Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening called on the IDF Chief of Staff, the head of the Shin Bet, and the Attorney General to launch a comprehensive investigation into participants in the film “NAZA" and take steps to prosecute them.
Netanyahu demanded that the participants be investigated on suspicion of serious information security offenses, criminal defamation, and harming Israel's diplomatic and security interests.
The Prime Minister sharply criticized the film, arguing that it presents a false portrayal of Israel and the IDF that damages the country's international standing.
"The film presents a false, misleading, and biased narrative that defames the State of Israel and the IDF around the world and seriously damages Israel's standing," Netanyahu stated.
A week and a half ago, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit issued a strongly worded response to the anti-Israel film, accusing it of presenting a distorted, misleading, and unrealistic portrayal of how the IDF plans and carries out strikes against military targets.
According to the military, the film's narrative "is based on major factual errors resulting from a distorted and manipulative presentation."
The IDF emphasized that, contrary to the film's claims, its binding procedures explicitly distinguish between terrorists and uninvolved civilians in Gaza. Strike-planning procedures are based on this distinction, prohibit directing attacks at civilians and require commanders to minimize the possibility of civilian casualties as much as possible.
The military also rejected claims that it planned, approved or carried out an attack in Gaza in which 500 civilians, or anything approaching that number, were expected to be killed. It added that there has never been a serious allegation that an IDF strike caused casualties on such a scale.
The IDF further denied that artificial intelligence independently selects targets for attack.
"AI has never independently selected targets for attack in the IDF," the military said. Targets are identified by qualified intelligence officers, while strike planning is carried out by the relevant professional bodies and the decision to strike is made by operational commanders.
The IDF accused the filmmakers of failing to carry out sufficient fact-checking and cross-checking of sources before producing the film.
According to the military, many of the interviewees presented as former members of the IDF Intelligence Directorate discuss only limited, preliminary stages of the intelligence process rather than the much broader process of planning and approving strikes.
The latter process, the IDF said, involves operational bodies responsible for planning and carrying out attacks. In some cases, the military claimed, interviewees in the film expressed assumptions and impressions that had no factual basis.
The filmmakers also chose not to show many of the other officials involved in the full targeting process, including professionals responsible for planning measures to reduce civilian harm, legal advisers who review planned strikes, and commanders who ultimately approve or reject them.
The IDF said this omission creates a "very inaccurate and misleading" picture of reality.