A murdered peace activist and a war in her name
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2023
⏱️ 38 minutes
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Summary
Canadian Israeli activist Vivian Silver dedicated her life to peace. When she was killed in the Oct. 7 attacks, her sons faced an impossible question: Is peace still worth fighting for?
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Vivian Silver grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, and moved to Israel in 1974 to start a new kibbutz and devote her life to peace. She arranged a solidarity bike ride on both sides of the Gaza border fence. Her friends from Gaza called her on Jewish holidays. Her politics had been unwavering.
But then, Silver was missing after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,200 people dead and nearly 250 kidnapped, and sparked a war that still rages more than two months later. More than 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza so far.
In the weeks that followed the attack, Silver’s sons, Yonatan and Chen Zeigen, tried to square their mother’s moral crusade with their desire for justice.
International investigative correspondent Kevin Sieff was there, too, following the brothers as they asked an impossible question: In the wake of their mother’s murder, is peace still worth fighting for?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On the morning of October 7th, Vivian Silver was alone in her home in Kibbutz-Behi. |
| 0:08.6 | This Israeli community near the Gaza border was used to conflict. |
| 0:12.2 | Homes there had safe rooms. Vivian was in hers. She |
| 0:15.7 | texted her two sons. The cabots was under attack. There were gunshots and explosions and |
| 0:21.3 | voices that she couldn't quite make out. |
| 0:23.0 | Then her messages stopped. |
| 0:26.0 | Here's her son, Yona Tengaigen. |
| 0:28.0 | So everybody freaked out. |
| 0:30.0 | It turns out she was interviewed on the radio. |
| 0:35.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:36.0 | Yeah, I'm a lot, I'm all my |
| 0:38.0 | I'm gonna'er. |
| 0:41.0 | Yeah, she gave an interview, midst of everything. |
| 0:47.0 | The midst of everything. |
| 0:48.0 | My name is my wife, |
| 0:50.0 | I'm here. The host asks Vivian what's going on. |
| 0:55.0 | She tells him that she's hearing via Kibbutz communications that people are hurt. |
| 1:04.7 | And no, I'm afraid. |
| 1:12.2 | Vivian was giving a radio interview in the middle of this attack because she was a well-known peace activist in Israel. |
| 1:14.0 | And so it wasn't uncommon for journalists to reach out to her. |
| 1:20.0 | She was used to saying yes because she felt very strongly that you know the only way to like really get her perspective out to the Israeli public was to continue using the media as a sort of mouthpiece and |
| 1:35.8 | She had a relationship with this particular radio host, Amir Ivghi, and so when he learned that the kibbutz was under attack, he called her. |
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