Since the submission of the UN Goldstone Report documenting war crimes against Israel during the Gaza invasion (some just call it a massacre) of December 2008 in which 1,460 Gazan Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians including 433 children, and the destruction of 21,000 structures, including mosques, hospitals, schools, and even the headquarters of UNWRA, the Palestinian refugee agency, plus ambulances, among them, Judge Goldstone, delegated by the UN to investigate the invasion, last month recanted his conclusion that Israel intentionally targeted civilians, a war crime.
Before he died, Vittorio Arrigoni, a member of the International Solidarity Movement, who originally went to Gaza on a Free Gaza Movement boat to break the siege that was attempting to strangle Gaza’s people on grounds that the Strip is controlled by Hamas, spoke on this matter. Although a poll completed a few years earlier indicated that only 25% of Gazans support Hamas, the fact that Hamas won a fair democratic election in 2006 became the premise to begin hostilities. It did not matter that Israel continued its occupation and land confiscations in the other Palestinian territories, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The circumstances of Vittorio Arrigoni’s assassination this month are still unclear. He was allegedly killed by a terrorist group operating inside Gaza. But before he died, he helped make this video, which speaks to the notion that Israel does not intentionally target civilians.
A comment to this video by gazafriends, posted on Apr 14, 2011, memorializes Vittorio’s work in Gaza.
“REST IN PEACE BRAVE VICTORIO. YOU STOOD UP FOR THE OPPRESSED AND THE VICTIMS OF ISRAELI TERRORISM AND WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOUR BRAVERY, YOUR KINDNESS AND YOUR COMMITMENT TO JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE.”
