An Israeli minister has threatened to have the directors of NAZA – a documentary about the Israeli military’s AI-assisted genocide in Gaza – deprived of their citizenships.

Culture minister Miki Zohar has written to Israeli immigration authorities, accusing directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of “treason against the state” and being “willing to harm their homeland just to get applause from antisemites around the world”, he wrote in a post on X.

“Anyone who acts against the state of Israel during wartime cannot continue to hold Israeli citizenship,” he added.

The move comes after NAZA won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday and prompted a record-breaking standing ovation lasting more than 24 minutes.

The film shows Abraham and Szor as they interview 24 military and intelligence whistleblowers, who together outline Israel’s use of AI-powered systems to target and kill Palestinians in Gaza.

The interviewees claim that Israeli forces prefer to attack targeted Palestinians in their homes at night, regardless of nearby neighbours or family members.

The word “NAZA” itself is a Hebrew acronym used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to mean ‘collateral damage’ – or civilian death. In one instance, approval was given to carry out an attack on one Hamas member that would kill 500 civilians.

Abraham and Szor, who worked with two Palestinian directors on their Oscar-winning debut documentary No Other Land, have spoken about working within a system of “Jewish-Israeli supremacy and privilege”. Unlike their previous film, NAZA was not made in collaboration with Palestinian directors.

The IDF has rejected allegations raised by the film, including around the use of AI to select strike targets. A spokesperson said the Israeli army “makes unprecedented efforts to minimise harm to civilians”.

The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 2023 is at least 73,786, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

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