Members of Hamas’ security forces carry the coffin of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza City April 18, 2011. Friends of the Italian activist Arrigoni arrived in Gaza to escort his body to Italy via Egypt. Hamas found his body after he was killed by al Qaeda sympathisers in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah

RAMALLAH  — Palestinians are reeling from the double
murder of two pro-Palestinian peace activists over the last few weeks, one in
the West Bank and one in Gaza, with many believing that Israeli intelligence
had a hand in the grisly killings, even if indirectly.

While ubiquitous conspiracy theories regularly circulate in
the Mideast, political duplicity and dirty-dealings by intelligence agencies
and governments are par for the course in the region. Furthermore, a
significant number of conspiracy theories have eventually been backed up by
concrete facts.

Israel’s Mossad has a history of dirty tricks in its bag and
is known to be one of the more “sophisticated” intelligence agencies.

The organization is widely believed to be behind the killing
of a leading Hamas activist in Dubai last year. Israeli-affiliated
organizations were behind the murders of anti-Zionists Lord Moyne in Cairo in
1944 and UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte during the partition of Palestine
in 1947.

Mossad is also believed to be behind the murder of several
scientists, both Arab and foreign, who were helping develop Mideast nuclear
programs.

Last week Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian activist with the
pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was found by Hamas
security men hanged in a house allegedly belonging to an Al-Qaeda inspired
Salafist group.

Hamas police had rushed to the location after a video of
Arrigoni blindfolded and beaten was released showing the captors threatening to
kill him unless the Hamas authorities released imprisoned Salafist leaders.

Arrigoni had been based in Gaza since 2008 after sailing in
on a Free Gaza boat which succeeded in temporarily breaking the Israeli siege
of Gaza. He wrote regular reports on Israeli human rights abuses, particularly
the targeting of Palestinian ambulances by the Israeli military during Israel’s
Operation Cast Lead 2008-2009.

Several weeks earlier, across the geographical and political
chasm which divides the Palestinians, another internationally renowned and
respected pro-Palestinian activist was murdered.

Juliano Mer Khamis, an Israeli-Arab with a Jewish Israeli
mother and a Christian Palestinian father, was gunned down in a hail of bullets
as he left the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

Mer Khamis had left a lucrative acting career in Israel to
move to and live in the squalid refugee camp which was razed by the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) in 2002. He wanted to continue running the theatre
established by his late mother.

At the Freedom Theatre young Palestinians, including former
Palestinian resistance fighters, were given acting lessons and helped produce
plays.

“I could have continued living a comfortable life in
Israel but I wanted to pour my energy into something I strongly believed in,
and that is showing Palestinians a side of life other than the misery they have
endured under occupation,” Khamis told IPS during an interview several
years ago.

The Freedom Theatre produced controversial plays that mocked
both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli occupation. The plays, with
their gender-mixing and Western leanings, also outraged some Muslim
fundamentalists in Jenin. The theatre was burnt down and attacked several
times. Khamis was also subjected to several death threats.

The double murders have sparked outrage amongst Palestinians
and their Israeli and international supporters. Debate is raging as to who
could have committed the murders, and especially why.

“It is difficult to know who exactly is behind
Arrigoni’s murder. We are all in a state of shock and struggling to understand
and digest this awful incident,” Karl Schembri, an aid worker in Gaza and
a friend of the Italian told IPS.

Dr Ahmed Youssef, a political advisor to Gaza-based Hamas
leader Ismail Haniyeh, said the Israelis had the most to gain from the murder
of Arrigoni.

“They are trying to frighten international solidarity
supporters from coming to Gaza. The next Free Gaza flotilla is due to arrive
next month and Israel has upped the pressure to prevent it from arriving and
giving the country bad publicity like last year’s flotilla did,” Youssef
told IPS.

Israeli commandos shot dead nine activists last year in
disputed circumstances which provoked an international outcry at Israel’s
deadly use of excessive force.

Dr Samir Awad from Birzeit University, near Ramallah, who
supports neither Palestinian faction, agrees with Youssef’s assessment.

“The Salafist groups accused of murdering Arrigoni have
stated they had nothing to do with the murder,” Awad told IPS.

“However, it is quite possible that Israeli
intelligence has infiltrated the Salafist groups without their knowledge. Some
of the members naively believe they are carrying out jihad missions on behalf
of shadowy Al-Qaeda groups.

“They are unaware that their actions actually support
Israeli goals of aggravating relations between Hamas and the smaller Gaza resistance
groups, creating chaos in Gaza and painting all Islamists with the same
extremist brush.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has failed to arrest
any perpetrators for the murder of Khamis even though his babysitter, who was
in the car when he was shot, identified one person in several lineups.

Unusually the Israelis have chosen not to get involved in
the murder investigation of an Israeli citizen regarded as Jewish by the state.
Some are speculating that PA intelligence is under pressure from Israel.

But radical Islamists and disaffected elements associated
with the PA (which often violently oppresses critics) could also be contenders. 

(IPS)