Netanyahu proposes stripping Israeli citizenship for 'slandering the army'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out in favor of stripping citizenship from those who "slander the soldiers" of the Israeli army.

In a video address released in light of the scandal surrounding the film NAZA (NAZA, 2026) about the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza, he said that he intends to introduce two bills in the near future establishing the corresponding punishments.

Speaking about the film, which was awarded a prize at the recent Venice festival and provoked a major public response around the world, Netanyahu expressed the opinion that the picture "portrays officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces as war criminals" and inflicts "enormous damage on the State of Israel and the soldiers" of its army.

"The time has come to restore order. I intend to introduce two government bills right now. The first: stripping citizenship from those who slander the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces. The second: hitting them in the pocket. The amount of compensation for slander that can be collected from them is increased 20-fold. To hit both the pocket and the citizenship, because they have no place among us," Netanyahu said.

The prime minister added that he expects support for these two bills from all factions of the Knesset (parliament) "that declare support for the Zionist idea," including from the opposition.

The film NAZA tells about the mass deaths of Palestinians during the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The picture received the special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival, held from September 2 to 12. It was the only documentary film in the main competition. It was made by directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Abraham was previously a co-author of the documentary "No Other Land" (No Other Land, 2024) about Israeli settlements in the West Bank of the Jordan River, which was awarded an Oscar.

The film brings together anonymous interviews with Israeli servicemen, who tell how "civilian casualties" are factored in from the outset into the Israeli army's operations against Hamas armed units in the Gaza Strip. The title of the picture is a Latinized form of a Hebrew acronym derived from the military term "nezek agavi," which translates as "collateral damage."