This Picture Does Not Depict a Pro-Palestinian Activist Who Was Killed on October 7
The Claim
The body of the late Vivian Silver, a peace activist from the B'Tselem organization, who was brutally murdered by Hamas, has been identified.
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Israeli accounts on social media are circulating a picture claiming to show Israeli activist Vivian Silver during a meeting with Yasser Arafat in the 1980s, which they allege was illegal. They assert that she was formerly involved with the B'Tselem organization, supporting Palestinians, and was killed by Hamas.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar investigated the claim and found it to be misleading.
Misbar's team found that the picture does not show Israeli activist Vivian Silver with the late Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Arafat’s First Interview for Israeli Media
The picture depicts Israeli journalist Sarit Yishai-Levi with then PLO president Yasser Arafat during the latter’s first ever interview for an Israeli media outlet. The interview was published in the Haoolam Haze magazine during the 1982 war in Lebanon.
The interview took place at the PLO headquarters in Beirut, in presence of journalist Uri Avneri and photojournalist Anat Saragosti. Anat shared details about the meeting on her X account and confirmed that the woman in the picture is in indeed Israeli journalist Sarit Yishai-Levi.
Activist Vivian Silver’s Death Confirmed
On November 14, Israeli media outlets reported that Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver was killed. It was previously thought that she was abducted by Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, during the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, before her death was confirmed.
Haaretz newspaper reported that over five weeks after the October 7 attacks, forensic experts informed Vivian Silver's family on Monday, November 13, that they had identified the body.
B’Tselem published an obituary following the confirmation of Vivian Silver's death, describing her as a peace and human rights activist and a former board member of B’Tselem. The message said that she was killed during the Hamas attack on the Be’eri kibbutz on October 7.
The Ongoing Israeli Aggression on Gaza
The Israeli aggression on Gaza continues as occupation forces advance their ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. They have encircled the Al-Shifa hospital and its surroundings, subjecting it to continuous Israeli bombings and sniping actions. This situation threaten the lives of medical staff, patients, injured people, and those seeking shelter there at risk. Moreover, the complex faces fuel shortage.
The World Health Organization confirmed that the hospital was out of duty, adding that the situation there is horrifying and dangerous.
The hospital director, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, told France 24 Arabic, on November 13, that “we can no longer talk about the situation in the hospital, there are only walls inside which people are dying since they cannot receive medical treatment. It is a mass grave."
Abu Salmiya also informed AFP that at least 179 bodies were buried Tuesday in a “mass grave” on the hospital’s location. He added, “We had to bury them in a mass grave," underlining that 7 newborn infants and 29 intensive care patients were among those killed after the hospital’s generator ran out of fuel.
In other statements to Al-Jazeera, Abu Salmiya said that the hospital’s administration was compelled to bury martyrs in a mass grave inside the complex after their corpses started to decompose and they did not get the approval to take them out.
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