We owe it to Vivian Silver to fight for peace

Globe and Mail

2 days ago

If you're fortunate enough to have a friend like this, you'll understand: someone who has been in your life for so long, you can't really remember a time when they weren't.
For Lynne Mitchell, that friend was Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist – renowned and revered, a giant in the movement; adjectives that aren't often used to describe peaceniks. She co-founded and ran organizations. She was a strong feminist. She protested, peacefully. She drove sick children from Gaza to hospitals in Israel.
'She would march for her causes at noon and tuck us into bed at night,' recalled one of her two sons, Chen Zeigen, to the CBC.
In Israel, Ms. Silver co-founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Co-operation; she was executive director of the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development; and in 2014, she co-founded Women Wage Peace, which brings together Israeli and Palestinian women.
Canadian activist Vivian Silver dedicated her life to peace. Her son has inherited her legacy
'Enough. We're no longer willing to do this. We must reach a political agreement,' Ms. Silver said in 2017, during a march calling for an end to the occupation. 'We've been told that only war will bring peace. We don't believe that any more. It's been proven that it's not true.'
Ms. Silver grew up in Winnipeg, where she met Ms. Mitchell, who now lives in Toronto. They remained friends, and Ms. Mitchell visited her many times in Israel.
On one visit, around 2000, just before the second intifada, Ms. Mitchell and her husband were staying with Ms. Silver at her home on Kibbutz Be'eri, very close to the Gaza border. They travelled to Gaza City to visit a Palestinian friend Ms. Silver knew from her advocacy work.
'We met his family, had lunch together, toured around, saw the beach, the hookah clubs, the market,' Ms. Mitchell recalls. 'It felt like peace was possible.'
Sometimes on those visits, Ms. Mitchell slept in Ms. Silver's safe room, which doubled as an extra bedroom. That is where Ms. Silver was sheltering during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. That is where her remains were found and identified five weeks later – ending the belief/hope/fear that she had been taken hostage. Her house had been set on fire. Her bones were too damaged to be tested for DNA, but one matched an image of Ms. Silver's jaw in an old CT scan, the New York Times reported. She was 74.
The irony was hard to miss: the peace activist killed in such a brutal campaign.
But that is not how Ms. Silver would want to be remembered; this absurd, bitter paradox. Nor, God forbid, would she have wanted her death to be cited in a campaign for revenge. Even in a radio interview from her safe room on Oct. 7, she said the attack demonstrated the urgent need for a peace deal.
Ms. Silver would want her legacy to carry on – her fight for peace. Her friends and family are using their grief to propel this work.
Ms. Mitchell helped establish Women Wage Peace in Canada. On Wednesday in Toronto, the group will host 'In her voice: The Vivian Silver legacy event.' This is not a memorial, but an event to honour her vision. It will also raise funds for the new Vivian Silver Impact Award, given annually to a Palestinian and an Israeli.
Ms. Silver's sons, Yonatan and Chen, will speak. The co-hosts are two young Canadian women – one Jewish, one Palestinian. Those attending are asked to wear a turquoise scarf, as Ms. Silver did.
'It's unbelievable to think that Vivian and her home in Be'eri and much of Gaza no longer exist,' Ms. Mitchell told me on Tuesday, the day before the event. 'But let's hope at least, that the possibility for peace still exists, in spite of all that has been lost.'
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What would Vivian do? I've seen this question more than once in reports about Ms. Silver. I've been wondering lately: what would Vivian think? Of all that has happened since she was forced from this life with such brutality; of the destruction of Gaza; of the fact that hostages are still being held in captivity. And, in the U.S., where she also once lived, of Jews being killed and firebombed.
'I think she would say just don't give up; you can't ever give up,' says Ms. Mitchell. 'You just have to keep doing what you're doing.'
Shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks, I was approached by someone who suggested it was a hard time to be a peacenik. I disagreed then, and, in spite of it all, I still do. Ms. Silver's death should not be used to justify more violence, but to fight for peace. Even if it feels impossible right now.