Who is Vivian Silver, Canadian-Israeli peace activist presumed held by Hamas?

Story by Jeff Semple •

Israeli-Canadian human rights campaigner Vivian Silver in an undated photo. Silver is believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas militants during the group's attack on Israel.© Family handout

Vivian Silver’s son was anxiously texting with his mother on Saturday morning, as Hamas gunmen closed in on her home near Israel's Gaza border. Her last message read: “They’re inside the house.”

The 74-year-old Canadian-Israeli spent her adult life campaigning for peace and human rights for Palestinians, particularly those living in impoverished Gaza.

Silver is now presumed to be a prisoner, among the dozens of civilian hostages held by Hamas following the militant group's coordinated weekend attack on Israeli soil.

"This is almost surreal to think that someone who dedicated their entire life to building peace, ending the occupation, lifting the siege of Gaza, is kidnapped by Hamas," said Ariel Dloomy, Silver's former colleague at the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, in an interview with Global News.

Silver grew up in Winnipeg and moved to Israel in the 1970s. She quickly became a fierce campaigner, helping to launch and run various aid organizations, including Women Wage Peace.

In 2017, Silver organized a march for peace on the shores of the Jordan River in the West Bank, condemning an earlier Israeli attack that killed Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

During the march, she told a reporter: "We must change the paradigm that we have been taught for seven decades now, when we were told that only war will bring peace. We don't believe that anymore, it's been proven that it's not true."

Even into her 70s, she would drive sick Palestinians from Gaza to hospitals in Israel.

"She believes in peace and reconciliation and making the world a better place," said Yonatan Zeigen, Silver's son.

He, his wife and three young children live in nearby Tel Aviv and had planned to visit his mother over the weekend. "But last minute, we decided not to go," he said.

He phoned Silver on Saturday morning after hearing reports that Hamas gunmen were attacking civilians near her home in Be’eri Kibbutz, close to the Gaza border.

"I continued talking with my mother until I heard on the phone screaming and yelling and gunshots outside her window," he told Global News.

"So we stopped talking so (the gunmen) wouldn't hear. We continued corresponding through WhatsApp up until the point she wrote me to say: 'They're inside the house.'"

Since then, he said, his messages have gone unanswered.

Global News has confirmed at least two other Israeli-Canadians, Adi Vital Kaploun of Ottawa and Ben Mizrachi of Vancouver, are also believed to be among the Hamas hostages. A spokesperson for Hamas' military wing threatened Monday to begin executing its Israeli hostages on video, if Israel continues to target Gaza civilians with airstrikes.

Abu Obeida, the spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, said in an audio released Monday night that the threat was a response to intense air strikes by Israel on civilian areas.

“We have decided to put an end to this and as of now, we declare that any targeting of our people in their homes without prior warning will be regrettably faced with the execution of one the hostages of civilians we are holding,” he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday ordered a "complete siege" on Gaza, including a blockade of food, electricity and fuel. Israeli rockets rained down on the overcrowded Palestinian enclave, which is home to two million civilians, half of whom are under the age of 19.

Speaking to Global News from Gaza over cellphone video, Palestinian Aziz Elkahlout said the Israeli air attacks were striking civilian targets without warning. He said his neighbours were killed and their local market was destroyed.

"There is a lot of children, women, old people. They're hitting anything without warning," he said, his comments interrupted by an explosion in the distance.

Global News asked Silver's former colleague and fellow humanitarian, Ariel Dloomy, what she's thinking about her captivity and Israel's response.

"Vivian's message would be to never lose hope," he said.

"I'm sure that deep inside her, despite all these difficulties, she knows how to separate between the terrorists and the ordinary people. There are two million people living in Gaza, and we have to find a way, as the Israelis, to live with them in peace."