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To understand the death of this Italian activist, a few important facts must be grasped: his death was triggered by the spurious way he mixed his humanitarian ideals with the cause of fundamentalism in Gaza, and by the fact that he mixed his life with that of his potential enemies, whom he considered to be his best friends. But fundamentalists do not have stable affinities. Only their interpretation of the Quran counts. Hamas in Gaza, where Arrigoni was killed, is a land ruled by awful, alien laws. Arrigoni loved the Palestinians, but he remained a total foreigner to them. It is for us inconceivable, even if you are a militant like Arrigoni, to live alongside those who fire missiles at civilians, wear belts packed with explosives, and hand out sweets when an Israeli family is killed in Itamar, including a three month-old baby, a four year-old child, and another of nine.
This is the crucial issue: when you go to Gaza, or Afghanistan, you have to realise that our conception of life is completely different from any Islamic political conception of life. You could be killed because you are Jewish, because you are Italian, or Christian, because you are an apostate, or a corrupt Westerner. The extremist mentality make no bones about it, and cancels out friends and allies. No matter how much you have worked against the “Zionist power” or how often you have called Zionists “rats” (and Arrigoni did this), nothing is of any worth if you break their law, a law which will remain unclear until the knife blade comes. Arrigoni was a fan of political Islamism because he was an enemy of the Jews, but this did not save him from a cruel execution in front of the camera, just like many other friends and enemies of Hamas, or the “Islamic Jihad,” never mind the name.
So, it is intellectually disheartening and even dangerous that a demonstration in front of the Italian Parliament blamed Israel and Italy for Arrigoni’s death, or that the ISM, the pro-Palestinian NGO Arrigoni belonged to, attributed “moral responsibility to the State of Israel.” These reactions seem to be triggered only by ideological hatred. But what was more striking still, with sincerest respect for the president of the republic, was the statement of condolences which Giorgio Napolitano delivered. Instead of laying the blame on Islamic fundamentalism, he asked that “a negotiated solution be found to the conflict which sees bloodshed in the region.” With the same coherence, he could have invoked any good cause: the fight against world hunger, or child prostitution. Yet instead, Israel is being summoned to face some mysterious responsibility. However, the fault is only with Islamic fundamentalism — what is the point of dragging the pained witness and victim of Hamas terrorism into the equation?
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