Netanyahu: Revoke Citizenship of Anyone Who Slanders IDF — SkimNews
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- Benjamin Netanyahu called for a law to "revoke the citizenship of anyone who slanders IDF soldiers" in an X video Wednesday, also proposing to raise defamation damages against such defendants twentyfold
- The call follows the Venice Film Festival premiere of "NAZA," which won the special jury prize and received a 24.5-minute standing ovation — the longest in the festival's history
- "NAZA," co-directed by Israeli citizens Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, shows "the systems behind Israel's calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza" and features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers
- Culture Minister Miki Zohar on Sunday threatened to revoke Abraham's and Szor's Israeli citizenships, calling the filmmakers "despicable creators" who committed "a betrayal of the state"
- Zohar accused the creators of being willing "to harm their homeland just to get applause from antisemites around the world," a charge Netanyahu echoed in framing the proposed law
Why it matters: Netanyahu's escalation from his Culture Minister's Sunday threat against two specific filmmakers to a proposed universal citizenship-revocation law — paired with a twentyfold increase in defamation damages — converts one documentary's reception into the prototype offense. Because both directors are Israeli citizens, the law targets domestic dissent about IDF conduct rather than foreign critics, tightening the legal exposure of any Israeli who publicly questions military actions in Gaza.
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