NAZA directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, have received another threat.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is contending to annul the citizenship of anyone who slams the IDF.
The NAZA filmmakers attracted the ire of Israel's Culture Minister.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is baying for the introduction of a law that would annul the citizenship of anyone who criticises the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) soldiers. He levied this threat referring especially to the directors of NAZA, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
NAZA, co-directed by Abraham and Rachel Szor, who are both Israeli citizens, shows “in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” according to its official logline. The film features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers.
NAZA Directors Threatened By Netanyahu
“We will hit them in their pockets and also in their citizenship, because their place is not among us,” declared Netanyahu in a video posted on X. He also described the bills specifically.
“The first: to revoke the citizenship of anyone who slanders IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldiers." He suggested another law that would raise “the defamation damages they can be sued for twentyfold.”
The prime minister’s comments came after those of his Culture Minister, Miki Zohar, who also threatened to revoke the filmmakers’ citizenship. Zohar called the documentary vile and the directors despicable traitors.
“The self-loathing that burns in the creators, who are willing to harm their homeland just to get applause from antisemites around the world, is inconceivable and constitutes a betrayal of the state,” Zohar wrote. “As Minister of Culture, I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for betraying the state.”
NAZA received a record 25-minute standing ovation at its Venice film festival premiere. It won the festival’s Special Jury Prize. The film is directed by Israeli Jews Abraham and Szor, who were also two of the four directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.
More than 1,500 Israeli film-makers have also signed a petition defending “freedom of expression and creation” and expressing solidarity with Szor and Abraham.
“In recent days, we have witnessed an unprecedented smear and incitement campaign against the film-makers, with the line between this rhetoric and physical violence or threats to their lives narrowing rapidly,” the petition stated.
