Gaza: Vivian Silver’s son speaks about a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians after the hostages’ release
Speaking to AsiaNews, Yonatan Zeigen calls for breaking the mould of a country at war where time has stood still since the tragedy of 7 October. The time has come to think about the present and the future, beyond Trump's peace deal, and imagine a "different vision" based on "equality" between the two peoples. Now a new leadership, a new government, a new mindset are needed for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Milan (AsiaNews) – The truce in Gaza, the release of Palestinian prisoners held in the Jewish state's jails, and the ongoing liberation of Israeli hostages held by Hamas for more than two years, a wound still open in Israel, are the first steps towards healing people and breaking the mould of a "mainstream" vision that has so far informed the decisions of a country at war, where everything has been on hold since the tragedy of 7 October 2023.
Now the time has come to start thinking about the present and the future. Israeli activist Yonatan Zeigen looks at the agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war. He is the son of Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist who was among the more than 1,200 victims of the attack that on 7 October 2023, which triggered the Gaza war with its burden of deaths and violence.
Recently, far-right leader and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that there must be no return to 6 October. “I agree with him, with the notion,” said Zeigen, who is a member of the Parents Circle - Families Forum, a grassroots group of Palestinian and Israeli families who lost close relatives in the conflict and who believe that only together can sustainable peace be achieved.
"The question is how we envision” the future. “We have a different vision for October 8th” from that of the Israeli minister. “In that regard, this deal is dangerous because it doesn't really specify how the future will look like.” Nevertheless, he hopes that the day after will bring “a shared reality from the standpoint of equality.”
AsiaNews spoke with Zeigen over the weekend while he was in Turin, Italy, for the Festival della Missione 2025. On 11 October, he spoke at the event "Disarmed. Faces of Resistance" together with Kim Aris, son of Myanmar Nobel Peace Prize laurate Aung San Suu Kyi, and Taghi Rahmani, husband of Iranian activist Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.
The release of the hostages and the truce do not mean the end of the war. For Zeigen, "we are entering a tunnel” because “we have been in some sort of chaos, psychotic chaos of violence for the past two years. Now we can begin something; it is not the end of anything."
“I hope that the deal will bring the release of prisoners and hostages and stop the violence in Gaza.” For this reason, "we need now to work hard in order to make this a foundation of a viable future for both peoples.”
However, he warns, "this specific deal doesn’t grant that on its own; we need to fill it with content." In fact, the path is narrow and fraught with difficulties; yet “it holds a lot more potential because now the Israelis won’t have to be locked in this psychological need of justification for what we are doing,” he explained.
“And something, I hope, will open up minds. And when we will see that nonviolence gives us more well-being and more safety, then we will, I hope, work for it.” Thus, “it will create something new."
Inspired by his mother’s decades-long work, Zeigen has picked up her baton, promoting an award, the “Vivian Silver Impact Award”, given annually to two women, Arab and Jewish, for their action in favour of peace and coexistence.
After the massacre on 7 October 2023 in which the Canadian-Israeli activist died at the hands of Hamas, her son, now 37, quit his job as a social worker and mediator to take up her mantle, supported by his family.
As a family member of one of the more than 1,200 victims, talking about dialogue and reaching out has not been easy; there has been no shortage of criticism from those who do not understand his commitment to the notion that revenge is not the right path to justice.
"I think we need to differentiate between hard, difficult work” from “the question of impact". “I don’t feel it was difficult for me; I feel it was an imperative for me. It was something I felt I had to do," he said.
“A lot of times, it felt fruitless because we faced, me and people like me in the peace movement, in Israel and Palestine, a very strong backlash, and this momentum of violence.”
“I always felt that even though it seems fruitless and helpless,” it “was enough for me to continue, to keep going. And it will be enough for me to continue now because, as I said, the work is not done. In some sense, it is beginning now."
As several activists and prominent figures in the Holy Land have emphasised, including the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, it is time to think about how to rebuild.
To this end, Zeigen noted, “we need to find humanity again, or morality, ability for empathy for a shared existence,” a new basis for coexistence for Israelis and Arabs, for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, in which religious faith is not a source of conflict, but an opportunity for discussion and dialogue, as called for in point 18 of US President Donald Trump's peace plan.
For the activist however, “religion isn’t the base of the conflict, but it is utilised” for that purpose. Yet, “It can be utilised for the resolution of the conflict.”
“There are a lot of religious sentiments in both peoples and it (religion) plays a strong element in our society. So there is potential to utilise it for dialogue and the ability to work together, but I don’t see it as the basis of” the conflict, nor of “peace between people."
Regarding the future of civil society and peace movements, overshadowed by war rhetoric, Zeigen is convinced that in the past two years, they “grew stronger but not in Israel, although it always has [had] its space” in the country.
“Internationally, the peace movement was very strong.” Many initiatives have been undertaken, from the Franco-Saudi initiative to lobbying governments and embassies, although the issue remains unresolved in Israel, where, too often, the government has treated such groups as "dangerous”. In such a situation, “your space narrows”.
As an example, he cites the Parents Circle - Families Forum, in which he serves as a board member, whose activities “were banned from schools” because "we talked about reconciliation, and this was considered a dangerous concept in the eyes of this government.”
Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir are “national religionists” and “fundamentalists. They have a messianic view of reality and they want the whole Promised Land.” Based on “that rational it is true that a civil society that puts emphasis on shared reality, shared future” could be “considered dangerous”.
For Zeigen, “to have more space, we need two things to happen: a change in government and we need international support, legitimation, and resources.”
In the past two years, “we received a lot of verbal support, [. . .] but not enough concrete steps,” the activist lamented, “no formal outcry”, not like when Israel imposed unfair taxation on foreign funding for NGOs disliked by those in power.
“It's tragic in my mind that we had to get to this point, of so many lives lost, and to have it done, this deal I mean, in such a way, instead of just deal with it on the table, at least since September 2024, a year ago. We didn’t accept it. The United States didn’t push for, and Europe waited. The EU waited for the Americans to decide.”
“I hope we don’t need civil society. If our government and the Palestinian leadership start behaving from a point of equality and shared future, we would be redundant."
In recent days, Zeigen returned with his family to Kibbutz Be'eri, where Hamas militants killed his mother, Vivian Silver, to honour her memory, “crying together and laughing together, to envision the future”. “I had to really console my son, who is nine years old now. He was seven in 2023 and, he, all of a sudden, remembered his grandmother and really broke down”.
Lastly, addressing the issue of the two peoples and the region, he said that a new leadership, a new government, a new mindset are needed in both Israel and Palestine.
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14/01/2025 19:58
