(JNS) Vivian Silver believed that there were partners for peace in Gaza and paid for it with her life. Silver was not a politician. Not a soldier. Not a “settler.” She was a lifelong peace activist who built her entire identity around Jewish-Arab coexistence.
She lived on Kibbutz Be’eri, just miles from Gaza, and devoted decades to helping Palestinians, especially the sick, the poor and the vulnerable.
The 74-year-old was a founding leader of “Women Wage Peace,” a movement that advocates dialogue, reconciliation and a two-state future.
She also volunteered with the group, “The Road to Recovery,” personally driving Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals for lifesaving care—children with cancer, adults needing urgent surgery. For the most part, people she did not know but felt responsible for anyway. She had such a big heart.
Just days before Oct. 7, 2023, Silver hosted an international meeting of peace activists. Even as security warnings mounted, she refused to give up on the idea that empathy could overcome hatred.
On Oct. 7, that belief was incinerated. Terrorists from Gaza crossed the border into Israel, entered Kibbutz Be’eri and reached Silver’s home. Hamas terrorists and ordinary Gazans set her home on fire, and sadly, she Silver was murdered.
For weeks, her family believed that she had been kidnapped into Gaza. Only later did DNA analysis confirm the truth. She was not a hostage. She was killed where she lived.
Her son, Yonatan Zeigen, was on the phone with her as the attack unfolded. When he heard gunshots outside her window, he told her to hang up and stay quiet. They continued texting as terrorists moved through the house. From a closet, Silver wrote that they were inside. She knew exactly what was happening.
Her final message to him was chilling: “They’re inside the house. It’s time to stop joking and say goodbye.”
He replied that he loved her. She told him she loved him, too. Her last words were: “I feel you.”
That was the end of her amazing life. What followed was just as telling.
There has been no meaningful outcry from Gaza condemning her murder. No apology to her family. No public reckoning that one of the Palestinians’ most devoted allies—someone who spent decades helping Gazan civilians—was burned alive.
This is not about collective guilt. It is about collective silence.
Silver’s life and death expose a lie at the heart of the two-state fantasy as it is currently sold to the world. We are told that if Israelis show enough goodwill, enough restraint, enough empathy, enough “understanding,” then peace will follow. Silver did everything she was told peace required.
She dedicated her life to Palestinian welfare. She rejected hatred. She believed in coexistence until her final moments. It did not save her.
Which leads me to this point: A viable two-state solution requires more than merely borders and international conferences. It requires moral reciprocity, the basic recognition that those who extend their hand in peace should not be murdered in return.
Yet on Oct. 7, Gazan society did not rise up to protect people like Silver. It didn’t mourn her afterward; in fact, her murder was celebrated there. It didn’t demand accountability for her murder. Instead, silence.
You cannot build a state on grievance alone. You cannot demand empathy while excusing barbarism. And you cannot murder your most committed allies and expect the world to keep pretending that nothing has changed.
Silver believed in peace with her Arab neighbors until her last breath.
The question now is not whether Israelis should acknowledge the harsh reality that the Jewish state never has and likely never will have a partner for peace next door. The question is whether or not the “innocent civilians” of Gaza are capable of saying the name Vivian Silver—and recognizing what was done to her.
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