Israeli Culture Minister Calls for Revocation of Filmmakers' Citizenship Following Venice Award for Gaza Documentary

Israel’s Culture Minister, Miki Zohar, has demanded that the government strip the citizenship of Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor following the international premiere of their new documentary detailing the military campaign in Gaza. The minister accused the Oscar-winning directors of committing treason against the state after their work received high-profile recognition at the Venice International Film Festival.

In an official letter submitted to Israel's Interior Ministry, Zohar pointed to provisions within the country’s Citizenship Law that permit the revocation of national status in instances involving a breach of allegiance to the State of Israel. The culture minister rejected the film's portrayal of the nation's armed forces, arguing that the documentary presents distorted claims and unfairly characterizes Israeli soldiers as perpetrators of deliberate crimes.

Zohar also took to social media to call on state authorities to launch a formal inquiry into the documentary's production. In a post on X, he urged officials to examine how the sensitive materials featured in the film were obtained, discover who backed the effort, and determine whether the publication process crossed into actions that legally constitute aiding the enemy during a time of active war. While Israeli law permits revoking citizenship for disloyalty, the measure remains exceedingly rare in practice.

The controversy centers on the 80-minute documentary titled "Naza," which takes its name from the Hebrew military acronym designating collateral damage. Produced in collaboration with the UK's Guardian newspaper, the production explores the technological systems and command decisions that have governed military operations in Gaza throughout the ongoing conflict.

According to the documentary’s synopsis, the production investigates the mechanisms behind what it describes as a calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians. The film relies heavily on exclusive testimonies provided by 24 unidentified Israeli military and intelligence officers, who describe the implementation of artificial intelligence systems used to select and approve bombardment targets across the Gaza Strip.

Among the specific accounts highlighted in the film, an interviewee asserts that military authorities approved a strike that carried an anticipated toll of up to 500 people in order to eliminate a single human target. The Israel Defense Forces have forcefully pushed back against this claim, describing the assertion of such an authorized strike ratio as completely false.

The backdrop to the documentary is the extensive war that erupted after the Hamas-led cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. During that initial assault, approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 individuals were abducted and taken to Gaza as hostages.

In the ensuing military campaign launched by the Israel Defense Forces, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including upwards of 20,000 children, according to figures released by the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory. The United Nations considers these casualty statistics to be reliable indicators of the war's human cost.

"Naza" made its public debut at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, where it earned the prestigious Special Jury Award. The screening reportedly concluded with a 25-minute standing ovation from festival attendees, although the documentary has not yet been released for general distribution to the wider public.

The project marks the latest high-profile collaboration between Abraham and Szor, who previously gained global acclaim after winning an Academy Award last year for their documentary "No Other Land." That earlier film examined incidents of violence carried out by Jewish settlers against Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank.

Speaking to the Associated Press around the festival screening, Abraham defended the documentary against political pushback, stating that the project was built on rigorous investigative reporting. He argued that official attempts to discredit the findings were efforts to avoid confronting uncomfortable realities, adding that insider military accounts demonstrate that heavy civilian casualties are systemic rather than accidental.

The Israel Defense Forces initially issued a blanket rejection of the documentary's allegations before releasing an extended statement from military spokesperson Brig-Gen Effie Defrin. The spokesperson noted that while the complete documentary has not yet been made accessible to the public, the promotional material presents severe and unfounded accusations against military personnel. Defrin publicly invited the filmmakers to screen the full film for army representatives so its claims could be examined on a substantive and factual basis.

The documentary has sparked fierce reactions across Israel’s political spectrum beyond the culture minister’s office. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett denounced the project as a horrific blood libel targeting the country's military service members, while former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman labeled the co-directors as haters of Israel.

Despite the severe political backlash, the filmmakers have received significant backing from domestic artistic peers. More than 700 professionals from across the Israeli film industry signed a collective petition expressing solidarity with Abraham and Szor, condemning the public attacks as a dangerous campaign of incitement and vilification. Commenting on the situation to Israel’s N12 channel, actor and screenwriter Shlomi Elkabetz maintained that the profound issues raised by the documentary require serious examination rather than attempts at censorship.