Israeli Politics · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
Miki Zohar Threatens To Revoke Yuval Abraham And Rachel Szor’s Israeli Citizenship Over NAZA
Zohar vows to strip NAZA directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of citizenship. They are accused of treason after NAZA won Venice's Special Jury Prize.
Whether treason is established by courts.
6 of 8 outlets skipped it: zohar says his funding reforms stopped citizens paying for harm to IDF soldiers.
i24NEWS was read line by line by the Watchdog: 7.3. See the score →
14outlets compared
Same story, two versions
tap a side to read it in full
i24NEWS
“He characterized their work as treason, an allegation that has not been established through judicial proceedings.”Read the original ↗
i24NEWS qualifies treason as unproven; The Guardian reports treason against the state without the judicial caveat.
Zohar moves to revoke
Israel’s culture minister Miki Zohar threatened to strip Israeli citizenship from NAZA directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor after the documentary won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival.
““I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” Zohar wrote on X.”
Zohar wrote on X that he would “act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” framing the filmmakers’ work as betrayal.
The Guardian reported that NAZA is named for an acronym used by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza, and that the film includes interviews with 24 Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers.T
The documentary’s title and claims were tied to allegations about “AI-powered targeting systems” used to bombard Gaza, and The Guardian said one interview claimed approval had been given to kill 500 NAZA in order to kill one Hamas member.T
TheWrap said Zohar vowed to “act to revoke” the citizenship of Abraham and Szor after the Venice win, and described NAZA as featuring testimony from Israel Defense Force soldiers about the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Ben-Gvir and IDF push back
The far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked the directors on X, telling them, “Go away!” and adding that he was “certain that your friends, that is to say our enemies Hamas in Gaza, will welcome you with open arms.”
The Guardian said Israel’s military responded to NAZA by saying it “categorically rejects” the allegations made in the documentary and criticized the use of anonymous testimonies, saying the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified”.T
Variety described Zohar’s post as calling the film “shocking” and accusing the filmmakers of “betraying the state,” while also quoting Abraham’s response that it was “not very easy” to stand in Venice as politicians and journalists attacked the film “without even seeing it.”
Variety also reported that Abraham said “the denial of a crime is what helps it persist,” and that Israelis should watch the film because “it’s our country that is doing these crimes.”
In parallel, 20Minutos reported that Zohar accused the filmmakers of “treason against the country,” and said the Israeli Army contradicted the documentary by stating that decisions to bomb Gaza are always taken by human personnel and not by artificial intelligence (AI).
Legal process and wider stakes
The Guardian said the revocation of nationality is legally possible in Israel, noting that in 2022 the supreme court confirmed the state may strip people of their nationality if they have failed to show “loyalty,” and that the law was expanded in 2023 to apply to people convicted of “terrorism”.T
“the supreme court confirmed that the state may strip people of their nationality if they have failed to show “loyalty””
It added that the law requires the interior minister to submit the revocation request, the justice minister to approve it and judges to validate it, setting out the formal steps behind Zohar’s threat.
The Guardian also said Abraham’s family home was targeted by a rightwing mob after the world premiere of 2024’s No Other Land, and Abraham told the outlet that “it’s US-funded bulldozers and weapons” rather than a mob that threatens Palestinians’ homes.T
TheWrap reported that NAZA does not yet have distribution in Israel, while Abraham said the filmmakers intended to “release it as widely as possible in Israel, and in the United States, and Germany,” and The Hollywood Reporter tied the documentary to testimony from 24 Israeli military officers.
In the wider political context, The Guardian said Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, and that Hamas militants took 251 hostages to Gaza, while the Gaza health ministry reported more than 73,000 deaths in the subsequent three years of Israeli bombardment.T