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| NAZA, the money trail, and what the film leaves out about October 7 | ||
| 2026-09-19 | ||
In other words: follow the money. NAZA, directed by Israelis Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, is listed by the Venice Biennale as a production of The Guardian and JW Films. The festival synopsis says the film reveals systems behind what it calls Israel’s "calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza." The filmmakers state that many revelations were first published by The Guardian with +972 Magazine and Local Call. The film relies on 24 anonymous Israeli military and intelligence personnel whose identities are concealed, faces obscured, and voices altered. Viewers cannot independently determine their positions, what they witnessed, or whether they were positioned to know the strategic decisions they describe. The IDF categorically rejected the allegations, saying it could not verify the identities, roles, or relevant knowledge of the anonymous sources and disputing claims about how targeting decisions are made. But the journalistic ecosystem behind the film also deserves scrutiny. +972 Magazine is published by the nonprofit 972 Advancement of Citizen Journalism. The same nonprofit co-publishes the Hebrew-language Local Call (Sicha Mekomit), with Just Vision. Both publicly describe this partnership. Now follow the financial trail. According to +972’s donor disclosures, Local Call received Open Society Foundations grants every year from 2018 through 2024, totaling $562,900. Open Society Foundations were founded by George Soros, who, according to the organization, has given them more than $32 billion of his personal fortune since 1984. The documented chain is real, but must be described precisely: Soros founded and financed Open Society; Open Society granted hundreds of thousands of dollars to Local Call; and NAZA, according to its directors, draws partly on investigations published by Local Call, +972 Magazine, and The Guardian. That does not prove Soros, Open Society Foundations, or another donor directly financed NAZA. I have seen no evidence of such a link. Nor does funding itself prove journalism false. But funding and institutional context are not irrelevant. Open Society has also taken clear public positions on the Israel-Hamas War. On November 1, 2023, it unequivocally condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack, calling its cruelty heartbreaking and inexcusable. In the same statement, however, it said Israel’s campaign was becoming "increasingly indiscriminate" and argued that restrictions on electricity, water, fuel and food, together with bombing, were likely to be judged as collective punishment.
It reported providing $14.3 million in 2023 to groups working on Israel and Palestine, excluding an additional $3.3 million emergency commitment after October 7. The Foundations also say they do not support Hamas and their grantees are committed to nonviolence. On May 20, 2024, Open Society welcomed the ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas leaders, calling it an important first step toward accountability. These are Open Society’s own published positions. They do not establish that the Foundations dictated the editorial line of Local Call, +972, or NAZA, but they are relevant context when audiences assess reporting that later becomes the basis of a major international documentary. Follow the testimony. Follow the credits. And follow the money. Then ask what has been pushed to the margins: October 7, 2023. Hamas and other armed groups invaded Israel, murdered about 1,200 people, and abducted around 250. Families were slaughtered in their homes. Young people at the Nova festival were hunted down. A UN mission led by Pramila Patten later found reasonable grounds to believe rape and gang rape occurred during the October 7 attacks in several locations, and "clear and convincing information" that hostages were subjected to rape, sexualized torture, and other forms of sexual violence. Yet the horror that began this war is pushed to the margins while Israel’s military response is placed under a microscope. Civilian deaths in Gaza are tragic. Every innocent child who dies is a catastrophe, and Israel must investigate suspected violations. But there is a fundamental moral and legal distinction between deliberately murdering civilians and attacking a military target while facing a foreseeable risk of civilian casualties. Assessing possible civilian harm before an attack is not, by itself, proof of an intention to murder civilians. In my view, NAZA takes an extraordinarily complicated battlefield and compresses it into a devastatingly simple accusation: civilians died, therefore Israel intended to kill them. More: IDF is advancing plans to publicly release its 47-minute compilation of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre footage, according to Channel 12
Text: 🚨 IDF MOVES TO RELEASE OCT. 7 ATROCITY FILM AMID ‘NAZA’ FALLOUT The IDF is advancing plans to publicly release its 47-minute compilation of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre footage, according to Channel 12. Netanyahu and the defense establishment reportedly back the move as Israel pushes back against the “NAZA” documentary’s allegations over AI-assisted strikes in Gaza. The IDF says it “categorically rejects” the documentary’s allegations and stresses strike decisions are made “by human personnel only… and not by artificial intelligence.” The Oct. 7 compilation has until now only been screened behind closed doors. Related: Open Society Foundations: 2026-08-31 Clarice: Summertime and Antifa was Uneasy Open Society Foundations: 2026-07-28 Children's charity funded by Singham, Soros tied to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: report Open Society Foundations: 2026-07-26 Saudi Aramco oil refineries in disarray after massive Yemeni missile and drone barrage | ||
| Posted by:Grom the Reflective |