Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor: There’s a vacuum in Israeli media

“There is a vacuum that was opened by the mainstream Israeli media that has largely ignored or justified what the military has done in Gaza, and that created a kind of vacuum to which investigative journalists could step in and ask these questions. Sometimes all it took was asking the questions. Some of the people that we spoke to said that they felt they were never asked these questions before.”

Rebecca Kesby speaks to Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

Abraham and Szor gained international attention last year with their self-distributed film, No Other Land, made in collaboration with two Palestinian filmmakers. The film, which won the 2025 Academy Award for best documentary feature, recorded the forced displacement of Palestinian families from their homes in the occupied West Bank.

The pair’s latest critically-acclaimed documentary, Naza, investigates civilian casualties from Israel's ongoing military operations in Gaza.

Naza is the word used by Israeli forces to describe collateral damage. The film includes the testimonies of 24 unidentified Israeli military and intelligence officers, and they explain how artificial intelligence was used to identify possible targets in Gaza during the war which was triggered by the deadly Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.

Its premiere at the Venice international film festival saw the documentary win the special jury prize and also receive a record-breaking 25-minute standing ovation.

However, the film has angered many people back home, including Israel's culture minister, who's called for Abraham and Szor to be stripped of their citizenship over what he called "treason against the state".

Thank you to the Newshour team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric, UN commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar, and actor Cate Blanchett. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Rebecca Kesby Producer: Pandita Lorenz Editor: Damon Rose

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media. (Image: Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham Credit: Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)