Israeli prime minister to pursue new laws as directors of Guardian-produced film face threats from far-right officials and activists

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he would seek new laws allowing Israel to strip citizenship from people who “smear” Israeli soldiers, escalating the campaign against the Oscar-winning film-makers behind the Gaza documentary NAZA, who have faced threats from senior government and military officials and groups of far-right Israelis gathering outside their families’ homes.

NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, concerns the country’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza and is named for an acronym used euphemistically by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike. The film builds on revelations first published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and the Guardian from 2023 to 2025.

The 80-minute documentary won the special jury prize at this year’s Venice film festival on Saturday, after receiving a 25-minute standing ovation – a festival record.

Soon afterwards, however, the film’s directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, came under attack from members of Israel’s government, with the culture minister, Miki Zohar, calling for their citizenship to be revoked, and accusing them of “treason against the state”.

Zohar on Wednesday thanked the Israeli prime minister for his announcement to change the law in order to revoke their citizenship, saying it was “time to put an end to this disgrace”.

“We will revoke citizenship for anyone who defames IDF soldiers around the world – he will be deeply hurt in his pocket,’’ said Netanyahu, who intends to promote two government bills concerning defamation of IDF soldiers and the state of Israel.

According to media reports, the first bill, which will be submitted through the justice ministry, will double the amount of a defamation claim to 1 million shekels without proof of damage. The second bill, which will be submitted through the interior ministry, will stipulate the revocation of citizenship for anyone who defames IDF soldiers and the state of Israel around the world.

Read More: Netanyahu seeks to strip citizenship from Israelis as threats to NAZA film directors intensify