‘Treason’: Israeli culture minister says will strip award-winning Gaza documentary directors of their citizenship

Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar (centre), with members of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Jerusalem during a Sigd holiday celebration. — Middle East Images pic via AFP

First Published: Monday, 14 Sep 2026 11:30 AM MYT

JERUSALEM, Sept 14 — Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar called on Sunday for the award-winning directors of an Israeli-made Gaza documentary to be stripped of citizenship, accusing them of “treason against the state”.

In NAZA, Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor spoke to 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza that have killed tens of thousands of civilians.

The 80-minute documentary won a special jury prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

Zohar accused the directors of being willing 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 added on X.

Other Israeli ministers also took aim at the directors, who won an Oscar in 2025 for their film No Other Land about Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

“You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel. Go away!” far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on X.

“I am certain that your friends, that is to say our enemies Hamas in Gaza, will welcome you with open arms,” continued the far-right minister.

The revocation of nationality is legally possible in Israel, although it is rarely applied.

In 2022, the Supreme Court confirmed that the state may strip people of their nationality if they have failed to show “loyalty”, for example by committing acts of espionage or treason.

The law was also expanded in 2023 to apply to people convicted of “terrorism”.

The law requires the interior minister to submit the revocation request, the justice minister to approve it and judges to validate it.

Abraham said “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”.

The Israeli military has criticised the use of anonymous testimonies in the film, saying on Friday the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified”.

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians.

Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages to Gaza.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. — AFP