After the documentary “Naja,” which examines Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival, Israeli culture minister Miki Zohar has threatened to strip the citizenship of its directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
In a post on social media platform X on Sunday, Zohar called the documentary “disgraceful.” He also described the film’s award at the festival as “horrifying” and “astonishing.” He alleged the filmmakers were harming their own country “to win applause from the world’s antisemites.”
Zohar said Abraham and Szor’s actions amount to “betrayal against the state.”
In his post, he wrote: “As culture minister, I will immediately take steps to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these disgraceful filmmakers for betraying the state.”
The 80-minute documentary examines Israel’s use of various AI-driven systems to carry out what it describes as a “planned genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.
At the film’s Venice premiere, the audience gave it a 25-minute standing ovation.
The documentary features interviews with several members of Israel’s military and intelligence services, whose identities were withheld for security reasons. The interviewees describe an AI-driven system called “Lavender,” which, according to their account, is used to monitor Palestinian telecommunications in Gaza and identify targets for killing.
Director Yuval Abraham said he hopes the documentary will encourage Western countries to take steps toward imposing economic sanctions on Israel.