The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Israeli authorities to immediately end threats of legal action against Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham and filmmaker Rachel Szor over their documentary “
NAZA
,” which accuses the Israeli military of using AI-powered targeting systems in the mass killing of civilians in Gaza.
Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar has
threatened
to seek the revocation of Abraham’s and Szor’s Israeli citizenship under the country’s Citizenship Law,
saying
it “allows for the revocation of citizenship due to a ‘breach of allegiance to the State of Israel.’” Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir on Monday said military lawyers were examining “possible legal measures concerning the film and those involved in it,” accusing them of “blood libels, deliberate distortions of reality and grave, false accusations against IDF soldiers and commanders.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also
publicly denounced
the filmmakers and their documentary, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival. Member of Knesset and former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman
called
Abraham and Szor “haters of Israel,” while the former prime minister Naftali Bennett
described
the film, titled with an IDF acronym for “collateral damage,” as “a horrific blood libel against our sons and daughters.”
“Israeli authorities must ensure the safety of Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and immediately reject any attempt to use citizenship rights as a weapon against journalists,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Threats from senior government officials can have a chilling effect on journalists and encourage members of the public to engage in intimidation and silencing against them. These threats cannot be dismissed as political rhetoric. They are a warning to journalists and sources about the potential consequences of reporting critically on powerful institutions—and a dangerous signal to other jour
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