Angelo Frammartino was a 24 year-old Italian aid-worker and law student. Last Thursday night, outside the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, a Palestinian assailant stabbed him twice in the back and once in the throat. Despite the valiant efforts of Magen David Adom, he died on the scene due to loss of blood. Angelo was in Israel as a volunteer at a summer camp for Palestinian children run by an Italian trade union. Angelo was also the director of the local youth section of the Communist Refoundation Party and was highly active in anti-war and Third World development campaigns. he was described as a Pacifist and was eulogized by the Italian press, who made use of his own words “Make love with non-violence to give birth to peace from the womb of society.”
Dave at IsraellyCool, citing an article by YNetNews, noted that Angelo recently had this to say in a letter to a local Italian paper:
We must recognize that in a situation with no violence is a luxury in many parts of the world, but we are not seeking to prevent legitimate self defense operations. I never dreamt of condemning the resistance, the blood of the Vietnamese, the blood of nations under colonial occupation, or the blood of Palestinian youths from the first intifada.
While Dave may have been a tad insensitive in conjuring Lenin’s “useful idiot” terminology in describing Angelo, it does seem bitterly ironic. Dave’s question thus remains “I wonder if Frammartino would consider his knifing a terror attack or legitimate self-defense operation, had he survived.” But he didn’t survive. He was due to leave on Saturday and all he did was work on a friggin day camp for Palestinian children in East Jerusalem. Angelo and I may not have agreed on politics but I sure would have enjoyed a nice cold beer and a spirited discussion with him. Now, because of a back stabbing coward, neither I nor anyone else will be able to do that. And in case any of you think I’m going soft – remember, it could just as easily have been me bleeding to death in Jerusalem. Or Dan. Or Michael. Or Ariel. Or Laya or anyone else whose presence in this city and in this country, binds their fate together. This has nothing to do with politics, or religion or anything else for apparently the murderers’ knives don’t discriminate.
Go with God Angelo Frammartino.
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