A scandal has erupted in Israel after the country’s Minister of Culture, Miki Zoar, demanded that two film directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Shor, be stripped of their citizenship. The reason for this harsh reaction was their documentary film *NAZA*, which won the Special Jury Prize at the prestigious Venice Film Festival. The film examines the actions of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and raises pressing questions about military operations and their impact on the civilian population.
Minister Zoar did not hold back his emotions, calling the film a “betrayal” and accusing its makers of being prepared to “harm their homeland for the sake of applause from anti-Semites around the world”. He announced his intention to initiate proceedings to revoke their citizenship, a process which is highly complex in Israel and requires the consent of the Minister of Justice and a court ruling. This means that the Ministry of Culture cannot implement such measures on its own, leaving the fate of Abraham and Shor in limbo.
The plot of the film ‘NAZA’ revolves around the events that unfolded following the attack by Palestinian groups on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. The directors interviewed 24 Israeli military personnel and intelligence officers, obscuring their faces and altering their voices. The film discusses in detail the use of artificial intelligence to select targets for attacks, which has provoked mixed reactions.
The Israel Defence Forces, known as the IDF, criticised the film, stating that some of the facts presented in it were untrue and pointing to the unreliability of the sources.
Yuval Abraham, one of the film’s co-directors, had previously worked with the Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouk, which also sparked a wave of debate. Researchers point to possible links between members of the Alnaouk family and the terrorist organisation Hamas.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that Abraham and Shore have attracted the attention of the international public. Their previous project, *No Other Land*, which explores the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2025.
The situation surrounding the film ‘NAZA’ once again highlights just how difficult it is for art and politics to coexist in the complex reality of the Middle East, where opinions and emotions sometimes find themselves at the forefront of the conflict.