AMY GOODMAN: Te film ”NAZA” — which documents the Israeli military’s use of secret AI-powered systems to deliberately and systematically target and massacre civilians in Gaza — won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival Saturday. The film received a record-breaking 25-minute standing ovation when it premiered last week.

The film was directed by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and filmmaker Rachel Szor, both of whom won an Oscar for the documentary “No Other Land” along with Palestinian co-directors Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal.

“NAZA” was shot in secret on rooftops in Tel Aviv over three years and builds on testimony from Israeli military and intelligence sources who spoke on the condition their identities be concealed. The film’s title refers to an acronym used by the Israeli military as a shorthand for civilian killings in Gaza.

This is part of Yuval Abraham’s acceptance speech in Venice Saturday.

Yuval Abraham: “Thank you to the jury, and we are both very grateful to be here. It’s honestly not very easy to stand here. I’m thinking of all the people—the Israeli politicians, the journalists back home—who are now attacking this film, denying it without even seeing it, and so much is being done to not look at reality. The reality is that since this festival started, just over these 10 days, Israel killed six Palestinian children in Gaza at least: a three-year-old girl at a school that was bombed, a seven-year-old with her father in the car, two sisters at home sleeping. And you know, the Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us about how this mass killing is systemic—not by accident, but by design. Actions of murder and policies that are based on total dehumanization of Palestinians. And I want to be very clear: this truth has been documented and is known from the very first day thanks to Palestinian journalists. More than 200 of them were killed by Israel in Gaza. Their voices were silenced and denied.
We believe that the denial of a crime is what helps it persist. And that’s why it’s really, especially important for us that Israelis watch this film—it’s our country that is doing these crimes—that Europeans watch it, and especially here in Italy, because your government and the German government are blocking pressure on Israel that can end this, that Americans watch it, because that country is funding much of the killing.”

AMY GOODMAN: “NAZA’s” win at Venice was met with angry backlash from Israel’s government with Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar threatening to revoke Abraham and Szor’s Israeli citizenship.

In a post on X Sunday, Zohar called the documentary “vile” and accused the filmmakers of treason.