NAZA Gaza doc streams free on Guardian after global release — SkimNews
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- NAZA will stream free on theguardian.com following a theatrical release in 50+ countries including the UK, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Brazil, Canada and the Middle East, with the North American premiere at the New York Film Festival this Saturday
- The film earned a 25-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival (a festival record) and won the special jury prize, with Jonathan Glazer executive producing and James Wilson producing alongside Harry Davies
- Directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor previously won the Best Documentary Oscar for "No Other Land" in 2024 with Palestinian co-directors Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, and built NAZA on investigative reporting published in the Guardian, +972 Magazine and Hebrew outlet Local Call from 2023 to 2025
- The documentary features 24 anonymous members of Israeli intelligence and the military, exposing how Israel calculates expected civilian casualties for airstrikes — the meaning of the acronym NAZA
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the filmmakers' citizenship to be revoked, accusing them of "treason against the state," while dozens of right-wing activists gathered outside Szor's parents' home with one protester demanding the death penalty and demolition of the filmmakers' family homes
- More than 1,500 Israeli filmmakers signed a solidarity petition, 43 Israeli human rights organizations urged authorities to stop the threats, and international directors including Ken Loach, Joshua Oppenheimer, Laura Poitras, Nan Goldin and Hanif Kureishi added their support
Why it matters: A free global Guardian stream paired with a 55-territory theatrical rollout gives NAZA — built on three years of investigative reporting about how Israel computes expected civilian casualties before strikes — unprecedented reach at the exact moment Netanyahu is pushing new citizenship-stripping laws against Israeli artists who "smear" the state. With 1,500 Israeli filmmakers publicly backing Abraham and Szor against death threats and government retaliation, the release itself has become a free-expression flashpoint inside Israel.
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