THE ARTICLE REVIEWS THE FILM, THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB, WITH A CONSIDERATION OF ITS POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS AND UTILITY AMONGST THE ONGOING GENOCIDE OF THE PALESTINIANS BY ISRAEL.
The Voice of Hind Rajab is a film recounting the true story of Hind Rajab, a five-year old Palestinian girl who was killed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza while trapped in a car, begging for help. This film closely relays Hind’s story in a dramatized and shocking fashion, with techniques like fast-paced music and a visual countdown in the film to enforce the urgency of the situation. In its portrayal, this film illustrates merely a moment from the horrors occuring in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
On Jan. 29, 2024, Hind Rajab remained trapped in a vehicle being shot at by the IDF for hours, all while remaining on the phone with volunteers of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) who tried to simultaneously console her cries for help while navigating the intentionally complicated process of sending her aid. Any aid sent her way was deliberately blocked, and while Israel denies their troops’ presence, it was found that Hind’s vehicle has been shot at likely 355 times. She was found dead on Feb. 10. This was an impossibly unjust and angering situation among an infinite more in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians, and Hind’s death mirrors that of thousands of other children who continue to suffer under the well-facilitated and funded horrors of Israel’s actions.
The question of this film’s relevance and utility in the active genocide cannot be ignored. Created and produced by non-Palestinians, and by corporations with Zionist shareholders, the heavy sentiments of this film that are meant to provoke tears in the audience ultimately end up feeling hollow and out of touch. A story with this weight must be executed alongside a consideration of intention and objective.
In discussion of this film’s intentions, it is decidedly called a docudrama, aiming to dramatize the real-life events of Hind into a high-energy film. Hind’s mother told film director Ben Hania that she would allow this film to be created so that Hind and her situation would be remembered by the world. So, dramatizing an event like this may be effective in gaining viewership of the film, thereby keeping Hind in people’s memories.
However, to dramatize the events of Hind Rajab’s death feels wildly irreverent, seeing as there is scarcely an event as harrowing as a child undergoing psychological and physical trauma already. This portrayal not only fetishizes the suffering of the Palestinian people so that viewers may see them as sad and helpless, but it is also plainly insensitive to the existing, real pain that people like Hind have felt due to Israel’s actions, and turns their pain into a marketable and appealing product for an audience to sympathize with.
The harsh reality of this situation is that the world has been painfully aware – not just of the horrors of the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but of Hind Rajab’s death in particular. In the 12 days of Hind’s disappearance, Hind’s voice recordings, images, and story were being shared by the PRCS through media platforms as the world demanded justice and safety for this little girl.
The outrage sparked at the sound of Hind’s cries follows a similar outrage that many of us have felt since Oct. 7, seeing videos and photos of individuals in Gaza who are in agony and begging for help. Despite the documentation of Rajab’s situation, the awareness of her critical condition did not save her from these horrors. She faced the same fate as the other hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that have been killed since Oct. 7 and before. If simply spreading awareness about the genocide was the objective of this film, then it seems misguided, as the world has been made aware of both the genocide and Hind’s death, but this was not enough. Hind was still ultimately killed, just as other Palestinians are to this day.
Moreover, director Hania stated that Hind’s situation made her feel angry and helpless, and “[she hates it when she feels] helpless”. She believes that making this film was what she could do to avoid feeling “complicit” in the situation, and that it would help “[provoke] empathy” within people. While understandably Hania felt the powerlessness and unrest that many other outsiders felt at Hind’s outcome, the decision to create a film to help temper her own discomfort in feeling helpless must be called to question.
The close documentation of Hind and other suffering Palestinians makes the film’s objective seem flippant and exploitative, rather than the set-out goal of being empathetic for the conditions they are surviving in. Hind’s voice should not be used to cater to the feelings of non-Palestinians, with the only benefit for the Palestinian cause being the potential for more awareness; Israel’s crimes evidently warrant consequences much greater than attention at this point. The misuse of Hind’s story is reflected in the film’s creative choices as well. Its focus is on the stress and journey that the PRCS workers experience. Instead of having to see Hind in her critical condition, the audience is made to relate to the distress of those outside of Israel’s direct harm, which reflects the role this film makes of the audience – as an outside sympathizer and nothing else.
Of course, it was not the fault of the volunteers that they could not help Hind, but those outside Israel’s harm must look deeper than the sympathy found in a tamely produced film which cannot even begin to demonstrate the terror of Palestinian oppression and genocide. Hind’s story is produced by Hania to create a narrative that is uncomfortable to be sure, but remains safe in its exposure of the reality of Israel’s actions, focusing instead on the moral troubles of outsiders, as the director makes clear. Non-Palestinians should advocate for real action to be taken to combat the actions of Israel and its allies, but instead this film was used as a means to neutralize the internal struggle of non-Palestinians in consuming the news – a sentiment that is extremely inappropriate and exploitative alongside the real and long-standing horrors of Israel’s crimes.
Israel has accelerated an already decades-old genocide on the Gaza Strip for over two years. But, before international court proceedings could be made about the technical term for Israel’s actions, the genocidal nature of these events was made obvious through digital journalism and social media. The current situation in Gaza is a uniquely well-recorded one, allowing any individual with an Instagram or X account to simply scroll and view the perspective of a Palestinian, broadcasting their suffering for their followers in real time.
Palestinian journalists like Plestia Alaqad and Motaz Azaiza have risked their lives to record their way through the horrors they faced, in hopes that the world may see the truth apart from the Western narrative of Israeli justification. On the other side, Israeli officials and politicians declare their sickening intentions and desires for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through social media posts as well, making for a dystopian but clear image of Israel’s genocidal objectives. Hind Rajab’s voice, as well as those of many other Palestinian individuals, have been heard loud and clear throughout the entirety of the genocide, and anyone with a shred of awareness can recognize that a suppression of Israel’s actions seems like the most pressing concern for any possibility of recovery in the region.
The Voice of Hind Rajab provides the public with a false sense of understanding about Palestinians and their suffering, allowing them to remain comfortable in their sympathy, and effectively demobilizing them from taking any real action or stance towards the dismantling of Israel’s actions. This film is a misdirected attempt at amplifying Hind’s voice, which in reality abuses the records of her suffering for the profit and consolation it provides non-Palestinians. Education is certainly required to understand the atrocities being committed in Palestine, but this should come from Palestinian voices, as well as be coupled with tangible action and pressure on those with power to make a real change.
