Palestinians

Update 16/1/24

This is an update on the situation of Noa Argamani and Yossi Sharabi.

On January 14, Hamas released a video showing Noa, Yossi and another hostage, Itay Svirsky.

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They read off a script obviously written by Hamas, telling Israel to stop the war and to save them. The same thing was said in earlier videos of other hostages. The message is always the same: stop the war, or we will kill your hostages. But never: if you stop the war, we will release the hostages and negotiate. Because that is not what their goal is.

To understand this, you must realize the fundamental reason of Hamas’ existence is jihad: a holy war against everything that isn’t radical Islam, and especially Jews. This principle trumps everything, even the lives of the Gazan people, peace and a chance for their own state. This kind of thinking is so alien to us in the West that we cannot believe this is really their mindset. I couldn’t believe it for twenty years living in Israel. Until October 7.

At the end of this video, Hamas showed this:

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This is psychological warfare of the highest degree. The entire country is in mental and emotional anguish. It is very, very hard to deal with this kind of cruelty. It is a game that they play, to inflict the worst pain on us. They know we care desperately about these people. They also know that we cannot do this sort of things back to them – it goes against every principle of humanity. Also, they would laugh at us. They don’t care! They care about exterminating Jews and establising the Islamic State. At any cost. Even if every single Palestinian has to die for it.

How do you negotiate with people like that? You can’t. It’s impossible. The only thing they want is our death. That is why we have to conquer Hamas. If we fail, we will not only sign our own death warrant, but Europe’s, too.

Yesterday, 15/1/24, Hamas released another video. This time, it was only of Noa, who told us that Yossi and Itay were dead. According to the script she read, they were killed in an Israeli airstrike. We don’t know if this is true or if they were simply murdered by Hamas. At the end of the video, they showed two bloody and broken bodies. It was impossible to tell who they were. I haven’t watched it. But this is what I heard.

For all of their families, the excruciating pain goes on. They don’t know anything for sure. All they have is questions, which won’t be answered. Noa is alive, for now. I think that the civilians who captured her, sold her to Hamas. And they know that Noa one of the most famous hostages and that she is precious to us. They can use her as leverage. Although what they want from us is impossible.They want for Israel to cease existing and for every Jew to die. We obviously cannot let that happen.

The only thing we can hope is that the IDF will conquer Hamas, find the hostages and bring them home. Soon. Then, we can talk with the Gazans and see how to move on from here. But not before.

#bringthemhome

Vivian Silver, peace activist

Vivian Silver was born in 1949 in Winnipeg, Canada, and immigrated to Israel in 1974. She settled in kibbutz Gezer and soon became the leader of the community. She was an energetic person with strong beliefs and a natural sense of justice. In the early days, Vivian activated for gender equality and women’s rights. She worked in the Knesset for the Committee of the Advancement of Women in Work and Economy, and she founded the United Kibbutz Movement’s Department to Advance Gender Equality.

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In 1990, Vivian and her husband moved to kibbutz Be’eri with their two sons. It was there, in close proximity to Gaza and the Bedouin community of Israel, that she became a peace activist. Together with Amal Elsana Alh’jooj, an Arab Israeli woman, she founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation. This centre focuses on improving Arab-Jewish relations and a better understanding between Palestinians and Israelis. In 2010, they received the Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East.

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Apart from her work in the kibbutz and with the Centre, Vivian also volunteered with Road to Recovery, a project that transports sick people from Gaza to hospitals in Israel. In 2014, after another war with Gaza, she founded Women Wage Peace. This organization brings together women of different backgrounds and strives for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The organization has more than 20,000 members. They organize rallies, marches and other activities to pressure the Israeli government to work towards peace. Vivian also joined in the protests against Benjamin Netanyahu and his government and the planned judicial overhaul, as many Israelis did (including me). She was strongly opposed to Netanyahu’s politics.

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On October 4, 2023, just three days before Hamas’ attack on Israel, Woman Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, a Palestinian organization, joined together in a march for peace in Jerusalem. Vivian, 74 years old, was there, as always.

On October 7, Vivian Silver was alone at her home in kibbutz Be’eri. When she realized that the kibbutz was under attack by terrorists, she hid in a closet and began texting her family and friends. Her son describes their text messages. She told him that she loved him, and then she wrote: “They’re inside the house. It’s time to stop joking and to say goodbye.”

Her son wrote: “I love you mum, I’m with you.”

She answered: “I feel you.”

That was Vivian’s last message. After that, there was silence.

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In the evening, Vivian’s house was found completely trashed and burned out. Vivian was nowhere to be found and she was assumed to be a hostage. But five weeks later, Vivian’s remains were finally identified in her house. She had been murdered in cold blood and burned to ashes, by the very people she had worked so hard, all her life, to help and to forge bonds with.

Hamas didn’t care who Vivian was. It didn’t matter to them that she had dedicated her life to peace and better treatment of the Palestinians. They couldn’t care less. And that is because they do not want peace. Their goal is to destroy the Jews, not to make peace with them. Vivian was their enemy.

Vivian was mourned intensely by many. She was loved fiercely by hundreds of people and admired by thousands. Her funeral was attended by all her friends, her family and all the women and men she inspired, of many different backgrounds. Her son, Jonathan Zeigen, said: “It was not just me that was orphaned. The community you helped was as well. Your friends were orphaned. This country you adopted at a young age was orphaned. And your movement was orphaned. The movement of peace.”

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Women Wage Peace promised that the peace movement was not dead. That they would continue their work without Vivian. They knew that even now, especially now, Vivian would be calling for peace, for agreement, for understanding.

Vivian was an immeasurably better person than me. I have always believed that peace between Israel and the Palestinians was possible. That we just had to get rid of our rotten government, implement the two-state solution, and we would be able to achieve peace. After all, the Palestinians are just people, like us. Why would they not want peace? They just want to live their lives, like we do.

But now, I’m not so sure. I did not reckon with the pure hate the Palestinians have for us. How much Hamas controls their lives. How they are groomed and brainwashed since early childhood to hate and fear Jews. How they are told to sacrifice their lives to kill Jews. How can you make peace with people whose only goal in life is to kill you?

Still, I admire Vivian Silver, and all that she stands for. Rest in peace, Vivian, or, as one of your friends put it: Rest in power.

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