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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the country’s attorney general and the head of the Shin Bet security service to reveal the identities of officers interviewed in the award-winning film NAZA.
Netanyahu is ordering for the filmmakers, Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, to be prosecuted for causing “harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests”.
He has asked for attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara, IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, and Shin Bet head David Zini, to “act urgently to uncover the identity of all those who are involved or appear in the libel film”.
NAZA, which premiered in Venice and won the Special Jury Prize, is currently being screened in cinemas in more than 50 countries, shows “in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” according to its official synopsis.
Shot in secrecy at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv during the ongoing Gaza war, it features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers, soldiers and whistleblowers. They describe how Palestinians are targeted and how strikes are carried out using AI and automated surveillance in military targeting systems - despite Israel being aware that civilians are present in targeted areas. The participants' faces and voices were digitally altered to protect their identities.
The 80-minute hot-button doc builds on reporting between 2023 and 2025 published by the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, and The Guardian.
It received a record-breaking 25-minute standing ovation at Venice – the longest in the festival's history.
The Israeli government has previously attacked Abraham and Szor, threatening to strip them of their citizenship.
As reported by the Guardian, Ricardo Gutiérrez, the general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, said: “These threats constitute a blatant act of intimidation against journalists who have simply been doing their job, in strict accordance with ethical standards and in the public interest.”
Regarding Netanyahu’s threats, he added: “I am not surprised by this outburst, which confirms that this regime is prepared to do anything to cover up its crimes against humanity and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
NAZA has been released in select cinemas more than 50 territories. It is being made free-to-watch on The Guardian’s website in November.
Additional sources • Guardian