A message from Mary Hughes Thompson, one of the activists on board the first boat into Gaza,. Vik was on that boat, and we are all devastated with this news. Greta

Throughout the day we prayed this would have the best kind of endings. The kidnappers had given a deadline several hours away. So this latest terrible news has devastated all of us who knew Vik. He and I were on the FREE GAZA when it sailed to Gaza in August 2008. He stayed behind in Gaza, and two months later he was kidnapped and arrested on a fishing boat near the coast of Gaza. He was abducted to Israel, jailed in Ramle Prison and deported home to Italy. Within days he was back in Gaza, where he stayed throughout the massacres of December 08 and January 09, leaving only briefly for Cairo where I last saw him during the Gaza Freedom March.

Words can’t express the shock and sense of bereavement at the loss of this beautiful man, who considered himself Palestinian. The videos we saw of him bloodied and blindfolded were chilling, nothing like the Vittorio we knew and loved, always smiling, always wearing a skipper’s hat and holding his beloved pipe. After Juliano Mer-Khamis, this is just too much. May they both rest in peace.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/hamas-abducted-pro-palestinian-activist-found-dead-in-gaza-1.356099

In memoriam Vittorio Arigoni!
reportage à 5’30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pVb9b0uO90&feature=youtu.be

Hier:

Gaza : Des salafistes disent avoir enlevé un Italien, menacent de le tuer
14/04/2011 à 20h50
Des militants d’un groupe salafiste palestinien ont indiqué jeudi avoir enlevé un ressortissant italien travaillant pour une association pro-palestinienne dans la bande de Gaza et menaçaient de le tuer.
Selon ses confrères de International solidarity mouvement (ISM), l’Italien, un pacifiste, se nomme Vittorio Arrigoni.
Les auteurs de l’enlèvement ont affirmé dans un clip vidéo diffusé sur YouTube qu’ils exigeaient en échange de sa libération que le mouvement islamiste Hamas, au pouvoir dans la bande de Gaza, relâche un certain nombre de leurs camarades détenus en prison.
“Nous avons enlevé l’Italien Vittorio et nous demandons au gouvernement d'(Ismaïl) Haniyeh de relâcher tous nos prisonniers. Si vous ne répondez pas (…) dans les 30 heures à compter de 11H00 (08H00 GMT) le 14 avril, nous exécuterons le prisonnier”, dit un des auteurs de l’enlèvement.