Netanyahu Threatens Citizenship Bills Targeting Venice-Winning NAZA Filmmakers

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to advance legislation that would revoke the citizenship of anyone who “defames” Israeli soldiers, sharpening his threat against the directors of NAZA, a Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize–winning documentary about alleged civilian targeting in Gaza, Reuters reported. Directed by Israeli journalists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the film takes its title from a military term for expected collateral casualties and draws on anonymous interviews with intelligence officers and soldiers.

In a social media video, Netanyahu said he would push two bills: one to strip citizenship from people who slander IDF soldiers, and another to raise statutory defamation damages twentyfold. “We will hit them both in their pockets and in their citizenship, as their place is not with us,” he said, according to Reuters. Deadline noted that Culture Minister Miki Zohar has also floated citizenship measures against the filmmakers, who previously co-directed the Oscar-winning No Other Land.

Netanyahu framed the push as a response to “immense damage” done to soldiers, citing NAZA, 2025 remarks by left-wing politician Yair Golan, and a 2024 leak of detainee-abuse footage. The documentary premiered as a late Venice competition entry, drew a lengthy standing ovation, and won the Special Jury Prize on Saturday. The Israeli military has been examining possible legal action; Netanyahu’s coalition faces a competitive October 27 election climate.

Israel’s Supreme Court in 2022 upheld a narrower law allowing citizenship stripping for breach of trust against the state, and any new bill would likely face court challenges, Reuters noted. The filmmakers have said Israelis should see the documentary and wrestle with its narrative. Gaza health authorities say more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war that followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

With Venice awards season colliding with Israel’s campaign calendar, the citizenship threat keeps NAZA at the center of a free-speech and accountability fight that entertainment and politics desks will keep watching through Election Day.