Filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor are facing extraordinary attacks after making NAZA, a documentary based on testimony from 24 Israeli military and intelligence insiders, including some whistleblowers, about Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

NAZA won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, but its filmmakers have since been branded “traitors” and “enemies of Israel”. Senior Israeli figures have described the film as a “blood libel” and “shocking incitement”, while Israel’s Culture Minister has sought an examination of whether the filmmakers could be stripped of their citizenship.

This petition does not ask you to accept every allegation in NAZA as fact.

It asks for something much simpler:

Let the Israeli insiders’ evidence be heard.

Challenge their testimony. Investigate it. Question the filmmakers. Publish the IDF’s response. But answer evidence with evidence — not intimidation of the journalists who brought it to public attention.

Confidential journalistic sources must also be protected. Without that protection, people with evidence of possible wrongdoing may be too frightened to speak.

We stand with Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and support their right to carry out investigative journalism without intimidation. We also support their determination to make NAZA available to audiences in Israel and internationally, so that people can watch the film, hear the testimony and make up their own minds.

Hear Yuval Abraham explain why it is so important that Israelis — and the wider world — are able to see NAZA.

Why I started this petition

I am a Muslim woman in the UK married to a man who had a Jewish upbringing. Like many people, we have had countless discussions about Israel’s security, the threats Israelis face, and the devastating impact of the war on Palestinian civilians in Gaza — especially children. We don’t always see these issues in the same way, and our discussions can sometimes get quite heated.

But whatever our different perspectives, we both care about what is happening to ordinary people. Humanitarian organisations and children’s charities have described extreme conditions for children and families in Gaza, including death and injury, displacement, hunger and trauma.

I am also deeply troubled that, after nearly three years of war, independent international journalists are still not being allowed free access to Gaza to report for themselves. Palestinian journalists have carried an extraordinary burden in documenting events, but the continuing restrictions on independent international reporting make access to credible evidence all the more important.

That is why NAZA matters to me. Its testimony comes from 24 Israeli military and intelligence insiders, including some whistleblowers. Nobody should be required to accept what they say without question. Their accounts should be examined, challenged and investigated, alongside the IDF’s response.

I want people with very different views — including people like my husband and me — to be able to watch the film, hear the evidence and the responses to it, discuss it and make up their own minds.

We may disagree about what the evidence means. But surely we should agree that the evidence deserves to be heard.

Let the evidence be heard!