The prime minister vowed to introduce bills punishing those who “defame” the country’s troops
Israelis should be stripped of citizenship if they are found guilty of slandering the military, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, as the IDF faces new accusations of killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
In a video address on Wednesday, Netanyahu lashed out at the recently released documentary ‘NAZA’, which alleges that the Israeli military and intelligence services used AI-assisted systems to select targets and treated potential civilian deaths as acceptable collateral damage. The film by Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 10 and won the Special Jury Prize.
Netanyahu vowed to introduce two bills punishing those who he said are causing “immense damage” to the IDF.
“The first, to revoke the citizenship of anyone who defames [Israeli] soldiers, and the second to hit them in their pockets and increase the statutory damages for defamation they can be sued for by 20 times,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.
“Hit them both in the pocket and through their citizenship, because they have no place among us,” Netanyahu added, according to Ynet.
In his speech, he mentioned Yair Golan, the leader of the left-wing Democrats, and former IDF deputy chief of staff, who said last year that Israeli troops “kill babies as a hobby.”
Netanyahu also mentioned Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who was removed as the IDF’s chief military advocate after admitting that she authorized the leaking of a video allegedly showing the abuse of a Palestinian detainee at an Israeli detention facility.
The team behind ‘NAZA’ stood by their investigation, which they said was based on interviews with Israeli service members. “It’s important as Israelis that we recognize what our government has done in Gaza,” Abraham said.
A number of countries, the UN, and human rights groups have accused Israel of indiscriminately killing civilians. Nearly 74,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out in October 2023 following a surprise attack by Hamas against Israel.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has outstanding arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is hearing a genocide case brought against Israel over its conduct in Gaza.
Israel denies the allegations, while acknowledging some civilian killings as isolated violations of IDF protocols, and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields. Israeli officials have also accused UN agencies of aiding Hamas and argued that the group counts fighters among civilian casualties.
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