Israeli-Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver killed in Hamas attack

Tel Aviv: Israeli-Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver, who was presumed to be among the hostages taken by the Hamas militant group following its massive assault on October 7, has been confirmed to be dead.

Silver’s death was confirmed by her family after her remains were identified by the DNA.

Till Monday evening, Silver (74) was expected to be in the custody of Hamas as a hostage.

She was a lifelong peace activist and after the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, she formed the Women Wage Peace that promotes peace building actions among women from all communities and political spectrum.

In a 2018 event for Women Wage Peac,e she had called for the Israeli government to change its attitude to bring peace to the Gaza area and had appealed to the women across the border.

She had, according to her close associates, then said: “Terror does not make anything better for anyone, you too deserve quite and peaceful life.”

Her son Yonaten Zeigen had called for a ceasefire taking a leaf out of her teachings.

A ceasefire call is rare in Israel right now with people from across the political spectrum calling upon the army to wipe out the Hamas and to make Gaza a free region so that Israel need not live in fear of an attack from the enclave in the future.

Silver was a long time director of Arab Jewish Centre for Empowerment, Equality and Cooperation that organized projects joining communities in Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.