The documentary Naza which analyzes the “systematic way” in which the Israeli Army has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, has unleashed a wave of violence and persecution against its directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, as well as forcing a national debate about Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
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”Kapo (a pejorative term used for concentration camp prisoners who collaborated with the Nazis), you are welcome to jump to Gaza (…) you will enjoy the tunnels to the fullest” or “Yuval don’t come back. I recommend it” are some of the hundreds of messages and threats directed at the Israeli filmmakers in an Instagram post by the New York Film Festival, where the documentary will be screened next week.
“If they dare to set foot in Israel they should not be given even a minute,” said journalist Yehuda Schlesinger on an Israeli channel.
Others were led by far-right activists such as the ultranationalist and convict Mordechai David, who moved from words to action this Wednesday by attending a protest in front of Szor’s parents’ home to intimidate them.
There, dozens of people gathered chanting slogans like “execute the traitors,” a label repeated on social media to refer to these two journalists, Oscar winners for a previous documentary about settler violence in the West Bank.
“From today we will pursue them everywhere in the country, they and their families will not legally set foot on this land,” threatens David — with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and who this year received a restraining order from another left-wing activist’s home — in one of the protest videos he recorded himself.
Ziv Baranes, another far-right activist with 19,000 followers on Facebook, published this Thursday a call for a new mobilization in front of the director’s family home. “They should be ashamed to walk around here, because at every corner they will be shouted at as traitors,” he says in his message.
Already in 2024, right-wing protesters went to Abraham’s family home in Beersheva (south), after he was awarded at the Berlinale for his first documentary No Other Land – co-directed by Szor and Palestinians Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal – and in his speech called for an end to the Israeli occupation and the offensive against Gaza.
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The insults also came from other figures such as former Hamas hostage in Gaza Eli Cohen, who on his social media called the directors “imbeciles” and urged Israelis to “go out on the street, hang their posters and spread their photos in all possible media.” And from commentators on Israeli TV channels like 14, closely linked to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. “Hunt them, hunt them, don’t give them respite. If they dare to set foot in Israel, they should not be given even a minute,” said journalist Yehuda Schlesinger on that channel.
Videos made with artificial intelligence against the two journalists also circulate on social media, showing them in prison – video shared by far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir – or walking the streets of Gaza attacked by Palestinians.
This violence was denounced by the Israeli Journalists’ Union, which in a statement expressed being “shocked” by it and defended freedom of expression as a tool to allow debate, in this case about the actions of the Army, an institution widely respected in Israel.
“From today we will pursue them everywhere in the country, they and their families will not legally set foot on this land”
From social media, the slanders moved to the streets, as was the case with the mural made in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, where graffiti artist Dudi Shoval painted the faces of the filmmakers holding a sign with a prisoner number and the word “Traitors” superimposed. He painted the mural on Tuesday and on Wednesday night someone drew the word “Heroes” over “Traitors,” showing a minority in the country defending the journalists’ work in denouncing the Israeli massacre in Gaza.
The harassment on social media and in the streets, without the directors having set foot in Israel so far and before the documentary is accessible to the public, coexists with a discredit campaign by Netanyahu’s government, which has called to revoke their citizenship and investigate the soldiers who narrate in Naza, anonymously for fear of consequences, an Israeli policy of killing civilians in Gaza.
Prevention of censorship
The Israeli Film Council urgently requests the screening of ‘Naza’ among its members
The Israeli Film Council, a public body that advises the government on film policy, requested this Thursday the “urgent” screening among its members of the documentary ‘Naza’, which denounces the killing of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli Army through testimonies of its soldiers and has sparked strong criticism in Israel and threats to its creators. In a statement, the Council, which grants aid and promotes the Israeli film sector, states that “hiding the film from industry professionals in Israel reinforces the suspicion that it is a manipulated film serving Israel’s enemies, mainly Hamas.”
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