Middle East
Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver was killed in Hamas attack, son says
By
The Washington Post November 14, 2023
Kevin Sieff, Frances Vinall and Nick Parker
The Washington Post November 14, 2023
At a Nov. 6, 2023, rally in Jerusalem, Yonatan Zeigen holds a photo of his mother, Vivian Silver, who was believed to have been kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Beeri in Israel last month. Her family confirmed this week that she’d been killed in the initial attack. (Kobi Wolf/for The Washington Post)
Vivian Silver, a Canadian Israeli peace activist who was feared to have been taken hostage by militants last month, was killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, her family said.
Silver, well known in Israel for her peace activism, was among at least 80 people killed during Hamas militants’ attack on the Beeri Kibbutz, her son Chen Zeigen confirmed. About 30 people were kidnapped, and Silver’s sons feared she was among them.
The Washington Post spent nearly every day over more than two weeks with Zeigen and his brother Yonatan during their agonizing wait for news. Her remains were found at the kibbutz where she lived but were only identified now, nearly five weeks later.
The October attacks that killed about 1,200 people in Israel sparked a war that rages more than a month later and has killed at least 11,000 in Gaza.
Silver moved from Winnipeg to Israel in 1974 and was a longtime member of Women Wage Peace and other organizations campaigning for peace in the region.
She was dedicated to denouncing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians; she had fought against the blockade of Gaza, in place since 2007, and would pick up Gazan children at the border to drive them to Israeli hospitals.
In a post written when she was believed to be kidnapped, Women Wage Peace said that Silver was a “humanist, peace loving, determined, wise and steadfast.”
“Our hearts are shattered,” the organization said in a social media post Tuesday, at the news of her death.
On Oct. 7 she had run into a safe room — which was later discovered incinerated — when Hamas descended on Beeri Kibbutz, a community of about 1,000 residents, The Post reported. In text messages with her son Yonatan, she wrote, “We might be witnessing a massacre.”
He told her he was with her as she hid, afraid. “I feel you,” she wrote back. Then she stopped replying; her phone was later geolocated in Gaza.
Her two sons, believing she was among the hostages, had hoped her staunch advocacy for Palestinians would save her and have tried anything they thought could have helped bring about her safe return. They have been marching, meeting with Israeli politicians and speaking with media.
After more than a month, they have learned she was one of those killed during the initial attack.
Beeri Kibbutz was among the worst-hit communities when Hamas militants broke through the border barrier separating Gaza from Israel. For 48 hours after the surprise incursion, the kibbutz became a battleground between the Israel Defense Forces and the militants.
In a social media post Tuesday, John Lyndon, executive director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, shared a photo of Silver “overlooking a Gaza she wanted to be free, & at peace.”