To the editor:
Power and money can control narratives, even when unjust violence reigns. Yet whatever the sociology or psychology behind it may be, it is startling and tragic how often it is the story of a little girl that breaks through and clarifies the atrocities being committed against peoples. The diary of Anne Frank in Nazi Germany. The photo of Kim Phuc in Vietnam. The account of Loung Ung in Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The photo of Antoinette Pieterson running beside her slain brother in apartheid South Africa. The blogs of Malala Yousafzai in Taliban Afghanistan. Why does it take the suffering of innocent little girls to wake people up to inhumanity?
And now we must add the phone calls of Hind Rajab to that list. For generations to come, people will tell the story of this five-year-old girl, her desperate calls to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance services, and the brutal response by Israeli forces. Her story will resonate through time. Pointing to the 70,000 Gazan people killed by Israel since October 7 (which Ralph Nader and many others have highlighted is a massive undercount). To the hundreds of Gazan people killed by Israel since the so-called ceasefire of October 2025. To the millions the University of Cambridge has called “the walking dead,” because of the violence, starvation, and trauma that has eradicated any sense of a normal life.
The story of these phone calls, as told in the feature film “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” has received critical acclaim. It received a 23-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival before winning the festival’s prestigious Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize. It has been nominated for the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. It was a labor of love and desperation offered by filmmakers and actors haunted by the story of this little girl. But power and money do try to control narratives. Efforts by the Israeli culture minister to keep the film off screens in Israel-Palestine have been relentless. Following suit, most U.S. film distributors passed on the opportunity to work with the film.
Still, this film is coming to the Berkshires. “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” will be shown at The Triplex in Great Barrington starting Friday, February 6. We express gratitude to The Triplex for bringing this story to our little corner of the world. We thank them for continuing to share the suppressed stories of Palestinians, as they did when they screened “No Other Land” in March 2025, documenting the destruction of a Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank as they resisted their forced displacement.
Let us go en masse to see this film. Let us encourage our friends to see this film. Let us each know the story of Hind Rajab. Let us show The Triplex we appreciate their efforts to bring this history to the Berkshires. Let us support the filmmakers and actors who wanted the world to know Hind’s story. Let us take care of ourselves and one another as we do. As we have seen all too often of late, looking squarely at brutality can be intensely affecting.
But let us not look away from what happened to little Hind. Let us not look away from the 70,000 stories that also deserve to be known. It should not require atrocities to little girls to appreciate the accelerated genocide committed in Gaza these last 28 months—or the inhumanity directed at Palestinians for the last 75 years. But if her story is not to be in vain, let it connect to us to the massive tragedy of what humans have done to humans.
If you are able, please go see “The Voice of Hind Rajab” (The Triplex: February 6 through 12).
On behalf of Berkshires in Solidarity with Palestine:
Corinna Barnard, Sheffield
Jason Brown, Sheffield
Christine Fulton, Woodstock, N.Y.
Ivan Kruh, Great Barrington
Nadia Milleron, Sheffield
Renee McCormick, West Stockbridge
Anne O’Connor, New Marlborough
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