Dear Editor,
Maria Wong is correct to point out that women are essential to the peace process. Prior to Oct. 7, 2023, there were many Jewish women living in Southern Israeli kibbutzim who were involved with assisting the Gazans. They took children to Israeli hospitals for cancer treatments, gave work to the Gazans in the southern camps, many hey considered part of their families. One such woman Vivian Silver, a dual Canadian Israeli citizen epitomized this woman's movement to bring peace to the region by assisting the Gazans. She served as executive director for the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED) beginning her work in 1998. Silver worked within the kibbutz to organize programs to help Gazans, such as job trainings, and ensured that Gazan construction workers at the kibbutz were paid fairly She and 100 other of her people were murdered in their kibbutz by Hamas. One of her executioners was a Gazan gardener who had worked in Southern Israel for 30 years who surveilled the area in preparation for the Hamas raid. There were no international organizations who supported these women's work or condemned Hamas' butchery.
Larry Shapiro, Calgary
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