By Rami Amichay
GEZER, Israel (Reuters) – Family and friends of Vivian Silver, a prominent Canadian Israeli peace activist, commemorated her life on Thursday, two days after authorities confirmed she had been killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
The family originally believed Silver, 74, had been taken hostage when Hamas launched its deadly cross-border raid, but their hopes she might still be alive were dashed on Tuesday when officials said her remains had been found and identified.
Silver lived in Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 100 people died on Oct. 7. She had moved to Israel from Canada in 1974 and was a founding member of Women Wage Peace that campaigns for peace between Israel and Palestinians.
“Not only I … was orphaned, your many friends were orphaned, the country that you adopted at a young age, and a movement was orphaned, the movement of peace,” her son Yonatan Zeigen told mourners at the outdoor ceremony.
Militants killed around 1,200 people on Oct. 7 and kidnapped around 240 others, according to an Israeli tally. The shock assault sparked a massive Israeli attack on Gaza, killing more than 11,500 Palestinians, local health officials say.
Silver’s kibbutz is a largely secular, left-wing community, established in 1946 with the ideal of creating a collective, egalitarian farming community.
Like many of the residents, Silver had Palestinian and Arab friends, one of whom, Ghadeer Hani, spoke to the mourners on Thursday, saying the pair had texted each other even as Hamas gunmen roamed the kibbutz.
“You told me that you were fine, but that you heard sounds outside the window of the shelter … the minutes passed, and the next messages I sent were never received,” Hani said.
Silver used to pick up sick Gazans who were given permits to leave the enclave and drove them to Israeli hospitals, where they were treated.
Women Wage Peace said Silver was a pivotal member of the group and had pushed the Israeli government to seek a political solution to its long-standing conflict with Palestinians.
Hani vowed that Silver’s work would carry on.
“We all promised to continue her journey. If she was here with us, she would have told us not to loose hope and to continue what we started doing together,” she said.
“No one will be able to bury her vision that there will be peace here, because this was Vivian’s vision as well.”
(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
