The talk of the day is about Naza, the documentary by Yuval Abraham about Israel purportedly revealing the “secret systems used by Israel in mass killings of Gaza civilians.” It received a record-breaking 25-minute standing ovation after its screening at the Venice Film Festival, which many are implicitly presenting as evidence of the power and/or importance of the film, but which actually merely reflects the audience’s enthusiasm for a film that condemns Israel.
The word Naza itself is a Hebrew acronym for Nezek Agavi (נזק אגבי), which translates to collateral damage (i.e. incidental civilian casualties). The IDF responded that the information from the interviewees themselves is false, and points out that the officers interviewed would not even have information about these things. But there’s something very strange about the film itself and its reception.
Reviews of the film talk about the chilling notion that IDF officers are making cold calculations about the number of acceptable civilian deaths in each operation against Hamas fighters. Yet this itself completely refutes the libel spread endlessly over the last three years that Israel has engaged in indiscriminate slaughter!
Furthermore, there is nothing chilling or remotely inappropriate about the army making these calculations. That’s precisely what every professional army does before each strike. In fact, that’s exactly what shows the contrast between Israel and Gaza - Hamas certainly doesn’t have any such system, because its very goal is to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible!
Of course, there can be debate about precisely how much collateral damage is acceptable. But this in turn would have to evaluated in the context of the war’s overall goals and necessity, which in turn means evaluating the actions and goals of Hamas - something that this film, it is safe to presume, studiously avoids.
The film was produced in partnership with Britain’s notoriously “progressive” and anti-Israel The Guardian. See this editorial from 2014 in which The Guardian condemns Israel for its too-heavy response to Hamas rockets and tunnels, which The Guardian dismisses as a nuisance posing no real threat, and argues that Hamas simply wants to live without restrictions alongside Israel.
Meanwhile, I wrote a letter to The Guardian today about their latest anti-Israel story which is about hyraxes, of all things! You can read my letter on the Biblical Museum of Natural History page here.
