NYT: Hamas Militants Kidnap And Kill Pro-Palestinian Activists
- 11.10.2023, 11:16
They lived in kibboutz around the Gaza Strip.
During Saturday's attack on Israel, Hamas militants killed many activists fighting for Palestinian rights and simply supporting Palestine. The The New York Times reported.
"On the Israeli side of the Gaza border are a number of housing collectives, or kibbutz, whose members tend to be centre-left and support peace initiatives and Palestinian rights. Many of these residents were among those missing or killed in Saturday's Hamas attack," the paper said.
In particular, 74-year-old Vivian Silver, who is believed to have been taken hostage, was reported missing after the militant attack on Kibbutz Be'eri. Canadian-born Silver was one of the leaders of Women Wage Peace, a large grassroots movement founded after the 2014 Gaza war to promote a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
She served for many years on the board of b'Selem, an Israeli human rights organisation that argues that Israel is an apartheid state. She has visited the Palestinian territories in solidarity with Palestinians and volunteered with an organisation that brings sick Palestinians from Gaza to Israel for treatment. She is also executive director of the Negev Institute for Peace and Development Strategies and co-founder of the Arab-Jewish Centre for Empowerment of Equality and Cooperation.
Rachel Gur, an Israeli involved in the search for the missing, told reporters that many residents of kibboutz near Gaza had similar views. "These are kibboutz residents, people who vote for the left, who support coexistence [with the Palestinians]. They're the old secular centre-left, who want peace, who are against the annexation [of Palestine to Israel]," she said.
HAIM KATZMAN - 'PEACE ACTIVIST' KILLED BY PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS/COLLAGE UNIAN, PHOTO FACEBOOK.COM/MORDI.MILLER, REUTERS
Another pro-Palestinian 'peace activist', Haim Katzman, was initially thought to have been taken hostage, but was later found murdered in his home in Kibboutz Holit. He had recently defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Washington in Seattle. His dissertation was entitled 'Religious Nationalism in Israel/Palestine'. It is unusual for Israelis to refer to the region in this way, rather than simply as 'Israel' or 'Israel and the Occupied Territories'.
Bilga and Jacoby Inon, who were "peace activists", were also killed on Saturday. The couple died on their farm in Netev Ha'Asara, north of Gaza.