I wondered where Yonatan Zeigen found his strength; then I realised it comes from his dead mother. Vivian Silver was a Canadian-Israeli humanitarian and peace activist, who was murdered by Hamas gunmen at her home on Be’eri kibbutz, just a few kilometres from the Israel-Gaza border, on 7 October. On that day Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis at multiple sites, with more than 100 perishing at the kibbutz. Visiting her burnt-out home a few weeks later, Yonatan told Canadian television that he’d managed to salvage a few of her personal belongings, but “everything was ashes there”, as the killers had torched the 74-year-old’s home.
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Israel and Hamas are still engaged in their bitter war and there’s little to suggest its conclusion will finally bring peace to this blighted corner of the world. But there is hope, because of people like Vivian’s son Yonatan and so many others like him. They’re all activists who believe that the conflicts involving Israel and Palestine – which I have been covering my whole life – can be resolved if people look beyond their own differences. Yonatan says the wars and bad blood continue not because his mother’s work was stupid or naive and futile, with both sides locked in a natural, never-ending enmity, but because her efforts were not pushed and championed by more people across the divide.
Yonatan’s experience has forced me to question what my own responses might have been in the same situation. Despite everything he’s gone through, he argues his mother had the right ideas, but not enough people listened. My hope for 2024 is that more people at least try to listen, and that her life and work wasn’t in vain.
