{"id":628702,"date":"2026-09-27T02:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T02:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/628702\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T02:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T02:30:10","slug":"naza-film-makers-address-threats-at-documentarys-new-york-city-premiere-naza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/628702\/","title":{"rendered":"NAZA film-makers address threats at documentary\u2019s New York City premiere | NAZA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The film-makers behind NAZA<\/a>, the award-winning documentary on Israel\u2019s systemic mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, defended their findings at the film\u2019s North American premiere in New York on Saturday, amid protests in Israel and escalating threats<\/a> from Israeli officials to strip them of their citizenship.<\/p>\n

The critically acclaimed film<\/a>, directed by Oscar-winning film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by the Guardian, features the testimony of 24 anonymized Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers involved in the surveillance and remote killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who describe the AI-powered systems<\/a> used to select their targets. The project takes its name from an acronym used euphemistically by Israeli intelligence to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike<\/a>, which are often conducted at night in private homes, killing many family members, including children, at once.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country is doing so much to hide these systems,\u201d Szor told the audience at the New York film festival<\/a> in a Q&A that followed the film\u2019s premiere. \u201cIt\u2019s not a world that is open even to the Israeli public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese crimes that you saw are ongoing,\u201d Abraham said. \u201cThey\u2019re ongoing because it\u2019s what our country is doing, and because of what your country is supporting and funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NAZANAZA – official trailer<\/p>\n

The 80-minute documentary, filmed in secret on rooftops in Tel Aviv, builds on reporting published from 2023 to 2025 in the Guardian; +972 Magazine, an Israeli-Palestinian publication; and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call. It held its world premiere earlier this month at the Venice film festival, where it received a 25-minute standing ovation \u2013 a festival record \u2013 and went on to win the special jury prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The film has been met with fierce derision from Israeli officials as well as threats to the film-makers, amid a tense election season largely focused on Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s ongoing campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians to date and has been declared a genocide<\/a> by numerous international agencies, including the United Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple dozen protesters gathered outside the film\u2019s premiere at the Lincoln Center on Saturday afternoon, brandishing Israeli flags and signs calling for viewers to \u201clearn the facts\u201d of the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. At least one truck with LED screens accusing NAZA of being \u201cpropaganda dressed up as a documentary\u201d circled the theater.<\/p>\n

NAZA\u2019s New York City premiere came just a day after the Israeli prime minister offered an aggressive defense<\/a> of Israel\u2019s use of deadly force in Gaza just across Central Park to the UN general assembly. As hundreds of protesters gathered outside and dozens of diplomats inside walked out in solidarity with Palestinians, Netanyahu called Israel\u2019s war in Gaza the \u201copposite of genocide\u201d and denounced Israel\u2019s critics. Netanyahu had previously said he would seek new laws to strip citizenship<\/a> from people who \u201csmear\u201d Israeli soldiers in response to NAZA.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, to all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York<\/a>, I say this: shame on you!\u201d he said Thursday.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Netanyahu reiterated<\/a> his plan to advance legislation revoking the citizenship of Abraham and Szor, two of the four film-makers behind No Other Land<\/a>, an unstinting look at the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which won the Oscar for best documentary in 2025. In an interview with the conservative Israeli outlet Makor Rishon, he likened NAZA to \u201claunching dozens of ballistic missiles\u201d at Israel.<\/p>\n

Abraham addressed the missile comment directly in the post-screening Q&A, referring to such a characterization as \u201cthe criminalization of journalism and of this kind of work\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also defended the film\u2019s use of anonymous sources as necessary to expose systems of mass killing hidden by the Israeli state. \u201cThroughout the history of investigative journalism, very often granting confidentiality to sources is a means to pursue the truth,\u201d he said. \u201cThis film could not have been made any other way and because the crimes are ongoing, we felt that it was important to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s culture minister, Miki Zohar, has called for the film-makers\u2019 citizenship to be revoked, and accused them of \u201ctreason against the state\u201d. The IDF\u2019s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said the military would \u201cnot allow IDF soldiers to be made targets through lies and blood libels\u201d and would use \u201cevery tool at our disposal\u201d against the film.<\/p>\n

Rightwing activists have gone even further, calling for violence against the pair. Earlier this month, dozens of agitators surrounded<\/a> Szor\u2019s parents\u2019 home in central Israel, with one protester calling for the \u201cdeath penalty for traitors\u201d.<\/p>\n

More than 1,500 Israeli film professionals, 43 Israeli human rights organizations and the directors of major international festivals have defended<\/a> Abraham and Szor, as have numerous international press freedom organizations<\/a>. The film is currently set for release next month in cinemas in 55 countries, before a digital global release, for free, on the Guardian\u2019s website in November, as part of the organization\u2019s commitment to the dissemination of independent journalism.<\/p>\n

But the US premiere Saturday held particular resonance, given the country\u2019s annual $3.8bn in military assistance<\/a> to Israel \u2013 a connection the film-makers noted to the New York City crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese soldiers are talking about what has been done with the taxpayer money of the people sitting here,\u201d said Abraham.<\/p>\n

He also responded to the protesters outside the theater invoking the attacks of October 7. \u201cIt\u2019s in the film and it\u2019s completely unjustified,\u201d he said of the massacre, which killed 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians. \u201cBut it also cannot justify what you\u2019ve seen in the film. It doesn\u2019t justify the slaughter of so many civilians in Gaza<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to live in a world where rightful empathy to Israeli victims is weaponized by leaders like Netanyahu \u2013 cynical people who promise nothing other than perpetual occupation and war,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s weaponized to mean a lack of empathy to Palestinians, to mean this continuous killing and murder of people. I don\u2019t think we should want to live in such a world. I think we should all refuse to play this zero-sum game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The film-makers behind NAZA, the award-winning documentary on Israel\u2019s systemic mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, defended their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-628702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}