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Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar has called for the citizenship of two award-winning documentary directors to be revoked over their Gaza film.
Zohar made the call on Sunday, accusing directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of “treason against the state” over their documentary NAZA.
The 80-minute film features testimonies from 24 Israeli military and intelligence whistleblowers about AI-powered targeting systems used in Gaza.
The documentary, which spotlights Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, won a special jury prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
Zohar accused the directors of trying to “harm their homeland in order to receive applause from antisemites around the world”.
“I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” he said on X.
Other Israeli ministers have also criticised the directors, who won an Oscar in 2025 for No Other Land, a film about Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the directors were “a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel”.
“I am certain that your friends, that is to say our enemies Hamas in Gaza, will welcome you with open arms,” Ben-Gvir said.
Israeli law allows citizenship to be revoked in certain circumstances, although the measure is rarely used.
In 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court confirmed that citizenship could be revoked for failure to show “loyalty”, including acts of espionage or treason.
The law was expanded in 2023 to cover people convicted of terrorism.
The process requires the interior minister to submit a revocation request, the justice minister to approve it, and judges to validate it.
Abraham defended the documentary, saying Israeli intelligence officers described the killings in Gaza as systematic rather than accidental.
“The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us about how this mass killing is systemic: not by accident, but by design, actions of murder and policies that are based on the total dehumanisation of Palestinians,” he said.
The Israeli military has criticised the film’s use of anonymous testimonies, saying on Friday that the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified”.
Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, killing 1,221 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza, according to AFP figures based on Israeli sources.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has since killed more than 73,000 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.
