The controversial documentary NAZA, alleging that Israel’s military operations caused systematic, calculated, mass civilian casualties, which debuted at the 83rd International Venice Film Festival earlier this month, is to be released free online, according to a statement by one of its directors.
NAZA co-director Yuval Abraham announced in a post on X/Twitter that he, along with co-director Rachel Szor and the film’s producer, the London daily paper The Guardian, had decided to release the film for free in November because of “the interest and public importance.”
“Its screening will be a brave decision in the face of great violence aimed at concealing it,” he wrote. “I know there is enormous demand to watch the film, and I hope that in this way, everyone will soon be able to see it: whether in cinemas or online in a few weeks.”
Abraham added that they had offered Israeli cinemas the chance to screen the documentary at no cost on The Guardian’s website.
The documentary is due to be released globally in theaters in 56 countries on Monday, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Its North American premiere was slated for Saturday at the New York Film Festival.
IAC will air clips from October 7 outside theater screening 'NAZA'
The Israeli-American Council (IAC) countered by announcing its intention to hold a rally outside New York’s Lincoln Center, where the film is due to be screened.
During the rally, the IAC planned to show clips from October 7: Bearing Witness to the Massacre, a compilation of graphic footage from the October 7 massacre. The rally would also showcase documented material which IAC insisted contradicted NAZA’s claims.
“Movies have editors. History does not,” the IAC said. “Our presence here is the message: we will not allow October 7 to be erased from the story.”
Among the expected participants in the rally are Supernova festival survivors Rom El-Hai and Shalev Biton, along with Yunis Alkarnawi, a Bedouin Israeli who assisted in rescuing hundreds of people during the massacre.
The IAC also launched a petition asking theaters screening the documentary to do so alongside panels featuring testimonials from October 7 survivors, as well as background and context.
“Artistic freedom and public responsibility are not opposing values,” IAC said. “Context is not censorship. It is responsibility.”
In his post, Abraham wrote that recognizing atrocities in Gaza “does not diminish for a moment the heinous massacre of October 7, for which Hamas is responsible, which soldiers talk about in the film, and which has no justification whatsoever.”
Abraham claimed that ignoring the situation in Gaza “is one of the factors that paved the way for that horrific Sabbath,” adding: “The ignoring continues.” Some people, he said, “will tell you that it’s better to hide the truth for the sake of hasbara [public diplomacy] abroad, but that’s nonsense. There, they already know everything. Crimes are not explained but stopped. Hiding the truth first and foremost poisons our society and, above all, allows the harm to human beings in Gaza to continue.”
IDF representative attends 'NAZA' screening in Italy
On Thursday, N12 reported that after unsuccessfully trying to obtain a copy of the documentary, an IDF representative went to see a screening of the film in Bologna, Italy.
N12 noted that, following this viewing, the military assembled a document detailing all the claims made in the documentary and is considering potential responses and courses of action.
One IDF source told N12 that the army is not considering altering its strike policies, saying, “We operated with perfect precision from the start, and a level doesn’t need straightening.”