Israel’s culture minister has called for the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of NAZA, a documentary about the country’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, to be stripped of their citizenship, accusing them of “treason against the state”.
NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym used by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza.
In the film, the Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor spoke to ۲۴ different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza that have killed tens of thousands of civilians. In one interview, a source claims that approval had been given to kill ۵۰۰ NAZA in order to kill one Hamas member.
The ۸۰-minute documentary won a special jury prize at this year’s Venice film festival on Saturday, after receiving a ۲۵-minute standing ovation – a festival record.
On Sunday Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar, accused the directors on X of being willing to “harm their homeland in order to receive applause from antisemites around the world”.
“I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” Zohar wrote on X.
Other Israeli ministers also took aim at the directors, who won an Oscar in ۲۰۲۵ for their film No Other Land about Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
“You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel. Go away!” the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on X.
“I am certain that your friends, that is to say our enemies Hamas in Gaza, will welcome you with open arms.”
The revocation of nationality is legally possible in Israel, although it is rarely applied. In ۲۰۲۲ the supreme court confirmed that the state may strip people of their nationality if they have failed to show “loyalty”, for example by committing acts of espionage or treason.
The law was also expanded in ۲۰۲۳ to apply to people convicted of “terrorism”.
The law requires the interior minister to submit the revocation request, the justice minister to approve it and judges to validate it.
Abraham’s family home was targeted by a rightwing mob after the world premiere of ۲۰۲۴’s No Other Land, which spotlighted Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank.
“We’re taking risks in a system that privileges us, that has Jewish-Israeli supremacy as its founding characteristic,” he told the Guardian, adding: “For so many Palestinians, it’s not a rightwing mob that’s coming to their home: it’s US-funded bulldozers and weapons.
“Imagine if a Palestinian journalist in Gaza tried to do what we did and called up senior Israeli officials. There is no comparison. They would most likely be murdered.”
The Israeli military has responded to NAZA by saying it “categorically rejects” the allegations made in the documentary and criticised the use of anonymous testimonies, saying the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified”.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on ۷ October ۲۰۲۳, which resulted in the deaths of ۱,۲۲۱ people, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli figures. Hamas militants also took ۲۵۱ hostages to Gaza.
The Gaza health ministry has reported more than ۷۳,۰۰۰ deaths in the subsequent three years of Israeli bombardment, the vast majority of which have been civilian casualties.
– Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
