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Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar, said he would move to revoke the citizenship of filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor after their Gaza documentary took a Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. The NAZA documentary Venice prize was announced at the festival’s closing ceremony; within days the minister had called the film vile, described the award as shocking, and said the pair’s actions amounted to treason against the state.
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The statement and who made it
Zohar holds the culture and sport portfolio in the Israeli government and has previously intervened in funding and platform decisions involving Israeli film. His statement, carried by Israeli and international outlets on 13 and 14 September, named both directors and framed the award as a reward for betraying the country.
Abraham is not an unknown quantity in Israeli public debate. He co-directed No Other Land, which won the Academy Award for best documentary feature, and he has been a persistent critic of Israeli policy in the occupied territories. Szor was a cinematographer on that film. The Times of Israel logged the minister’s call in its liveblog; Deadline reported the same demand from the trade side.
What the film claims
NAZA runs 80 minutes. According to the festival’s official synopsis, it examines Israel’s use of AI-assisted targeting systems during the Gaza war, including a system referred to as Lavender, and argues that those systems produced mass civilian casualties. The film received a lengthy standing ovation at its premiere, reported at around 25 minutes.
Those are the filmmakers’ and the festival’s characterisations, and they should be read as such. Israel has consistently rejected the claim that it deliberately targets civilians in Gaza and has said its targeting process includes human review. The existence of AI-assisted target generation in the Gaza campaign has been reported by Israeli and international outlets since 2024; the disputed question is what weight those systems carried in decisions and what review they received. A documentary prize does not settle that dispute, and this report does not attempt to.
Speaking to Haaretz, the directors said they intend to distribute the film inside Israel — which would move the argument from a festival in Venice to Israeli cinemas and regulators.
Whether the threat can be carried out
Probably not by the person making it. Israeli citizenship law does not give the culture ministry any role in revocation. The power sits with the interior minister, on limited statutory grounds including breach of loyalty to the state, and its use requires a court. Israeli courts have treated the provision as exceptional and have been reluctant to leave people stateless, which international law disfavours.
So the realistic reading is that the statement is political rather than procedural: a signal to a domestic audience, and pressure on distributors, broadcasters and funding bodies that do answer to the culture ministry. That second effect is the one worth watching, because it does not need a court.
A pattern, not a one-off
Ministerial responses to Israeli films that criticise the conduct of the war have become routine since No Other Land‘s Oscar, ranging from funding threats to calls for boycotts of ceremonies. Meanwhile the diplomatic environment around Israel has tightened: several Western governments have moved on trade measures tied to settlements, and the Gaza war continues to shape votes at the United Nations.
What makes this case sharper is the target. Stripping citizenship is not a funding decision or a rhetorical boycott; it is a proposal to remove a person’s legal membership of the state because of the content of a film. Even as an unenforceable demand, it sets a marker that press-freedom groups are likely to contest.
What follows: watch for whether the interior ministry says anything at all, whether Israeli distributors take the film, and whether the attorney general’s office comments on the legality of the demand. Any of those three would turn a statement into a process.
Reader questions
What is NAZA?
An 80-minute documentary about the Gaza war by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2026 Venice Film Festival.
What did Israel’s culture minister say?
Miki Zohar said he would act to revoke the two directors’ Israeli citizenship, called the film vile and the award shocking, and said their conduct constituted treason.
Can a culture minister revoke citizenship in Israel?
No. Revocation runs through the interior minister on narrow statutory grounds and requires a court. The culture ministry has no role in the process.
What does the film allege?
According to the festival synopsis, it examines Israel’s use of AI-assisted targeting systems in Gaza, including one referred to as Lavender, and argues they produced mass civilian casualties. Israel rejects the claim that it deliberately targets civilians.
Have these filmmakers won awards before?
Yuval Abraham co-directed No Other Land, which won the Academy Award for best documentary feature; Rachel Szor worked on that film as a cinematographer.
Will the film be shown in Israel?
The directors have said they intend to distribute it there. Whether Israeli distributors and cinemas take it is unresolved.
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