‘NAZA’ Presents a Final Solution for the Digital Age

One of the striking elements of the Holocaust was its mechanization. Although Jews had been subject to violence throughout their history and throughout the diaspora, the Holocaust brought the tools of the Industrial Revolution to wage extermination on a scale and with a level of efficiency hitherto unseen in human history. Germany could wipe out six million people because it combined old hatreds with the latest technology. This comparison of Nazi mass murder to Israel’s current genocide is not lost on the participants of NAZA, the new documentary from the Israeli half of No Other Land filmmakers, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Those sitting for interviews under anonymity recognize their participation in the mass killing, and while they fear reprisals if they speak publicly, the genocide after October 7^th has so shocked their conscience that they feel compelled to speak out and explain how Israel is systematically wiping out Gaza. While it may not move anyone who still refuses to believe Israel could commit such atrocities, as we’ve seen in the past three years, public opinion can shift, and NAZA is part of that effort to use the truth to bring an end to Benjamin Netanyahu’s reign of terror.

Although almost the entire film is comprised of interviews with anonymous figures, the directors outline how these people are in the Israeli intelligence community. They’re the ones looking at the screens, taking orders from officials, and following through on the mission. Through these interviews, a picture emerges of a government looking for the thinnest veneer of plausible deniability, claiming to aim at Hamas, but maximizing civilian casualties (“NAZA” is what intelligence officers use to describe the deaths of those civilians). They rely on AI systems like “Lavender” to track “Hamas behavior” on phones, and it doesn’t matter if the AI’s assumptions turn out to be correct only 85% of the time. The point is to use phone data to create an excuse to bomb a building. Moreover, they bomb buildings with the family home because it provides a greater chance of success. If the father is deemed a Hamas operative, then he’ll be with his wife and children, and so you wipe out the civilians to get to the one (assumed) Hamas agent.

Through their reporting, Abraham and Szor show how easy this all is. Israel has all the technology at its disposal to wipe out Gaza, and they’re using it. These interviews, conducted on rooftops in Tel Aviv, rely on shots of Israeli’s living comfortably in their homes. Similar to No Other Land, we understand that there’s a violation here where one populace exists comfortably while they annihilate their neighbors. It’s easier now because there’s so much distance with satellites, drones, and snipers. If you kill a bunch of kids, you can say they were collateral damage. Similar to a concentration camp, you can claim that the hard work and poor conditions killed the inhabitants while ignoring that you’ve put them in a death trap where their annihilation is the point.

Some Jewish viewers may be offended that the film would go so far as to compare Israel’s actions to those of Nazi Germany, but where is it written that an oppressed people can’t become the oppressors? If anything, Israel’s power has shown they are unfit to wield it if it’s in the hands of someone like Netanyahu, who, by his own definition from a 1986 interview, is a terrorist. There is an entire intelligence operation devoted to finding people who could testify to his war crimes, labeling them enemy combatants, and then wiping them out. There is a vast surveillance state in the hands of Israel; it has defined its out-group as Palestinians and uses the forces at Israel’s disposal to indiscriminately kill, destroy their homes so they have no place to return, and even snipe them if they step out of line running for food delivery. If this is not offensive to your conscience, then I don’t know what is.

You could also argue that this is propaganda, an attempt by bleeding-heart leftists and antisemites who don’t think Israel should exist. But even if you were to ignore this entire documentary, you would also have to ignore 1) who Netanyahu has been for his entire political career; 2) that Israel has an advanced military-industrial complex with the capability to commit mass murder; 3) everything that Netanyahu’s Likud party says and believes. You can deny that this genocide is happening. There’s certainly a history of that. And if you say, “Well, doesn’t Israel have a right to exist? Doesn’t Israel have a right to defend itself?” that too is a form of propaganda because it moves all answers to an existential state. If Israel must exist and must defend itself, then all options are on the table, including killing children in their beds. If you think that’s the cost of a “safe” Israel, then so be it. But NAZA at least demands we understand the trade-offs rather than pretending this isn’t happening.

Because our consciences can be shocked, and it’s okay to reappraise Israel, not in denying the horrors of October 7^th, but also the horrors being committed in the name of Israel’s security and the Jewish people the world over. Abraham and Szor want this to stop. The people they’re talking to want this to stop. A growing number of Americans want this to stop. But Netanyahu is opposed to peace, and it’s difficult to draw any other conclusion than that his way to stopping a Palestinian state is to ensure there are no more Palestinians, either by killing them or imposing conditions so unforgiving that they self-deport. Israel is supposed to be a place where Jews find sanctuary, but Netanyahu doesn’t even believe that. He has pushed bills calling for the NAZA directors’ citizenship to be revoked and to be sued for condemning the actions of the military. As usual, genocide and quashing dissent go hand-in-hand. 

NAZA is horrifying, but it is also the result of a weak leader playing to the hatred in people’s hearts rather than the security needs of Israelis. The shots of Israelis comfortable in their homes are damning but also foreboding. If the technology exists to track anyone and bomb anyone, then is anyone truly safe? Before October 7^th, Israel had supposedly built a fantastic defense apparatus through its surveillance tools and Iron Dome, but neither was any match for Netanyahu’s incompetence. However, indifference towards violence and suffering has become a hallmark of his regime and his military strategy. Thankfully, not everyone is so callous, and as NAZA shows, we must keep speaking out and hearing these stories if there’s any hope of accountability and peace.

NAZA is now playing in theaters in limited release. Click here to find tickets for a showing in your area.