Israeli minister calls to strip Gaza film directors of citizenship

Israeli minister seeks citizenship action against Gaza documentary directors

Indiadailyupdate.com – Israel’s culture minister has called for the citizenship of two Israeli filmmakers to be revoked after their Gaza documentary received international recognition at the Venice Film Festival.

Miki Zohar made the demand on Sunday, directing his criticism at Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the directors of NAZA. The 80-minute film features testimony from 24 Israeli military and intelligence whistleblowers who describe AI-assisted targeting systems used during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

The documentary was awarded a special jury prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Its release and festival success have intensified a political dispute in Israel over dissent, wartime reporting and the limits of public criticism during the Gaza conflict.

Accusations of disloyalty

In a post on X, Zohar accused the filmmakers of betraying the country and claimed they were prepared to damage Israel’s interests to win approval abroad.

I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state.

He also described the directors as people willing to “harm their homeland in order to receive applause from antisemites around the world”.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined the criticism, attacking Abraham and Szor in his own X post. The two filmmakers previously won an Oscar in 2025 for No Other Land, a film focused on Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel. Go away!

Ben-Gvir went on to say that Hamas in Gaza, whom he described as Israel’s enemies, would welcome the directors.

What the film alleges

NAZA examines the role of technology and military intelligence in the war in Gaza through anonymous interviews with people presented as Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers. The interviewees discuss systems that use artificial intelligence in the targeting process during air strikes and other attacks.

Abraham said the accounts gathered for the documentary portray civilian deaths not as isolated mistakes, but as part of a wider system shaped by policy and operational choices.

The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us about how this mass killing is systemic: not by accident, but by design, actions of murder and policies that are based on the total dehumanisation of Palestinians.

The Israeli military has challenged the film’s reliance on unnamed sources. On Friday, it said the whistleblowers’ identities could not be verified because their testimony was anonymous.

The dispute highlights a central tension around reporting on the Gaza war: anonymity can protect people who fear professional, legal or personal consequences for speaking publicly, while critics argue that unidentified sources are more difficult to independently assess. The film places that tension at the centre of a debate that is already deeply polarised inside Israel and internationally.

Citizenship revocation is possible but uncommon

Israeli law allows nationality to be withdrawn in certain circumstances, though the measure is used rarely. A 2022 Supreme Court ruling affirmed that citizenship may be revoked where a person has shown a lack of loyalty to the state, including through acts such as espionage or treason.

Revoking citizenship does not rest with the culture minister alone. The legal process requires the interior minister to bring a request, approval from the justice minister, and validation by judges. Zohar’s comments therefore represent a political demand rather than an immediate removal of Abraham and Szor’s citizenship.

The case has wider implications because citizenship is generally treated as a core legal bond between an individual and the state. Calls to use revocation powers against artists or journalists can raise questions about free expression, political speech and the threshold required for a state to classify criticism as disloyalty.

War in Gaza remains at the centre of the debate

The conflict followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,221 people in figures compiled from official Israeli data. Israel then launched its military campaign in Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, says more than 73,000 people have been killed in the territory. The United Nations considers the ministry’s figures reliable.

As the war’s human cost remains a subject of international scrutiny, Israeli filmmakers, journalists, officials and military voices have faced increasingly sharp disagreements over how the conflict should be depicted. NAZA has now become a prominent example of that divide, with its festival award bringing renewed attention to both its allegations and the political reaction against its creators.