Il prof. Alderman di Oxford, odiatore di Arrigoni, e il nostro scambio di e-mail

«Che gioia la morte di Vittorio Arrigoni» L'editoriale scandalo di Geoffrey Alderman, storico di Oxford e collaboratore del Times: «Arrigoni era un anti-sionista. Neanche l'uccisione di Osama mi ha dato più soddisfazione» continua a leggere....

Un blogger ha scrittto a Geoffrey Alderman chiedendogli le scuse per le sue dichiarazioni abberranti,ecco lo scambio di mail che ne è scaturito ( traducete con google chrome è efficientissimo ) è chiaro che Alderman è estraneo alla grande all'umorismo latino,al nostro feroce sarcasmo tanto da interpretare i cenni di Arrigoni come prove certe a sostegno delle sue tesi ! Se ho ben capito deduce le sue affermazioni da video,cartoni animati e paccotiglia varia pescata in facebook (non male per uno storico!) ignora alla grande le dinamiche della comunicazione "social" il suo esorcismo collettivo (...) con tutte le sue contradizioni,desume in un azzardo spaventoso il delitto d'intenzione (huff non ancora contemplato dal codice penale inglese!) e lo ripeto entra nel merito di una spaventosa complessità denominata "palestina" muovendo un giudizio rigoroso verso Arrigoni e una taciuta assordante indulgenza verso lo stato di Israele,il tutto sotto le mentite spoglie di una buona causa:l'antisemitismo !

  Vittorio Arrigoni’s death and your uncautious joy

18:44 (2 ore fa)
Dear prof. Alderman,
I just read your column on the Jewish Chronicle. Let me express my deep disappointment. As an Italian journalist I’m literally horrified by the nonchalance you showed commenting the life and the horrible death of Vittorio Arrigoni. I’m very surprised, too, that a history professor could be so careless and shallow. Vittorio Arrigoni was not a Jew-hater. As a human-rights activist he was very critical about Israel policy in Gaza. He was there when the operation “Molten lead” was launched, he lived under continuous bombing by the Israeli air forces and Tsahal tanks. What he was critical about was Israeli policy as a State, and not about Jews and their religion. You mentioned his catholic background: well, I inform you that in Italy almost 90% of young people receives a catholic education, in some way. This does not prevent us to form our religious faith (or refuse religion at all) and our personal believings. Unfortunately Vittorio wasn’t a practicing catholic at all.
Your so-declared joy about his death is absolutely horrible. It is especially because you are accusing him, but he cannot defend himself. He cannot speak or write. Very cowardly you waited until his death to play the part of the jackal.
Vittorio was an unselfish person, he protected palestinian peasants and fishermen as a human shield. You should better inform, professor, about the inflexible control that Israeli army exerts on unilateral declared boundaries. Boundaries that they have no problem in violating, because power is on their side.
I want with this letter express my bewilderment and, in memory of Vittorio Arrigoni, a great Italian, demand your formal excuses.
It is time that intellectuals begin to pursue not the overcoming of one or the other faction, but the general progress of mankind. That open-air prison that Gaza has become since 2008 could only lead to a recrudescence of Palestinian struggle: more blood, on both sides. Vittorio Arrigoni was there to denounce this situation. He was a brave man, as all of his friends witness, and a great heart.
If you are worth a penny of his humanity, you should come back on your steps.
With regards,
Claudio Magliulo
journalist
Italy
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Geoffrey Alderman a me
18:52 (2 ore fa)
Dear Claudio
For the record, when researching the article I looked at Arrigoni’s Facebook page.  I found as follows: He displayed – with approval as I take it – a photo of a Jordanian restaurant displaying a sign forbidding entry to dogs and Israelis; he made no distinction between Israelis and Jews: For instance he referred to: “Una seconda foto, invece, mostra un militare dello Stato ebraico che aggredisce una donna palestinese; moreover, the cartoons he displayed quite explicitly (in my view) identified Israeli Jews as Christ-killers – see, for example, the cartoon featuring a slain Father Xmas, as well as the crucifixion one I mentioned in my JC piece.
Of course as  a supporter of Hamas he identified himself with a movement dedicated explicitly to the killing of Jews.
As a member/affiliate of the ISM he identified himself with a movement dedicated explicitly to the delegitimation of the Jewish state.
May I also draw your attention to the comment by Norman Harding (obviously a supporter of Arrigoni) at http://972mag.com/in-memory-of-vittorio-arrigoni-ism-volanteer-killed-in-gaza/ :
“I met Vittorio in Gaza. … While he loved the Palestinian people, he told me he strongly hated the Israelis, particularly the settlers. He hoped that one day the “state” of Israel would be destroyed by the Arabs..”
BTW, this is from the Jerusalem Post of 26 April: “BERLIN – Fiamma Nirenstein, vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in Italy’s Chamber of Deputies and chairwoman of the Committee for the Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, has deemed the slain Hamas-aligned activist Vittorio Arrigoni a “fan of political Islamism because he was an enemy of the Jews.”
[ http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?ID=217861&R=R1 ]
I am interested in the truth.
What – precisely – are you interested in?
Sincerely
Geoffrey Alderman
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Claudio Magliulo a Geoffrey
19:50 (1 ora fa)
Dear professor,
I must thank you for your quick reply. I am interested in the truth, too. May I draw your attention on the fact that you are picking up any source that could confirm your predetermined thesis?
Fiamma Nirenstein, unfortunately, is well-known in Italy as an enraged columnist who can’t operate distinctions between Jew-haters (as you called them: in Italy they are basically neo-nazis) and people critical about Israeli policies as a State.
I’m not denying the toughness of Vittorio’s critics. But if I can draw your attention on the same quoting that you just reported me, you could find that the object of Vittorio’s critics were settlers and sionists. Sionists intended, as you obviously can understand, as people whose aim is settle down in a land that 2000 years before was dramatically hit by Romans dominion, the first diaspora of a long series, but that, when Mr. Herzl and his epigonies began to think of it as the real homeland of jewish people, another population had come to live in it in the meanwhile).
He wasn’t a supporter of Hamas. On the same blog that you rummaged so dutifully there are also tough critics to Hamas regime. I don’t know if you can read Italian. Obviously those parts of his blog were ignored by the international press.
I think, in Vittorio’s opinion, the problem was that Israel acts as a Jewish State, and not as a normal State. Let me explane more clearly. What Vittorio was trying to express is that the “encirclement complex” (I’m not discussing its basis, you can just look at the hatred that Arab States demonstrated in at least three wars to understand the roots of this complex) brought Israel to consider every critic as a threat to its very survival. In this terrible history the Palestinian people is the weak side. You can’t compare stones (and even roughly-made Qassam rockets) with tanks and airguns.
So, Vittorio Arrigoni did made distinctions between Israelis and Jews, as I personally do. I think the problem is that Israel supporters believe that any critics to Israel is in the depths of their souls also a critic to Jews and their right to exist and also live where they (more or less) have chosen to live from 1948 onward.
What Vittorio was fighting for was the right of Palestinian people to live in peace in their land, which unfortunately is the same land that Declaration Balfour and UN resolution 181 assigned to jews. I think they all need peace, but no real peace is possible at this conditions.
We should get through 20th century tragedies and build a fairer world. At this moment Israel military and economic strenght are suppressing Palestinan rights. Vittorio was fighting to defend this rights, because a lot of people (intellectuals like you and Ms. Nirenstein, and governments) already defends Israel. Please don’t commit the mistake of replacing Palestinans with Hamas, as Vittorio and I don’t replace Israelis with their government or the settlers’ lobby.
I insist, in this case you are wrong. Vittorio Arrigoni hated Israeli government and its army. He did not hate Jews, and certainly did not because of the story of Christ crucifixed. Who cares? This argument was universally accepted in Middle Age. Instead I can’t remember a single person (even a neo-nazi or a negationist) who used this argument against Jews since decades.
The fact is simple, if you clean out the jew-hater story: Arrigoni was a human-rights activist and was on Palestinian side like other activists fight for Saharawi rights in Morocco or Indian-american rights in Latin America. And as other activists in the past fought for African rights in South Africa and so on.
I still hope in an afterthought from you.
With regards,
Claudio Magliulo
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Geoffrey Alderman a me
20:08 (53 minuti fa)
Claudio
You have made my argument for me when you wrote: “I think, in Vittorio’s opinion, the problem was that Israel acts as a Jewish State, and not as a normal State.”
Arrigoni opposed the right of Jewish self-determination but not (apparently) the right of Arab self-determination.
I regard this as deeply racist.
Geoffrey
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Claudio Magliulo a Geoffrey
20:59 (1 minuto fa)
Well, I tried to put you through a critical thought, and I failed. He didn’t oppposed at all the jewish right to self-determination. He opposed Israel right to oppress Palestinian people, even if Israel unfortunately tends to connect this right to the Jewish right to exist. Exist is not equal to militarily occupy someone else’s land. I think that’s all.
It is clear that we are moving through a history dense of violence and injustice on both sides, and I am the last to support Hamas violence (verbal and physical) against Israeli people. You shouldn’t justify Israel violence with the jewish right to self-determination.
The problem, and the sense of that quote, is exactely that I’m afraid Israeli themselves have some difficulty in separate this two arguments. I don’t think religion should guide policy. When this happens, the results are very uncomfortable, if you pass me the expression. Should we think we hate Muslims and oppose their right to self-determination if we oppose a Muslim government who oppresses its own people or some other people? Am I anti-muslim in criticizing Syrian response to popular uprisings, or Iran dreams of nuclear power? I don’t think so.
Nevertheless, the fact that Israel is a democracy leaves me with the hope that democratically Israelis could one day change their behaviour in Palestinians affairs.
Personally I’m very fascinated by Jewish history, traditions, language. In Italy we have a strong Jewish community and they are very integrated and suffer no threat (apart from true neo-nazis and racists, but they are very few people). If Arrigoni was a real racist and Jew-hater he would have denied Shoah or said that Hitler was right. On the contrary Arrigoni was raised in anti-fascist and democratic values, and exactely for this reason he struggled to ensure the same rights that he had in Italy to people who objectively live in fear, now, in Gaza.
Of course he was not balanced in his judgements. He was under the bombs and fireguns shots everyday, I think nobody could understand bombs and fireguns. I’m sorry, professor, but I think you should find a better object for your angry and your hate.
Frankly the tones that you used speaking of Arrigoni were of a hater and not of an academic. I still believe you should leave a wider space to doubt and human comprehension, on this issue.
C.M.