A Parliamentary event and roundtable discussion for the critically acclaimed and Golden Globe-nominated and Oscar-shortlisted film, THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB took place on 13 January at the House of Lords, chaired by Melanie Ward MP, and attended by several other Members of Parliament. The program included remarks by Marwan Yaghi, Political Councilor at the Embassy of Palestine to the UK, followed by a presentation of selected clips from the film and a panel discussion featuring Kaouther Ben Hania (Writer and Director), Nadim Cheikhrouha Cheikhourha (Producer), James Wilson (Producer), Motaz Malhees (Actor), and Kieran King (Humanitarian Lead, War Child). The event was hosted in association with WILLA, Film4, and UK and Irish distributor, Altitude.
At the event, the independent filmmaking team, together with field experts, presented an urgent, open letter calling for accountability and the immediate restoration of humanitarian access and protected medical corridors in Gaza, and inviting additional signatories, including Members of Parliament and members of the House of Lords. Current signatories include Hind Rajab’s mother, Wesam Hamada, Joaquin Phoenix, Hannah Einbinder, Mark Ruffalo, Mahershala Ali, Cynthia Nixon, Ilana Glazer, Annie Lennox, and as well as a number of NGOs and frontline medical workers. The call comes amid continued escalation of restrictions on humanitarian access by Israel and the illegally barring international NGOs from operating in Gaza and the West Bank.
“We made this film so that it could participate in change,” said Nadim Cheikhrouha, addressing the room. “Our real hope is that it helps change and is a tool used by decision makers. We know what’s happening. Governments are silent or complicit and this has to change. We just made a movie. We count on you.”
The open letter, titled “Restore Gaza’s Hospitals and Medical Care Now,” warns that systematic dismantling and bombardment of Gaza’s healthcare system has remained catastrophic, marked not only by the destruction of hospitals and attacks and illegal detention of medical workers, but by the deliberate exclusion of international humanitarian organisations capable of saving lives at scale. Read the letter HERE.
The letter is anchored in the final recorded words of 5-year-old Hind Rajab, who on January 29, 2024 spent more than three hours on the phone with the Palestine Red Crescent dispatchers, pleading to be rescued while trapped in a car surrounded by the bodies of her relatives, killed by Israeli fire as they attempted to flee south in search of safety. Despite an ambulance waiting just miles away, permission to reach her was repeatedly denied by Israeli forces. Even after permission was granted by the Israeli military, the ambulance and first responders attempting to rescue her – along with Hind herself – were killed by Israeli fire. The small car in which she was trapped was later found riddled with 355 bullet holes from Israeli gun fire.
The filmmaking team behind THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB has worked closely with Hind’s mother, Wesam, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and humanitarian and medical NGOs to ensure that Hind’s life – and the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian children killed since October 2023 – are not erased from public memory, while millions more remain at imminent danger as a direct result of Israel’s policies and illegal military and governmental actions.
“Hind’s story is not an isolated tragedy, it’s a devastating reflection of a broader truth,” the letter states.
Since October 2023, at least 20,000 children have been killed, while Gaza’s healthcare system has been relentlessly bombarded into collapse. Hospitals have been destroyed, ambulances blocked or bombed, and medical personnel denied access, detained, or killed. Now, as international NGOs are increasingly obstructed from operating in Gaza, even the most basic emergency medical response has been stripped away, leaving millions at risk of death from injuries, preventable diseases, and malnutrition.
The signatories warn that the current ceasefire has not only been violated countless times, it has also failed to protect the children of Gaza and has done little to halt the killing and the strangulation of humanitarian access.
“The current ceasefire agreement has not put a stop to the violence or ended restrictions on aid,” the letter emphasises. “Israeli forces carry out daily attacks in Gaza often with the complicity, silence, and political cover of allied countries and their leaders.”
Hind’s final call for help was met with silence. That silence cannot continue. Every day that medical aid and healthcare workers are blocked and attacked, children’s chances at survival are put at further risk.
The open letter is supported by artists, leading medical organisations, human rights groups, and frontline physicians who have volunteered in medical facilities in Gaza
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