VITTORIO ARRIGONI ~ ONADEKOM ~ WE WON'T FORGET YOU

TRUE CIVIL RESISTANCE OFTEN EXACTS AN EXTREME PRICE from the bravest of the brave, the best of the best. But the names of these martyrs live on in the hearts of those blessed to know of such men and women and ring down throughout the halls of history forever. ~ Noor

I offer here a few late tributes to a true hero and martyr of Palestine, Vittorio Arrigoni.

Image by ReaLMes, Deviant Art

It is dangerous to be right in matters

on which the established authorities are wrong.  ~ Voltaire

.

The above video was made by the Gaza-based rap group DARG Team. They say the song that is being sung during the chorus was Vittorio Arrigoni's favorite Arabic resistance song.

Here is the celebrated revolutionary poem ‘Unadikum’ (‘I Call Upon You’) by Palestinian Tawfiq Zayyad:

… My tragedy that I live
Is my share of your tragedies
I call on you
I press your hands
I kiss the ground under your feet
and I say: I sacrifice myself for you
I did not humiliate myself in my homeland
and I did not lower my shoulders
I stood facing my oppressors
orphaned, naked, and bare foot
I call on you….
I call on you
I press your hands
I kiss the ground under your feet
and I say: I sacrifice myself for you
I carried my blood on my palm
I never lowered my flags
and I cared for the green grass
over the graves of my ancestors

It is like Crazy Horse by JohnTrudell in some ways . That same settler colonial nightmare.

But the tribes will not go without return
Genetic light from the other side
A song from the heart our hearts to give
The wild days the glory days live

Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say
One Earth, one Mother
One does not sell the Earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
How do we sell our Mother
How do we sell the stars
How do we sell the air

Crazy Horse
We hear what you say
Crazy Horse
We hear what you say
We are the seventh generation

VITTORIO ARRIGONI:

A FRIEND, A BROTHER, A HUMANIST 

By Eva

OCCUPIED PALESTINE

I first heard of Vik before arriving in Gaza. Vik had just been injured by IOF water cannoning which shattered the windows of the fishing boat he was accompanying. Vik had some injuries from the shattered glass.

When I met Vik he was nothing but humble and humour. A compassionate man, living to do good and do anything for Palestinian justice. Others knew him better and longer, and told me of Vik’s arrests by the IOF, deportation, and other interesting stories. But above all, what shone, aside from his intelligible English and random Italian curses, was his humanism.

He was taken from Gaza, briefly, by the IOF navy, when they kidnapped 15 Palesitnian fishermen and 3 accompanying activists, including Vik, in November 2008, from Palestinian waters. At the time of his abduction, he was electrically shocked while peacefully avoiding abduction by diving into Gazas cold waters.

He returned to Gaza, via Free Gaza again, before Israel began its war on Gaza. He continued to write and report from the enclosed, bombed Strip.

Stay human, he always said. And so was the title of his book on the Israeli massacre of Gaza in 2008-2009. Stay human.

Vik’s blog, Guerilla Radio, gave voice to Palestinians who have strong voices but are denied the microphone.

During the Israeli war on Gaza, we all worked together, riding in ambulances, documenting the martyred and the wounded, the vast majority (over 83%) civilian. Vik was always on the phone, Italian media taking his words and printing them for the public to see.

Aside from the loss of a compassionate, caring human, activist, and friend, I am saddened by the group that did this. Surely they knew Vik was with them, for them. But in every society, including my own, there are extremists, people who act with misguided guidance.

Vik was there, among the war casualties, among the on-going martyrs unspoken in the corporate media, celebrating Palestine’s beauty and culture, dancing Dabke at my wedding celebration.

He was there to joke with us, to counsel us, to smoke shisha by the sea…

He wrote the truth,

spoke the truth,

stayed human.

Vik, my brother, allah yerhamek, bless you for your humanity and your great contribution to Palestinian justice. I will miss you, your smile, your humble, fun personality.

Yatikalafia ya Vitorrio.

I include here another song that, in its own way, speaks to me, anyhow, of Vittoria Arrigoni, by Robbie Robertson.  It soothed me daily through the trying and painful time when my Mother was passing, when my soul needed strengthening. The sentiments are eternal. 

I think of this song whenever I hear of another martyr, or of another Friday walk from Bil’in or any of the other besieged places in the world where the people stand up in peace to object and voice their claims, at the risk of death. It is another song about the great leader Crazy Horse of the first American nation.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE 
BY ROBBIE ROBERTSON