The filmmakers behind NAZA, the award-winning documentary about Israel’s systematic massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, defended their findings at the film’s North American premiere in New York on Saturday, amid protests in Israel and escalating threats from Israeli officials to strip them of their citizenship.
The critically acclaimed film, directed by Oscar-winning filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by the Guardian, features testimony from 24 unnamed Israeli soldiers and intelligence agents involved in the remote surveillance and assassination of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who describe the AI-powered systems used to select their targets. The project takes its name from an acronym used euphemistically by Israeli intelligence to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike, which is often carried out at night in private homes, killing many family members, including children, in one go.
“Our country does so much to hide these systems,” Szor told the New York film festival audience during a question-and-answer session that followed the film’s premiere. “It’s not a world open even to the Israeli public. »
“These crimes that you saw are continuing,” Abraham said. “They continue because that’s what our country does and because of what your country supports and funds.”
The 80-minute documentary, filmed in secret on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, is based on reports published from 2023 to 2025 in the Guardian; +972 Magazine, an Israeli-Palestinian publication; and Hebrew outlet Local Call. It made its world premiere earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a 25-minute standing ovation – a festival record – and won the Special Jury Prize.
The film has drawn sharp mockery from Israeli officials as well as threats against the filmmakers, amid a tense election season largely centered on Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians to date and has been declared a genocide by numerous international agencies, including the United Nations.
About 20 protesters gathered Saturday afternoon outside the film’s premiere at Lincoln Center, waving Israeli flags and signs calling on viewers to “know the facts” about the October 7, 2023 attacks perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians. At least one truck equipped with LED screens accusing NAZA of being “propaganda disguised as a documentary” toured the theater.
NAZA’s New York premiere took place just a day after Israel’s prime minister delivered an aggressive defense of Israel’s use of lethal force in Gaza, just across Central Park, to the U.N. General Assembly. As hundreds of protesters gathered outside and dozens of diplomats inside walked out in solidarity with the Palestinians, Netanyahu called Israel’s war in Gaza the “opposite of genocide” and denounced criticism of Israel. Netanyahu previously said he would seek new laws to strip citizenship from people who “defame” Israeli soldiers in response to NAZA.
“So to all those who spread these lies about my country and our brave soldiers, whether they are sitting in this room or in the office of the anti-Semitic mayor of New York, I say this: shame on you! he said Thursday.
On Friday, Netanyahu reiterated his intention to advance legislation revoking the citizenship of Abraham and Szor, two of the four filmmakers behind No Other Land, an unflinching look at the Israeli-occupied West Bank that won the 2025 Academy Award for best documentary. In an interview with conservative Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon, he compared NAZA to “launching dozens of ballistic missiles” at Israel.
Abraham addressed the missile comment directly in the post-screening Q&A, referring to such characterization as “the criminalization of journalism and this type of work.”
He also defended the film’s use of anonymous sources, deemed necessary to denounce the systems of massacres hidden by the Israeli state. “Throughout the history of investigative journalism, very often, granting confidentiality to sources is a way of seeking the truth,” he said. “This film could not have been made any other way and since the crimes continue, we thought it was important to do it.”
Alongside Netanyahu, Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar called for the filmmakers’ citizenship to be revoked and accused them of “treason against the state.” IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said the army “would not allow IDF soldiers to be targeted through lies and blood libel” and would use “all tools at our disposal” against the film.
Right-wing activists went even further, calling for violence against the two men. Earlier this month, dozens of agitators surrounded Szor’s parents’ home in central Israel, with one protester calling for the “death penalty for traitors.”
More than 1,500 Israeli film professionals, 43 Israeli human rights organizations and directors of major international festivals defended Abraham and Szor, as did numerous international press freedom organizations. The film is currently scheduled to be released in cinemas in 55 countries next month, ahead of a free global digital release on the Guardian website in November, as part of the organisation’s commitment to the diffusion of independent journalism.
But Saturday’s U.S. premiere had particular resonance, given the country’s annual military aid to Israel of $3.8 billion — a connection the filmmakers noted with New York audiences.
“These soldiers are talking about what was done with the taxpayer dollars of the people sitting here,” Abraham said.
He also responded to protesters in front of the theater by invoking the October 7 attacks. “It’s in the movie and it’s completely unjustified,” he said of the massacre that killed 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians. “But it also cannot justify what you saw in the film. It does not justify the massacre of so many civilians in Gaza.”
“I don’t want to live in a world where legitimate empathy for Israeli victims is exploited by leaders like Netanyahu – cynical people who promise nothing but perpetual occupation and war,” he added. “It is a weapon used to signify a lack of empathy towards the Palestinians, to signify continued massacres and killings. I don’t think we should want to live in such a world. I think we should all refuse to play this zero-sum game.”
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