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LONDON: Film festivals and filmmakers around the world have rallied around the directors of the Gaza documentary \u201cNAZA,\u201d after an Israeli minister accused them of treason and threatened to revoke their citizenship.<\/p>\n
Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor have faced mounting criticism from officials in Israel since their documentary, which documents Israeli military operations in Gaza, and in particular the killing of civilians, won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival at the weekend.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s minister of culture and sports, Miki Zohar, said he would \u201cact immediately\u201d to revoke the citizenship of the filmmakers, accusing them of \u201ctreason against the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film, produced by The Guardian newspaper, features testimonies from 24 Israeli military and intelligence personnel about the use of AI-powered targeting systems in Gaza. It builds on investigations published by Israeli media outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call, as well as Guardian news reports.<\/p>\n
The threats against the directors prompted a broad response from the international film community, with the directors of the Telluride, Locarno, Berlin and San Sebastian film festivals among those expressing support.<\/p>\n
Julie Huntsinger, artistic director of the Telluride Film Festival, said that threatening the filmmakers\u2019 citizenship was \u201cunacceptable\u201d and that the issue \u201cshould be condemned by any thinking human.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Berlin International Film Festival\u2019s director, Tricia Tuttle, said artists must be free to examine events critically, and argued that in a democratic society the response to films should be \u201cdialogue and scrutiny, not intimidation or punishment by the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 1,500 Israeli filmmakers signed a petition backing Abraham and Szor, and rejecting the accusation that they sought to damage Israel\u2019s international reputation. The petition warned that the campaign against them was moving toward rhetoric that could effectively sanction violence and pose a threat to their lives.<\/p>\n
Abraham and Szor won an Oscar last year for their documentary \u201cNo Other Land\u201d, made in partnership with Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, which examined Israeli settler violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military has rejected claims \u201cNAZA\u201d makes about its operations, saying they were based on anonymous sources that could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n