I watched NAZA. (Unlike 99% of people expressing their very strong opinions on this website). So here are my takes, which will make a lot of you very angry:

"Is the film antisemitic blood libel against the IDF?" It's literally a series of confessions by IDF war criminals themselves, so that claim is laughable.

"How can Yuval and Rachel betray their country?" It is your duty to resist your country if your country is committing genocide. Your loyalty must be to justice and humanity, not to systems of power that privilege you.

"Is the film good?" Yes. And the vast majority of you will learn something new about the mechanics of the Gaza genocide, even if you've been following it closely. And for the people who haven't been following, who will watch it now because of the festival clout, it may be absolutely eye opening.

"Is the film good for the movement?" It's very good for the movement that a film on the Gaza genocide is getting so much attention. It forces the mainstream to confront Israel's crimes once again, which is especially important now when the attention is dying down because of the "ceasefire". The activist scene is still very focused, but the mainstream attention is decreasing, and NAZA winning festivals around the world will do a great job returning the conversation to what matters.

"Why didn't they release the evidence as articles instead of a film?" They did, over the course of the past three years Yuval published some of the most valuable investigative journalism on the Gaza genocide in @+972 Magazine (go read it). The fact that y'all didn't know about it is all the more evidence for why this film needed to be made.

"Why not just upload it to the internet instead of going to festivals?" Social media videos, written articles, feature films and many other formats cannot replace one another. They work for different audiences and achieve different goals. Festivals bring the film to an audience that wouldn't watch it on the internet, and provides credibility to a very damning account of the genocide. A comprehensive pressure campaign at all levels is very important for our cause, not just watching and rewatching stuff within activist communities.

"We shouldn't listen to Israelis, we should only listen to Palestinians" This is right-wing ethnonationalism seeping into liberation movements. There are Palestinians not worth listening to (Yoseph Haddad, Mosab Hassan Yousef), there are Israelis worth listening to (Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe). Your cultural and national background is important because informs your lived experience; But we cannot define the value of a statement on the basis of the identity of the speaker. Please read Franz Fanon (quoted) and stop thinking in ethnonational terms.

"This film won in Venice only because it was made by Israelis, if it was made by Palestinians, it wouldn't even be in the programme" This is true and this sucks. It's an indictment against the festivals, against the mainstream media, against the powers that be. But this is not a criticism towards the film's creators. If they hadn't submitted the film to the competition, the award wouldn't have been given to a Palestinian film. The genocide just wouldn't have been mentioned in the programme at all.

"The film didn't show anything new, all of this has been reported on by Palestinian journalists" This is largely true, as stated by Yuval himself. Nonetheless, confessions of the perpetrators are adding to the body of evidence of the Gaza genocide, and confessions always hold more weight than accusations. For many this may be THE tipping point, unfortunately.

"Yuval is too Zionist/too anti-Zionist" Yuval's personal politics are beside the point. You can disagree with someone and still find their work valuable.

"The film protects war criminals, instead of delivering them to international courts" Providing anonymity to whistleblowers is an essential part of investigative journalism. I also have sources in the IDF and settler movement that I keep anonymous. Getting 24 people charged by the ICC (and likely not ever persecuted) is much less useful than getting their testimonies heard by the entire world.

"Is the film beyond reproach?" Every piece of art, journalism or activism must be subject to criticism. And from the activist standpoint there is only one metric that's important — its material impact. Not the identity of the artists, not the form and not even the content. Only the material impact.

Go watch NAZA when it comes out. And for the love of god, if your main activism consists of posting on social media, please go into the real world and do some activism on the ground.