’Whoever saves one life’ applies to Palestinians too

MICHAEL CHAITOW finds parallels between the Holocaust refugees portrayed in the film 'One Life' and the need to help Palestinians in Gaza today.

There is a scene in One Life, the new Anthony Hopkins film portraying the life of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, where he attempts to garner media interest in his Second World War rescue story to raise awareness about the plight of refugees in modern day Britain. Winton, who saved the lives of 669 Jews during the Holocaust, fails to gain a receptive ear from the editor, who rejects his pitch because he doesn’t see what refugees in contemporary England have to do with the refugee children Winton saved, decades earlier.

The film, and this scene in particular, is even more compelling today, because of its resonance with the current crisis in Israel-Palestine. Just as the plight of refugees was ignored in the 20th century, so too is the plight of many living in Israel-Palestine, being overlooked once again today.

Growing up as a Jew in Australia, I was taught that “Never Again” meant working tirelessly to ensure that no peoples ever faced the fate that six million Jews faced between 1939 and 1945. However, I’m afraid that “Never Again” has happened, time and again. The international community continues to fail to protect the lives of innocent civilians. On October 7, we saw the single greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. Since then, we have also seen the tragic loss of over 20,000 Palestinian lives.

There is absolutely no justification for what took place on October 7. The use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon, the indiscriminate killing of Israeli civilians and children, and the taking of hostage are all war crimes that must be investigated by the International Criminal Court and its perpetrators, prosectuted. Yet, at the same time, there can be no justification for the disproportionate killing of Palestinian civilians that continues today.