Israel’s Culture Minister has threatened to seek the revocation of Israeli citizenship from filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, accusing them of “treason against the state” over their award-winning documentary Naza. The film examines Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and alleges that civilians have been killed on a mass and systematic scale.
The political backlash intensified a day after the documentary received the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Minister Miki Zohar accused the filmmakers of being prepared 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.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also criticised the filmmakers, describing them as “a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel” and telling them to “go away”. He additionally suggested that Hamas would welcome them.
Produced by UK newspaper The Guardian, Naza takes its title from an acronym reportedly used by Israeli intelligence to represent the anticipated number of civilian casualties from an airstrike. The 80-minute documentary features interviews with 24 Israeli military and intelligence whistleblowers who, according to the filmmakers, were involved in planning or operating systems used during the Gaza war.
The documentary claims that Israel’s targeting methods have resulted in large numbers of civilian deaths. One person interviewed in the film alleges that approval was granted for an operation expected to kill 500 civilians in an attempt to eliminate a single Hamas member. The film also looks at the role of artificial intelligence and automated technologies in Israel’s targeting procedures.
Naza received a record 25-minute standing ovation following its premiere in Venice before winning the Special Jury Prize on Saturday.
Abraham, who along with Szor won the 2025 Academy Award for No Other Land, said after the Venice victory that Israeli intelligence personnel interviewed for Naza described the killing of Palestinians as systematic rather than accidental.
“The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with told us that this mass killing is systemic. Not by accident. But by design,” Abraham said.
He encouraged audiences in Israel and around the world to watch the documentary, stressing that it was especially important for Israelis to confront the allegations concerning the actions of their own country.
Israel’s military has firmly rejected the claims made in the documentary and questioned the credibility and identities of its anonymous sources. The Israel Defence Forces said it could not establish whether those interviewed had actually served in the military, what roles they held or whether they participated in the operations they described.
The IDF also challenged the film’s depiction of its targeting process, maintaining that decisions about selecting and approving strikes are made by human personnel and “not by artificial intelligence”. It said its military operations are directed against terrorist organisations, mainly Hamas, in accordance with international law, while claiming to make “unprecedented efforts” to reduce civilian casualties.
The military also accused Hamas of placing fighters and military infrastructure in civilian locations and said allegations of wrongdoing by Israeli soldiers are investigated through its own enforcement mechanisms.
The threat to strip Abraham and Szor of their citizenship comes amid growing political criticism in Israel of filmmakers and journalists documenting the Gaza war. In 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that citizenship could, under certain circumstances, be revoked for failure to demonstrate loyalty, including acts such as espionage or treason. The law was expanded in 2023 to include people convicted of terrorism.
