How Israeli and Palestinian kids are coping 3 years after Oct. 7, 2023

In 2026, a film titled Naza premiered at the New York Film Festival, garnering acclaim for its portrayal of Israeli soldiers' accounts of killing Palestinians in Gaza. The film, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, was produced with the Guardian and executive producer Jonathan Glazer. While the film has received praise for its depictions of the genocide, critics have questioned whether a Palestinian filmmaker presenting the same truth would have been received in the same way.

The filmmaker Daniele Rugo and the author of this account pondered this question during a screening at the Zurich Film Festival. The film's title, Naza, refers to the Hebrew military acronym for collateral damage. The film's directors made a crucial point about the rules of engagement, which allowed for up to 20 collateral damage per target.

This statistic alone suggests a lack of remorse or accountability. However, the filmmakers never needed to ask the soldiers to confess, as the genocide has been documented in full by Palestinian doctors, nurses, and journalists for three years. The film's directors, Abraham and Szor, chose to focus on the consequences of the genocide on the bodies of children, rather than on the testimony of those who carried it out.

This approach ensures that the story belongs to the Palestinians it depicts. The question remains: why does Naza receive festival premieres and Oscar attention when Palestinian testimony so rarely does? Part of the answer lies in Western audiences' skepticism towards Palestinian testimony, which was dismissed as propaganda for three years.

The death toll in Gaza, now more than 74,000, was only reluctantly acknowledged by the Hamas-run health ministry. Palestinian journalists have faced increased danger while reporting on the situation, and their work was often treated as an accusation rather than a fact. When an Israeli filmmaker presents the same reality through the mouths of Israeli soldiers, it suddenly becomes credible and essential, winning critical acclaim and Oscar recognition.