There are men who struggle for a day, and they are good. There are others who struggle for a year, and they are better. There are some who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives, and these are the indispensible ones (Bertolt Brecht) |
Vittorio Arrigoni, killed in Gaza a few hours after being abducte at the age of 36, asked us every day at the end of his articles to:
Stay human
Every day for years, Vittorio recounted in words and images, independently and impartialy, the real life, the struggle for survival of 2 million people imprisoned in Gaza, besieged , bombarded, starved, humiliated.
Vittorio chose to stay in that hell to help those who couldn't leave and to break the silence of indifference about the Gaza Strip, which had become a black hole in reporting, in politics - a gigantic black mark on the ethics and collective morals, smeared with indifference and complicity in the horror.
Vittorio has been murdered. His death today tears aside the veil that covers the Strip and speaks. You can still speak to us all, Vittorio, even though you are no longer here. You can still show us that injustice is insupportable.
Vittorio lived in Gaza for years. He chose to stay there, with his eyes to witness and with his body to show solidarity, because he had seen the theft of land, of water, the demolition of houses, the destruction of farms and of fishing boats (he was injured while accompanying fishermen pescatori, trying to protect them with his body from the armed attacks of the Israeli army, just like Rachel Corrie, killed at Rafah because she put her body between a bulldozer and a house).
Vittorio had seen people with cancer sent back at the Eretz crossing between Gaza and Israel "because of security issues". He had seen Palestinians treated with disdain, beaten, humiliated. He had seen the desparation of the fishermen who were prevented from fishing and he had seen the desperation of the farms, clinging to an olive tree while a bulldozer dragged it away. He had seen women give birth behind a mound because it was impossible to get to the hospitatl. He had seen fear and terror in the eyes of children and he had seen their broken bodies. He had seen premature babies die because the electricity was cut off for 30 minutes at the hospital. He had met girls and boys who had known nothing but sorrow since they were born. He had felt the cold that penetrates the bones in the freezing Gaza nights, without heating, without light. He was in Gaza during operation Cast Lead (December 2008 - January 2009) and witnessed the destruction of thousands of houses and the illing of 3000 people, including hundreds of children, who certainly were not firing rockets.
“Stay human”, Vittorio always said. Wherever we are from, we are part of the same community. Every man, every woman, every child on this planet, wherever he or she is born and lives, has the right to life and dignity. The same rights that we claim for ourselves belong to all the others, without exception.
We embrace the familiy, the volunteers of the ISM, he friends, the young people of Gaza who mobilised to try to save his life.
Let's stay human even if all around humanity seems absent.
Stay human for him, Vittorio Arrigoni, just, passionate, human
I am sure that the greatest contribution we can offer to the memory of Vittorio is to continue to work to support the population of Gaza and of Palestine in there struggle for freedom, justice and human rights
Mairead Maguire (Nobel peace laureate)
