Volume [8]
No. [1]
June 2011
|
|
||
|
Volume [8]
|
No. [1]
|
June 2011
|
Remembering ISM Volunteer Vittorio Arrigoni, 1975-2011
|
|
| The most vivid memory I have of Vik
is of him with a big grin on his face as he clung to the bow of a Gaza
fishing boat, bouncing precariously across the waves and waving a
Palestinian flag while he bid farewell to those of us returning from a
victorious effort to break the siege of Gaza in 2008. Vik chose to
stay, along with nine others who re-constituted the ISM presence in the
Gaza Strip, which had been closed to volunteers since 2003. We tend to use the term "hero" liberally, but if we don't use it in Vik's case, the word has no meaning. Vik was among the ISM volunteers who were in Gaza during the Israeli invasion of 2008-2009, in which around 1400 Palestinians (mostly civilians) and 13 Israelis (mostly soldiers) lost their lives. He was an independent journalist with a loyal following in Italy, so his voice carried far, and was important in mobilizing Italian support for Palestinian rights. Like everyone who knew Vik, I was shaken to the core when I learned of his brutal killing, the first of an ISM volunteer at the hands of Palestinians. It made no sense. His captors supposedly wanted to trade him for one of their own who was in Hamas custody. Of what use was he to them dead? It's not that his death was not foreseeable. His kidnappers had to threaten to kill him in order to use leverage to get their man released. However, they allowed hardly any time for negotiation, and lost their only bargaining chip. One explanation is that they never intended to exchange him and their real purpose was to rid Gaza of all foreigners. They were part of a xenophobic fringe that wants remove even the staunchest of solidarity supporters. Or perhaps they were Israeli tools - a black flag operation to make Palestinians look like savages and to decrease sympathy for them. But why kill him so soon? There was no advantage. |
For those of us who know Vik, there
is another explanation. He was a
very kind and caring man, but powerfully built and totally
disrespectful of both authority and his own safety. He does not make a
good prisoner. This would explain the bruises on his face, along with
the look of defiance in the final video created by his captors. It also
explains why it included no spoken statement. Vik would not have
cooperated, regardless of the consequences. photo credit: Palestinalibre.org It is possible that the kidnappers asked Vik to do something that he would not do, and that they went too far in trying to persuade him. Or that Vik simply fought back too much or tried to escape. This would not surprise me. We may never know what happened, but it seems likely to me that Vik's own resistance changed him from an asset to a liability for his captors. I know a lot of very brave people, but Vik was among the bravest. We tend to use the term "hero" liberally, but if we don't use it in Vik's case, the word has no meaning. Vik was proof that we always have a choice in our actions, even when strapped to a waterboard. I believe that Vik chose to die rather than cooperate, and that his noncooperation was as active as he could make it, under the circumstances. He defeated his captors, and that is why they had to kill him. Paul Larudee is co-founder of the movement that took Vik and 43 others to Gaza by sea in 2008, and of the Free Palestine Movement, which will participate in the next Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The ISM has been flooded with applications following Vik's death. |