World
An Israeli minister called for stripping the citizenship of the directors of an award-winning documentary in Venice
Miki Zohar questioned the makers of 'Naza' after its screening at the festival and said he would push a treason measure. There were also public attacks from minister Itamar Ben Gvir, while the Army rejected the film's central premise.
Israel’s Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar, said he would seek to revoke the Israeli citizenship of Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, directors of the documentary Naza, after the film received the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, according to La Vanguardia.
According to that outlet, Zohar said on X that he would act immediately against the filmmakers and accused them of treason. He also singled them out for, in his words, being willing to harm their country in order to receive applause from antisemites.
Still according to La Vanguardia, the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, also lashed out at Abraham and Szor on the same social network. He called them a disgrace and told them to disappear, in addition to referring to Hamas.
The 80-minute film addresses what it presents as an Israeli strategy to destroy the Gaza Strip and examines the concept of “Naza,” a term that, according to the film, Israeli commanders and intelligence services use to refer to collateral victims of the bombings. The Venice premiere was met with a strong ovation from the audience, La Vanguardia reported.
Abraham and Szor were also part of the team behind No Other Land (2024), the Spanish newspaper added. Their new work was added to the competition for the Golden Lion shortly before the start of the festival.
According to La Vanguardia, local authorities in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, raised the death toll in the enclave to more than 73,000 after the October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel and the subsequent offensive.
The Israeli Army on Friday rejected the documentary’s central thesis and said in a statement that bombing decisions in Gaza are made by human personnel and not by artificial intelligence, in contrast to what the film presents based on testimony from Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
