The murder of Vittorio Arrigoni and the morality of “resistance”

Pennie Quinton‘s CiF piece on April 16, Vale Vittorio Arrigoni, ‘hero of Palestine, expresses a near maudlin anguish over the death of Arrigoni, lionizing the pro-Hamas activist as a “hero” of Palestine and “peace activist”, and contained this simply draw dropping line about Arrigoni’s brutal murder at the hands of an Al-Qaeda affiliated group in Gaza.

“Writing as someone who has spent a great deal of time in the West Bank over the years, these events seem alien to the Palestinian culture of resistance I have come to know and respect” [emphasis mine]

The murder of  Arrigoni is “alien to the culture of resistance”?!  

Given that the word “resistance” is typically understood as a thinly veiled euphemism for acts of terror against Israelis, it seems the only thing which shocks Quinton is the fact that Islamist terrorists had no moral concerns with murdering a non-Israeli – a Westerner who was not only pro-Palestinian, but affiliated with ISM and aligned politically with Hamas.

Further, just to be clear about the “morality” of Vittorio Arrigoni, he was among those whose support for the Palestinian cause egregiously crossed the lines of mere advocacy into raw and unbridled bigotry.

Here are some “progressive” posts and images from his Facebook page:

Nor was our esteemed “peace advocate” above engaging in classic anti-Semitism. (Again, from his FB page)

The characterizations of Vittorio Arrigoni as a “human rights” or “peace” activist are simply perverse – and represents a moral inversion as insidious as the suggestion that the “culture of resistance”, that Quinton wistfully refers to, is guided by anything approaching ethics, morals or decency.

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