'You can't heal in a perpetual war': Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen on following in his mother's footsteps
About this episode
Yonatan Zeigen discusses his journey into peace activism following the death of his mother, Vivian Silver, and the impact of her legacy on his life.
The final moments of Vivian Silver’s life were a “pivotal turning point” for her son Yonatan Zeigen , who now dedicates his life to Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, following in the footsteps of his peace activist mother, who was slain in her home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. Speaking on the eve of Israel’s Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers and terror victims, Zeigen recalled his final goodbyes with his mother with the gunshots of Hamas terrorists at her doorstep in the background, and the loss that he described as jolting him out of what he calls a “political coma” and moved him into full-time activism. Zeigen is a board member of The Parents Circle-Families Forum that co-sponsors the annual alternative joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony. He attended the ceremony in his youth together with his mother and immediately after her death, he knew that this would be the appropriate place to mourn her and continue her mission. He said on the podcast that the alternative ceremony represented “how two peoples share a land: They don't share a land by creating artificial divisions and dehumanizing…
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