Israeli director Yuval Abraham said Thursday that his documentary “NAZA”, which won an award at the Venice Film Festival and has faced fierce backlash at home, will be made available online for free in November. The film is based on testimony from 24 anonymous Israeli military whistleblowers who accuse the army of widespread killing of civilians in Gaza with the use of AI-powered targeting systems. In a message posted on X also on behalf of co-director Rachel Szor, Abraham said that he wanted to make the film accessible to as many people as possible to allow the “truth to emerge.” “I made this film to spark a public debate about the government’s actions in Gaza, the killing of more than 73,000 people, most of them civilians, and the normalization of a war of annihilation,” the filmmaker wrote. “NAZA” takes its name from the Israeli military term for civilian casualties expected in airstrikes, an abbreviated form of the Hebrew phrase for “collateral damage”. The film has triggered strong reactions in Israel. Culture Minister Miki Zohar requested that authorities consider revoking the citizenship of the two filmmakers on account of “treason”, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as “shocking”. Shortly after the documentary was screened in Venice, a crowd of protestors marched to Szor’s parents’ home two nights in a row, calling on authorities to “expel the traitors”. The Israeli military, for its part, has “categorically rejected” the allegations, stressing that the anonymity of those interviewed and the absence of locations or dates made any verification impossible. It reiterated that decisions on strikes are made by humans and that significant efforts are made to protect civilians. Abraham said he believed his film had “cracked the screen of indifference” in Israel despite a “high personal cost”, adding that he and Rachel Szor would return to Israel to “continue fighting” for the country’s future. Launched in retaliation for the deadly attacks carried out by Hamas on Israeli soil on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the health ministry in the territory controlled by the Islamist movement, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
