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Today's Paper | March 17, 2026

Published 16 Nov, 2023 09:15pm

‘The peace movement was orphaned’, says son of Israeli activist killed on Oct 7

Family and friends of Vivian Silver, a prominent Canadian Israeli peace activist, commemorated her life, two days after authorities confirmed she had been killed, Reuters reports.

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.

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.

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