Israeli peace activist murdered by Hamas is memorialized in Gaza evacuee camp
Sign with Vivian Silver’s name and photo graces community facility in humanitarian zone in south Gaza
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
A community space and kitchen in a displaced people’s camp in the Gaza Strip has been named for Vivian Silver, a 74-year-old Canadian-born peace activist killed by Hamas terrorists in her home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.
A sign carrying Silver’s photograph and name was put up a month ago in the Zomi camp in the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in southern Gaza. Zomi was established by Damour for Community Development, Clean Shelter, the Wonderbag Foundation, and UNICEF.
The Zomi camp is named after Australian citizen Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, who was among seven World Central Kitchen volunteers killed in April in an Israeli airstrike on an aid convoy in central Gaza’s Deir El-Balah, when troops mistakenly identified a Hamas gunman in one of the vehicles. Two senior officers were dismissed and several others were formally censured for their role in overseeing the incident.
Clean Shelter suggested naming the space after Vivian Silver to the camp’s managing committee and when the committee agreed, obtained the approval of Silver’s son, informed Women Wage Peace, which Silver helped to set up, and designed the sign for the community center.
Entrepreneur, community and environmental activist and Damour for Community Development board member Tahani Abu Daqqa, who is overseeing the establishment of several tent camps in Gaza, said that while she had not met Silver personally, “I heard a lot about her. We were very sad when we heard that she was killed on October 7.”
Speaking from her current base in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, she went on, “We knew she’d been helping Gazan people for years, sometimes to go to hospitals or find doctors. She worked very hard for peace.”
Asked whether women using the community space, including for educational activities for their children, had asked who Vivian Silver was, Abu Daqqa replied, “We tell people who she was. They know there are a lot of Israelis and Jewish people who helped the Palestinians. Not all Israelis are [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. People in Gaza know that.”
In these heartbreaking circumstances, I would rather know that my beloved mom Vivian's name is helping to feed children in Gaza than see it engraved on a missile that kills them. pic.twitter.com/gq8tnPZCra
— Yonatan Zeigen (@YonatanZeigen) July 18, 2024
Vivian Silver was declared missing for more than a month, believed to have been one of the some 250 people abducted by Hamas-led terrorists in their murderous rampage across southern Israel on October 7, when they killed 1,200 people amid acts of brutality and sexual violence.
But on November 14, her family confirmed that her remains had been identified via DNA.
Her house was badly burned, as was much of the kibbutz, where over 100 people were slaughtered by the Gazan invaders — some 10% of the community’s population.
Silver was known for her peace activism, including her involvement in the organization Women Wage Peace, as well as The Road to Recovery, driving sick Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals. She held a meeting of international supporters of Women Wage Peace just a few days before the Hamas onslaught.
Al-Mawasi was designated as a safe zone by the Israeli army when it began urging Gazan civilians to evacuate their homes in many parts of the Strip amid its operations to dismantle the Hamas terror group, which rules the coastal enclave and is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
