinian NGO Arrigoni belonged to, attributed «moral responsibility to the State of Israel». These reactions seem to be triggered only by ideological hatred. But what is more striking still, with sincerest respect for the figure of the President of Republic, was the statement of condolences which Giorgio Napolitano rightly delivered; instead of laying the blame on Islamic fundamentalism, he asked that «a negotiated solution be found to the conflict which sees bloodshed in the region». With the same coherence, he could have invoked any good cause: the fight against world hunger, or child prostitution. Yet instead, Israel is being summoned to face some mysterious responsibility. But the fault is only of Islamic fundamentalism; what is the point of dragging the pained witness and victim of Hamas terrorism into the question?"

I strongly recommend reading Ms. Nirenstein's essay in its entirety .