Cinemas pause Naza screenings ahead of October 7 anniversary

Cinema screenings of the Israeli documentary Naza, which investigates the war on Gaza, is being suspended from most Dutch cinemas from Tuesday until the weekend so that they do not coincide with the commemoration of the October 7 Hamas attacks.

This is in line with the wishes of the film’s makers, two Israeli documentarians, who fear that their safety – and that of their families, who are still in Israel – will be further threatened if the film is shown around the date.

The Dutch film distributor Cherry Pickers, which is responsible for the film in the Netherlands, has said it will heed their wishes. The duo have not yet returned to Israel since the film’s release, but their families have been harassed and the government is moving to strip them of their nationality.

Naza is composed of interviews with 24 anonymous Israeli intelligence and military personnel involved in military campaign on Gaza since October 7, 2023. They describe how civilians were routinely killed, often hundreds at a time, to target single militants.

They also describe how surveillance was used to track suspects and wait until they were at home with their families before bombing them, as well as using special AI systems to select and kill targets. Israeli officials have disputed many of the claims.

A screening of the film in Delft last week on the opening day was interrupted by an Israeli group, one of whom took a microphone and began telling the audience how her family was murdered by Hamas. Another tried to project footage of the attacks onto the cinema screen.