In the days since its premiere at the Vence Film Festival on September 10th, a new Israeli documentary on the Gaza War called “NAZA” has seen accusations of antisemitism and blood libels leveled at it by Israeli politicians and officials, with Israel’s culture minister accusing the directors of “treason against the state” and calling for the revocation of the directors’ Israeli citizenship.
While the degree of vitriol may be new, this type of reaction is familiar to directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four directors of the Oscar-winning 2024 documentary No Other Land. While No Other Land focused on the violence of Israeli settlers and the Israeli military in the West Bank, NAZA focuses on the war in Gaza. The film chronicles the systematic killing of civilians in Gaza and is built around 24 anonymous interviews with Israeli military and intelligence.
Backlash against the film within Israel has been swift and intense. Besides the calls for citizenship revocation and accusations of treason from Culture Minister Miki Zohar, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the film was “based on blood libels, deliberate distortions of reality and grave, false accusations against IDF soldiers and commanders”. Military officials added that they would seek potential legal sanctions against those who gave interviews for the film.
Israeli documentary on Gaza war that won Venice prize sparks backlash | AP News
