Gaza: Stay Human is an authoritative and deeply-
moving eyewitness account of the terrible 22-day
Israeli offensive against the people of the Gaza Strip
in 2008-9. The late Vittorio Arrigoni (1975-2011),
who was brutally murdered in Gaza in 2011, was a
STAY HUMAN
volunteer with the pacifist International Solidarity
Movement, and served as a human shield while
working with the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances during the
offensive. As a freelance journalist with the Italian daily Il Manifesto,
Arrigoni’s daily dispatches, written between bombing raids and patchy
internet access, ended with the plea, ‘stay human’, which became
STAY HUMAN
the motto of anti-Israeli peace protests in his native Italy. The English
translation includes Arrigoni’s dispatches on the difficult situation in
Gaza after Operation ‘Cast Lead’ and features a preface by the renowned
Israeli historian and human rights activist, Ilan Pappé.
VITTORIO ARRIGONI
Amid the carnage that surrounds him, Arrigoni ends each missive with the
plea, Stay Human. It is an invitation, he explains, to reject complicity in injustices
against Palestinians and ‘remember our belonging to a sole community of living
beings: the human family’. – Middle East Mirror
A searing first-hand account of life for people under siege and fire … Arrigoni
urges people to stay human. – Dissident Voice
An amazing book that introduces the twenty-two day Israeli offensive against
[the] Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009. – Middle East Post
UK £6.99 USA $12.95
ISBN 978-1-84774-019-9
VITTORIO ARRIGONI
K INTRODUCTION BY
KUBE
PUBLISHING
K
KUBE
PUBLISHING
ILAN PAPPÉ
STAY HUMAN
STAY HUMAN
Vittorio Arrigoni
With a preface by
Ilan Pappé
Translated by
Daniela Filippin
First published in England by
Kube Publishing Ltd.,
Originally published as ,
All rights reserved
paperback
and Majdi Fathi (
Contents
Map viii
(by Ilan Pappé)
v
vi
vii
viii
Preface: The Killing Fields of Gaza, 2009
ix
x
xi
xii
.
xiii
xiv
xv
Ilan Pappé
xvi
For the reader:
for use
xvii
pain.
xviii
xix
@
Subject: Guernica in Gaza
Date: 27th December 2008
rigoni
My apartment in Gaza faces the sea, a panoramic view
So far the death toll has reached 210, but it’s bound to
1
2
late anyway – he was buried by the rubble in the port area
3
Stay human
4
@
Subject: Dying slowly while listening out in vain
Date: 29th December 2008
those who live north of Gaza City, hopefully because the
5
Stay human
7
@ Date: 30th December 2008
may say, recited parrot-style all over Europe and the US
we haven’t shut our eyes once in Gaza for at least four
a hate-fuelled and cynical upheaval catapulted onto the
Dignity
10
Stay human
11
@
Subject: The Unnatural Catastrophe
Date: 1st January 2009
12
economy car, the very same with which he roamed the
13
14
press conference before the cameras of the most popular
Stay human
15
@ Date: 3rd January 2009
-
bread in a cemetery?
for the earth, and, at the moment, Gaza has never been
on, those who could have
as it happens, out here no one is under any illusion that
17
dead, with over 2,300 wounded and many, many more
Stay human
Subject: Doctors with W
@ Date: 5th January 2009
20
21
they would carry with them for the rest of their lives,
hope to run in aid of any human lives, we need to be
euphemism in Gaza, and wait for people to bring us their
22
what is now one of the world’s most powerful infantries,
mother pressed her hands on to that eviscerated chest,
to create, and which the anonymous hatred of a soldier,
23
24
behind in our rear-view mirror the scenarios of death and
Stay human
25
@ Date: 6th January 2009
had been passed onto me by my parents, both communists
Mohammed now lies in a coma, in the same hospital where
27
spelt out to me that this was a war where both sides used
drop one of its many atomic bombs upon us, those they
caravans of mule-drawn carts, overloaded beyond belief
men, women, elderly people and children were wiped
away, who believed themselves to be safe within those
enormous open-air prison, the Gaza Strip has become a
decided to turn this place into a desert, and then call it
nun who’d lived near the Catholic church in Gaza for the
last 20 years, and who had by now been adopted by the
seize this last opportunity and escape from this hell with
Stay human
30
31
@ Bombs
Date: 7th January 2009
while a nurse actually placed a couple of bloodstained
32
from where we stood, too far away to be absolutely
have the medical and military competence to say for sure
33
34
middle of the road, when they were showered by about
is a crazy metaphor, which could serve as a snapshot of the
Stay human
35
@ Date: 8th January 2009
that they’ll be spared, since no one on earth seems to
37
people of Gaza are forced to do without bread for many days
brave mothers to pre-empt the due-date of these newly-
children to write some of their impressions of the atrocious
we feel afraid and worry because the planes and the ships,
Sadly, Gaza has been shrouded in obscurity these last 10
40
Stay human
41
@
Subject: Killing Hippocrates
Date: 9th January 2009
42
houses four small children were found near the body of
43
aware of the fact that while she lay in the delivery room,
44
45
a harsh new reminder that this massacre must in no way
Il
Manifesto
Stay human
47
@ Date: 10th January 2009
-
ist acts with which the terrorists from your area are
you, for your own safety, to immediately evacuate the
several metres deep, as if meteors had rained down from
-
-
-
50
consider it their personal moral duty to do whatever is
st
on board the Dignity
51
families and brothers in Gaza, all you’ll have to do is
[email protected].
with the lives of a million-and-a-half people via air, sea and
Stay human
52
@
Subject: Vultures and Bounty Hunters
Date: 12th January 2009
and imprisoned, every inch of it raped and reduced to a
and come in aid of a people at the end of their tether, the
Spirit of Humanity
Dignity
53
54
2
-
-
55
cameras or reporters around to document the civilian
ALERT THE IDF MILITARY TO TARGET ISM
Hamas with their ISM members. From the US call,
011-972-2-5839749. From other countries drop the
of Hamas since the war has begun.
#1 ISM TARGET FOR THE ISRAELI AIR FORCE AND IDF
GROUND TROOPS:
VITTORIO ARRIGONI (PICTURED BELOW) IS CURRENTLY
IN GAZA ASSISTING HAMAS
57
no need for my enemies and those who wish for my
Stay human
@ Date: 14th January 2009
whom the shelter of their mother or father’s embrace has
-
no surprise to us that no one complains about this massive
Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi are at the moment unable
peaceful and non-violent, the most humanly acceptable
Guardian 4
Guardian
the values that it represents, Europe must refuse to
Stay human
@ Date: 15th January 2009
passers-by rushed over to try and help when a second
of nine, two brothers and another passer-by who had
really say that 100 people crammed into two apartments
one must dare to obstruct the massacre of civilians, now
some stretchers and proceed on foot to the areas where
where are you?
Stay human
@
Subject: Turning Geography on its Head
Date: 16th January 2009
to tread over one whole vast surface of debris that had been
70
-
71
tested in the last few days, but has survived intact neverthe-
university professors to the people you meet in the street,
ers, men,
72
that their roots run so deep that no enemy bulldozer can
-
that
visibly malnourished child crouched in front of his mother’s
her water, bread and tomatoes, which he’d carefully placed
Stay human
73
@ Date: 17th January 2009
Many have lost their homes and are forced to live huddled
74
75
77
movement, and as such they’re impossible to neutralize
Haaretz
Stay human
@ Date: 19th January 2009
children’s morale – somehow, even this catastrophe must
a few thousand dollars – mere pennies – to the families
today, the warships shot their cannons at an open plain,
Corriere della Sera
coup d’état
because their parents support democracy and freely
Stay human
@ Date: 20th January 2009
words were ascribed by the Haaretz newspaper to an
solid proof that the sites they bombed were all support
mammoth-sized, armour-plated bulldozers are custom-
a paediatrician, also showed me his house, reduced to a col-
air, as if to draw a wide arc over the devastated landscape
Many trees – the centenary ones – have been torn down
land tooth and nail in the same way you would defend your
represented by the muqawama
Stay human
@
Subject: What her tears have seen
Date: 22nd January 2009
-
trary, it now rubs salt in the wound, a trauma that won’t heal
muezzin had had to interrupt his solemnly chanted call
there
with new cancer cases and deformed babies’, Munir, a doctor
obvious that impoverished uranium and white phosphorous
-
-
-
nter-
-
returned to their homes, they discovered the thievery car-
Stay human
@ Date: 29th July 2009
John Ging,
th
compared with about 4,000 that were approved before the
Meanwhile apricots, prunes and avocados arbitrarily
allowed, which is the reason why the power plants are
of aid a day would be necessary to cover only a small part
of parsley and mint, their faces dirty and their clothes
has sentenced them to death, as they waited in vain behind
Stay human
@
Subject: War Crimes in Gaza
Colonel Kurtz – Apocalypse Now
7
Rain
of Fire
Rain of Fire: Israel’s Unlawful Use of White
Phosphorous
100
Ill Morals
the Israeli Assault on Gaza
101
10
11
Haaretz
102
an incident where the company commander ordered
12
Haaretz
103
13
Stay human
Haaretz
104
@
Tolerance becomes a crime when it is applied to evil.
Thomas Mann
105
14
which was interpreted
shalom, of salama Si vis pacem, para
bellum
107
added that,
say that it is true that Communism is an evil system,
Lass’ sie
nach Berlin kommen.
-
derstand, or claim they don’t understand what the
elsewhere, that we are able to cooperate with the
a humanity that doesn’t want to be eclipsed in the silence
Stay human
110
Timeline
1964
1967
1969
1987
1993
1994
2000
2004
111
2005
but maintains border controls
2006
2007
controls the Gaza Strip
2008
Gaza
Dignity
2009
withdrawal
Criminal Court for war crimes
112
Gaza
2005, she retained control of Gaza’s land and sea borders,
113
-
-
-
114
-
Hamas
115
15
Haaretz
117
Haaretz,
Massacre
120
War crimes done with impunity
121
122
Gaza: Stay Human is an authoritative and deeply-
moving eyewitness account of the terrible 22-day
Israeli offensive against the people of the Gaza Strip
in 2008-9. The late Vittorio Arrigoni (1975-2011),
who was brutally murdered in Gaza in 2011, was a
STAY HUMAN
volunteer with the pacifist International Solidarity
Movement, and served as a human shield while
working with the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances during the
offensive. As a freelance journalist with the Italian daily Il Manifesto,
Arrigoni’s daily dispatches, written between bombing raids and patchy
internet access, ended with the plea, ‘stay human’, which became
STAY HUMAN
the motto of anti-Israeli peace protests in his native Italy. The English
translation includes Arrigoni’s dispatches on the difficult situation in
Gaza after Operation ‘Cast Lead’ and features a preface by the renowned
Israeli historian and human rights activist, Ilan Pappé.
VITTORIO ARRIGONI
Amid the carnage that surrounds him, Arrigoni ends each missive with the
plea, Stay Human. It is an invitation, he explains, to reject complicity in injustices
against Palestinians and ‘remember our belonging to a sole community of living
beings: the human family’. – Middle East Mirror
A searing first-hand account of life for people under siege and fire … Arrigoni
urges people to stay human. – Dissident Voice
An amazing book that introduces the twenty-two day Israeli offensive against
[the] Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009. – Middle East Post
UK £6.99 USA $12.95
ISBN 978-1-84774-019-9
VITTORIO ARRIGONI
K INTRODUCTION BY
KUBE
PUBLISHING
K
KUBE
PUBLISHING
ILAN PAPPÉ
