Before you applaud NAZA: A standing ovation is not proof of a war crime

At the Venice Film Festival, the Gaza documentary NAZA received a roughly 25-minute standing ovation and won the Special Jury Prize.

Even its title announces the film’s frame. NAZA is a Hebrew military acronym meaning “collateral damage.” The film was directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Before most of the public had seen it, it was already being promoted as an exposé of Israel’s “calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians.”