Nine to Noon
Dear Kathryn
“One Life” - I too saw this very moving film. But I did have a problem when I saw it. I describe this problem below, in an unpublished letter I sent to The Post in Wellington. It is disappointing that you didn’t see this problem too, which is the obvious contrast between our celebration of an eighty year old selfless act of action and charity, whist sitting in the cinema, I knew during this time several children will have been killed by Israel’s murderous action on the Palestinians in Gaza. This is now accepted by the International Court of Justice as a plausible case of genocide, inflicted by Israel on the Palestinians in Gaza, a population nominally under the care of the State of Israel.
I would have thought this uncomfortable parallel would have been blindingly obvious and to ignore it was remiss.
Here’s a copy of my letter to The Post
The Editors
The Post
Wellington
Dear Sir / Madam
I have just viewed the incredibly moving but also uplifting film “One Life”, chronicling how London stockbroker, Nicholas Wilton, became a humanitarian force in 1938-39 in rescuing 669 mostly Jewish refugee children from Czechoslovakia to foster homes in England, and the later discovery of his remarkable story . Seriously moved, both my wife and I reacted – do we never learn? Throughout I could not help thinking of Gaza, and the monstrous slaughter of innocent Palestinians by the Israeli regime and IRD and, tragically, the citizenry that supports them. We tell ourselves a reassuring history of saving 669 children in the face of evil, even while we claim to be appalled by today’s evil and 10,000 slaughtered children in Gaza. From their lofty political towers people with power to stop this massacre pathetically avert their gaze and give active murderous support to Israel - its “right to defend itself”. Biden, Senate and Congress, Sunak, Starmer, the Commons, van der Leyen and her European accomplices, sit catatonic in their moral muteness. The title “One Life” arises from the Hebrew proverb “He who saves one life, saves the world”. Events in Gaza prove our world is in serious trouble – is it now beyond saving?
Yours faithfully, etc
Thank you for your time
Yours faithfully,
Dr John K Monro
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