Director Jake Paltrow has identified the disappointing truth about “justice”, and its promised closure is not as sweet and simple as dreamed.
June Zero follows the capture, trial and execution of Adolf Eichmann and the difficult feelings felt by European Jews and survivors of the holocaust living in occupied Palestine. The colonized nation known as Israel used its intelligence forces to search for him until he was located in Argentina. Two years later, they captured him without the authorization of the Argentinian government; the success was illegal but their cause was fair. Because, if not them, who?
I am no defender of the Israeli Defence Forces nor am I a defender of the Intelligence Forces that captured Eichmann in 1962, but I believe that he deserved to be executed. He was a key architect behind global anti-semitism and the holocaust, he ensured the death of 5 million Jewish people, survivors and their families deserve this. So why did his death not bring the peace it promised? Paltrows answer delivers the reality of war and genocide, it doesn’t happen- can’t happen without the indirect support of the rest of the world.
In case you’re unaware of the history of the Holocaust, not many governments were rushing to stop the genocide of the Jewish people. In fact, it wasn’t even a concern of Western governments until it had to be. So when Eichmann met his day of reckoning, it didn’t deliver the sweet relief it promised because, just as Jewish people were abandoned by the rest of the world when they needed rescuing, they were also abandoned when it was time for justice.
There is so much more to this film that Paltrow gets right about grief, healing, the meaning of justice and inter-religion racism often perpetuated by white Jewish people. However, what bothers me most about this film is its positioning- Paltrow’s glaring cognitive dissonance for Palestinian people causes him to commit the same indirect support of their ongoing genocide which started in 1948, long before the capture of Eichmann. By acknowledging occupied Palestine as Israel, he fails to draw the parallels of his own brilliant examinations, a common trait amongst supporters and sympathizers.
June Zero is available for viewing now.
