The Israeli government is promoting an online film project designed to counter the findings of the award-winning documentary NAZA, which details Israel’s mass killings of civilians in Gaza. NAZA, directed by Oscar-winning filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, is currently in cinemas and will be shown in over 50 countries. The Israeli government has denounced the film, accusing the directors of treason and planning to strip them of their citizenship.
Israeli embassies have been promoting a link to a newly produced online film titled NAZA: The Real Story. This film, hosted on nazadocumentary.com, mimics the style of the original documentary, including the use of anonymized interviews shot on rooftops in Tel Aviv. Ariel Averbuch, an Israeli attorney and army reservist who made the new documentary, described it as an "offensive move" intended to shift focus from allegations about the Israeli military’s actions. The film claims Israel has "the most moral army in the world."
Another filmmaker associated with NAZA: The Real Story is Roi Danino, a candidate for the right-wing Israel First party. The website domain was registered on September 16, six days after NAZA’s premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the special jury prize. Initially, the website falsely presented itself as a promotional page for NAZA, naming Abraham and Szor as the directors. It later became a platform for the rival film, with a viewer counter suggesting over 42 million views, despite its official YouTube page having only 30,000 views. This discrepancy suggests the counter may have been driven by automated requests rather than actual views.
The original film NAZA details how an AI-assisted mass surveillance system was activated during the Gaza war, revealing systems used to target Hamas operatives, resulting in civilian casualties. The Israeli embassy to the US, which shared the new documentary on social media, stated the ministry of foreign affairs was not involved in producing the film and intended only to "amplify the message of its creators."
The Israeli government has awarded the film-makers a certificate of appreciation for their contribution to public diplomacy, claiming the production garnered tens of millions of views. The Guardian has criticized the Israeli government for promoting a film that falsely claimed to be Abraham and Szor’s documentary, describing it as an attempt to mislead audiences.
Demonstrators have gathered outside the home of Szor’s parents, demanding severe punishment for the directors. The Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff has vowed to use "every tool at our disposal" against the film. The military has issued a response to the film based on interviews with over 100 sources. Within a week of NAZA’s premiere, Israel’s ministry of culture announced an investigation into the documentary and called for the directors to be stripped of their citizenship.
At a Q&A after its New York premiere, Szor and Abraham addressed the backlash, highlighting the secrecy surrounding the systems detailed in their film. At the London Film Festival, one of NAZA’s producers remarked on the unexpected level of aggression from Israeli politicians. The backlash has been described as stressful and frightening for the filmmakers, despite the positive global reaction to the film.
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