Israeli culture minister vows to revoke citizenship of Gaza documentary filmmakers

Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar on Sunday vowed to act to revoke the Israeli citizenship of filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor after their Gaza war documentary NAZA won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. In a post on US social media company X, Zohar described the film’s victory as “shocking” and the documentary as “vile,” accusing its creators of harming their country to win applause abroad and saying their actions “constitute treason against the state.” “This is exactly the reason I led the important reform in cinema so that Israeli citizens will no longer have to pay out of their own pockets for the harm to IDF soldiers and the State of Israel,” he said. “As culture minister, I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” Zohar added. According to the Venice Film Festival’s official synopsis, NAZA examines what it describes as the systems behind Israel’s “calculated mass killing” of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and includes testimony from Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers. The documentary won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday after premiering Thursday. It received a standing ovation lasting about 25 minutes at its Venice premiere.