Netanyahu Seeks Citizenship-Revocation Law, Citing NAZA Filmmakers

Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor could face the loss of their Israeli citizenship over a documentary about AI-powered military targeting in Gaza, under legislation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government will pursue.

Netanyahu announced on September 17 that his government would seek a bill allowing citizenship to be revoked from Israelis who “defame” Israeli soldiers abroad. He explicitly cited NAZA and its directors, Abraham, an investigative journalist, and filmmaker Szor, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The measure has not become law. CPJ said Netanyahu also proposed a second bill that would raise the amount available in defamation lawsuits. The organization called the citizenship proposal a dangerous escalation in official efforts to intimidate and punish journalists.

A film built from insider accounts

The Guardian produced NAZA, which examines AI-powered targeting systems used by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza. The film includes interviews with 24 anonymous military insiders about their roles in the operations.

Among the film’s reported allegations, soldiers describe the military accepting large numbers of Palestinian casualties in some cases to kill one Hamas operative. Those are accounts from the documentary’s interviewees, not findings established by the proposed legislation.

The proposal arrives amid public pressure

The legislative push follows increasingly hostile public rhetoric toward the directors. CPJ reported that dozens of people protested outside Szor’s family home on the day of the announcement; a video from the protest reportedly included chants of “death sentence for traitors.”

CPJ said its earlier warning was that threats by senior officials could encourage members of the public to intimidate or silence the filmmakers. It called on Israeli authorities to end legal and other retaliation against Abraham and Szor, and to ensure the safety of them and their families.

Two bills, neither enacted

• A proposed citizenship-revocation measure for Israelis who “defame” Israeli soldiers abroad.
• A proposed increase in the amount people can be sued for in defamation cases.

The dispute is not only over the film’s reporting but over the consequences for making it. Israeli leaders have described NAZA as a “blood libel” and “fiction,” according to the Guardian editorial. The directors’ work also builds on investigations published by +972 Magazine, Local Call and the Guardian between 2023 and 2025.

What happens next is unresolved: the government still must move the bills through the legislative process, while the filmmakers confront threats already documented by press-freedom advocates. The immediate test is whether criticism of military conduct can be met with scrutiny of the reporting—or with legal penalties aimed at the reporters.