A profound sense of uncertainty hangs over the future of the peace movement and anti-occupation activism in Israel, in the wake of the recent terrorist attack by Hamas. The space for peace activism was already shrinking before October 7, but the violent attacks have added further pressure.
Many of the victims were members of kibbutzim, residential collectives in the south of Israel, who tend to support peace initiatives and Palestinian rights and some were high-profile activists and community workers. These groups tend to include peace activists as well as those in the anti-occupation movements calling for Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who often work together. One of those who is missing is Canadian-Israeli activist Vivian Silver, a founding member of the Israeli grassroots’ peace movement Women Wage Peace.
After October 7, Dorit Rabinyan, a board member of several left-wing organisations opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, told the New York Times: “I know it’s not noble of me, I know there is suffering on the other side, but the other side took hostages and slaughtered so violently, with so much passion, that my compassion is somehow paralysed.”
