At a sold-out IFC Center screening of NAZA, the theater stayed hushed until the final credit. The documentary assembles testimony from two dozen former Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers who describe participating in grave crimes in Gaza, including chilling accounts such as bombing being \u001cinsanely fun\u001d and snipers firing at starving people near aid sites. One attendee, Roland Lewis, reflected, \u001cI couldn\u0019t stop thinking about the Nuremberg trials.\u001d Another viewer, a retired lawyer, said, \u001cI wanted to leave ten minutes in,\u001d calling it \u001cthe hardest thing I\u0019ve ever seen.\u001d<\/p>\n
NAZA is pressing forward with a U.S. theatrical rollout and recently topped the Italian box office, surpassing Avengers: Endgame. In late November, it is slated to stream for free on The Guardian\u0019s website. The momentum is drawing passionate advocacy: Caro Claire Burke, author of Yesteryear<\/em>, purchased all 1 p.m. showings at IFC for a week to distribute tickets without charge, writing that it \u001cchanged my understanding of what art can and should do.\u001d The film also drew a standing ovation lasting 25 minutes at the Venice Film Festival.<\/p>\n Backlash has escalated in parallel. Critics from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine camps want the anonymous interviewees named\u0014either to face prosecution for war crimes or for treason. The Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, have been attacked for presenting the story from inside their society; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to pursue legal changes in Israel to revoke their citizenship, and a mural appeared in Israel with crosshairs beside their faces. The IDF issued a statement alleging \u001csubstantial factual errors\u001d and disputed claims about AI-generated \u001ckill lists\u001d attributed to a system known as Lavender, emphasizing that human intelligence officers are involved in targeting decisions.<\/p>\n International-law scholar Kevin Jon Heller says South Africa is expected to revise its 750-page filing in its ICJ genocide case to include testimonies from the film, though anonymity may limit their weight even as corroboration could enhance it. The IDF has asked the security agency Shin Bet to investigate the anonymous sources; The Guardian, which produced the film, says attorneys and editors verified their identities. NAZA dwells on proportionality (its title is an acronym for the Hebrew words for \u001ccollateral damage\u001d), relaying ratios officers say were used to approve strikes\u00141 deaths for a single low-level Hamas fighter in some instances, and one account claiming authorization to kill as many as 500 civilians. Heller noted, \u001cI don\u0019t think there\u0019s any military in the world other than Israel that would say you can kill 20 civilians for any Hamas fighter.\u001d The IDF denies authorizing casualties at either level.<\/p>\n Proving disproportionality is exceedingly rare; the article cites only one successful conviction on those grounds, against Bosnian Serb commander Stanislav Gali\u00107. Meanwhile, at the ICC, Benjamin Netanyahu faces several charges, including for using starvation as warfare and intentionally attacking civilians. Inside the theater, the film\u0019s final notes linger: one officer says psychologists were offered to soldiers but \u001cthere was no need.\u001d He felt no remorse.<\/p>\nFrom the cinema to The Hague?<\/h2>\n