Life Support doesn’t just hold truth to power; it also brings us detailed eyewitness testimonies that should inform the prosecution of human rights abuses and war crimes when the world wakes up, and justice finally comes.
We live in a world where lies masquerade as truth, politicians thrive on division, people believe without evidence, and nations openly disregard and reject the humanitarian rules established following World War I and II. It’s a world where polarisation has become the norm, division and hate have become the weapon of choice, and ignorance, selfishness and isolationism have become behaviours many choose to live alongside. In this new world, genocides can be actively ignored and dismissed, nations can exact revenge with impunity, and governments fear taking a stand. Anyone would think we had travelled back in time to the 1930’s, and maybe we have.
Back then, governments failed to respond to the growing signs of persecution, hate and intolerance growing like a cancer in Europe. The result was genocide, war, death and destruction. Today, the outcome is also genocide, war, death and destruction, this time in Gaza, and it could yet expand further as seen in Lebanon.
Documentary filmmaking has never been more important in holding truth to power. Yet, documentaries are regularly sidelined by theatres on their theatrical release, with select TV and streaming platforms now the only place where they often receive the attention they deserve. Daniele Rugo’s Life Support, executive produced by Asif Kapadia and Susan Sarandon, to name just two, should be shown on every big screen across our land and others, alongside being a core part of educational curriculum planning in every school.
Life Support doesn’t just hold truth to power; it also brings us detailed eyewitness testimonies that should inform the prosecution of human rights abuses and war crimes when the world wakes up, and justice finally comes. The testimonies present here are from the surgeons, doctors and renowned medical experts who witnessed first-hand Israel’s intentional targeting of Gaza’s healthcare system, its doctors, nurses, facilities and its people. These brave medical practitioners placed themselves at the front line in solidarity with their medical colleagues, unaware of the extent of the horrors about to unfold around them. Horrors they now share with us, alongside video and mobile phone footage, and conversations.
In November 1945, Robert Jackson, Chief Prosecutor for the United States at the Nuremberg Trials, said: “The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilisation cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated.” One wonders what Robert Jackson would now say watching Life Support. The conflict between Israel, Palestine, and its surrounding neighbours has been allowed to fester for decades, becoming a horrifying spectacle that the world has been unwilling and unable to challenge. There is blood on the hands of all involved, including those nations that armed and continue to arm militant groups and a nation only 9% the size of the UK, but holding military power far beyond it.
One day justice will come, and we can only hope that justice is swift and leads to a strengthening of the international laws ushered in decades before, as the world finally faced the horrors of the Second World War. But for that to happen, we must all face the horrors of our world today and stand up for humanity, peace, and human rights. It’s time we took our blinkers off, held our governments to account, and re-learned the lessons of the past; lessons that aren’t just about military fly-pasts, ceremonies, and badges, but the words “Never Again.”
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