MISSING: Vivian Silver lived near Gaza. Here, Israeli soldiers search a nearby kibbutz that was also attacked on Tuesday. Photo: AP/Handout/Private
All her life, Vivian Silver (74) has fought for the plight of the Palestinians. Now the well-known peace activist is missing, after terrorists attacked her kibbutz.
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Peace activist Vivian Silver (74) is missing after the terrorist attack on her kibbutz near Gaza. Her son Yonatan Zeigen had contact with her before communication suddenly stopped. For more than 50 years, Silver has worked through humanitarian organizations for peace, social justice and the rights of the Palestinians. is uncertain whether she is dead or taken hostage in Gaza. Show more
The son Yonatan Zeigen has for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz told that he was last in contact with her on Saturday morning, when Hamas attacked.
Then the mother hid in a shelter at home. They started texting as the shooting got closer, but after 11:07 it went quiet.
There are several on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza kibbutzkibbutzWork collectives where people live and work together in Israel where many of the residents support peace initiatives and the rights of the Palestinians.
Several of them are missing or dead after Hamas attacked Israel. Among the activists who have always marched in the front row is Vivian Silver.
ACTIVIST: Vivian Silver (TV) marches for peace in Israel. Photo: Handout/Private
Fought for peace
After growing up in Winnipeg, Canada, Silver moved to Israel in 1974. She first worked for equality and social justice in a humanitarian organization.
In 1998, she became head of the Negev Institute for Peace Strategy and Development, where she launched an initiative to strengthen the Arab Bedouin community.
Silver has also served on the board of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, which has stated that Israel is an apartheid state.
In recent years, she has been among the leaders of a grassroots movement for women, concerned with finding a political solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
– She has fought for peace and equality all her life, says her son Yonatan Zeigen to ABC News.
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DEMONSTRATION: Women demonstrate in Jerusalem for peace, three days before the Hamas attack. Photo: MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP DEMONSTRATION: Women demonstrate in Jerusalem for peace, three days before the Hamas attack. Photo: MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP
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DEMONSTRATION: Women demonstrate in Jerusalem for peace, three days before the Hamas attack. Photo: MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP
Three days before the Hamas attack, Silver led a demonstration in which thousands of women—Jewish and Arab, religious and secular—marched for peace.
Helped sick Palestinians
But the grey-haired grandmother did more than take the train:
She drove sick Palestinians from Gaza to hospitals in Israel and went to the border to ensure that Arabs in her kibbutz were paid when they were barred from Israel.
The head of the Alliance for Peace in the Middle East, John Lyndon, says it is easy to be on the left and a supporter of peace, if you live north of the capital Tel Aviv.
– But she lives on the border with Gaza, one of the most difficult places for Israelis, where you cannot escape from the realities of the conflict, Lyndon tells NBC News.
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THE ATTACK: Israeli soldiers inspect the destruction in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on the border with Gaza, after Saturday’s rocket attack. Photo: JACK GUEZ / AFP / NTBDREPT: Several dead were found on Tuesday in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, after the attacks by Hamas. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP / NTB
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THE ATTACK: Israeli soldiers inspect the destruction in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on the border with Gaza, after Saturday’s rocket attack. Photo: JACK GUEZ / AFP / NTB
As Hamas fighters crossed the border into Israel on Saturday, Avital Brown sent a message on WhatsApp to her friend Vivian Silver in Kibbutz Be’eri.
– Screaming and shooting
The answer came less than a minute later, at 07:54:
– It is complete chaos here. Terrorists have infiltrated Be’eri. There is screaming and shooting, Silver wrote in Hebrew, according to NBC News.
Brown responded immediately, but never heard from Silver again.
ABANDONED: Personal belongings are strewn near Kfar Aza, after Hamas terrorists from Gaza attacked the kibbutz. Photo: RONEN ZVULUN / Reuters
The last message from the peace activist to her friend Ariella Giniger read: “They are coming in. I hide behind the door in the closet.”
She wrote to her son that armed people had entered the house.
More than 100 residents have been found dead in Silver’s kibbutz alone, reports NBC News with the Israeli volunteer rescue service ZAKA as a source.
Hostage in Gaza?
Silver’s son Yonatan Zeigen has told the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail that no one has told them that Israeli soldiers have reached the mother’s house.
– So it is possible that she is lying there dead. But we have reason to believe she is in Gaza.
Peace activist Gershon Baskin has known Silver for more than 30 years:
– She has many friends in Gaza, and in the Bedouin community in Israel, who I’m sure will want her to be returned safely to her family, Baskin told NBC News.
He says it is a great tragedy for everyone that she is missing.
– I am sure that she is there to help the other more than a hundred hostages, and have no doubt that those who have taken her have great respect for her, says Baskin.
Activists killed
Hayim Katsman and the married couple Bilha and Yakovi Inon are among the peace activists who have been found dead in their collectives near Gaza.
BULLET HOLE: The windows of a house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza are shelled. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP / NTB
Israeli Rachel Gur, who is participating in the search for the missing, says that many residents of the kibbutzim near Gaza support coexistence between Jews and Arabs.
– You are talking about the old, secular radicals, those who want peace and are against annexationannexationIsrael’s plans to take over occupied Palestinian territories, says Gur to New York Times.
Silver’s son says that the warfare of the last days is precisely what his mother has worked all her life to prevent. He just feels sad today.
– The war is blind. What you do in life does not make you less of a goal.
The Israeli human rights organization that Vivian Silver supports, B’Tselem condemns the attacks on civilians from both sides:
– Such crimes can never be defended, regardless of whether they are part of the fight for freedom from oppression or it is stated that they are part of a war on terror.
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Published: 13.10.23 at 03:17
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2023-10-13 01:17:21
#Peace #activist #missing #attack #complete #chaos
