Once in a while, a film comes that shifts the paradigm, offering a shattering new lens to a conflict that has been around as long as I have lived. As the genocide of Palestinians continues unabated, now stretching into a third year (though many would argue that it has been nearly eight decades), it is easy to succumb to helplessness. Yet, paradoxically, I have never been more hopeful.
The tide is turning. You can feel it. You can hear it. You can see it. Like a tsunami rumbling deep beneath the ocean floor, the rumble is growing closer to the shore. We see it when an influencer’s commentary goes viral. You see it when a high-profile ally steps forward. And when congressional candidates shift the political discourse. Change is always far too slow, but what seemed entirely impossible yesterday suddenly feels inevitable.
You also see it with films like NAZA, a documentary by two Israeli directors. Shot in a dark film noir style, it features shadowy figures on a Tel Aviv rooftop delivering a message that most of us probably already knew. The interviewees are IDF intelligence personnel operating from military headquarters. Their mandate is simple: identify targets and pass them up the chain of command for execution.
What is most terrifying (and telling) about the film, however, is the subjects’ complete lack of remorse about their work. To them its a job. Their targets are digitally detached. They execute their orders from the comfort of an office building in Tel Aviv less than an hour's drive from Gaza.
It reminded me of the type of disconnect in The Zone of Interest, where Nazi commanders lived idyllic lives directly adjacent to the human ovens of Auschwitz. These Israelis mirror this type of existence. They casually discuss inventing AI programs to “track” and “eliminate” human targets. In their mechanical calculus, their algorithmic parameters allow for tens, if not hundreds, of deaths under the cold classification of NAZA, the Hebrew military term for “collateral damage”, with program names like “Where’s Daddy” and “Lavender.”
Over time, this eerily mechanized detachment has stripped them of their humanity. One interviewee even mentions studying clinical psychology during their off-hours. Tragically, these men and women do not represent a fringe, they reflect the mainstream of Israeli society today and the inescapable warning that the ultimate casualty is our shared humanity.
Related Off-site Links:
Israeli Documentary NAZA Exposes “System of Killing” in Gaza From Eyes of Secret Intelligence Unit – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, September 10, 2026).
NAZA Film on Gaza Genocide Wins Venice Special Jury Prize; Israel Threatens Directors’ Citizenship – Democracy Now! (September 14, 2026).
NAZA Filmmakers to Make Film Available for Free Online Amid Israel’s Smear Campaign – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, September 24, 2026).
The Israeli Film Directors Pushing for a Reckoning in Their Home Country – The Daily (October 12, 2026).
Netanyahu Seeks to Identify and Prosecute IDF Soldiers in Investigative Documentary NAZA – Democracy Now! (October 13, 2026).
UPDATES: “Tough to Watch, Impossible to Ignore”: Reviewers on NAZA Documentary – Sammy Gecsoyler (The Guardian, October 16, 2026).
NAZA: The Film Shocking Israeli Society – Channel 4 News (October 16, 2026).
NAZA: The Film Israel Does Not Want You to See – Today in Focus (October 16, 2026).
Navi Pillay on the Legal Proof for Genocide in Gaza – Basement Films (October 16, 2026).
I’ve Debated with Israel’s Most Fervent Defenders – NAZA Debunks Their Talking Points – Mehdi Hasan (The Guardian, October 16, 2026).
See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• October 7, 2023: “Nothing About Today Is ‘Unprovoked’”
• Phyllis Bennis: “If We Are Serious About Ending This Spiraling Violence, We Need to Look at Root Causes”
• Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• Jehad Abusalim: Quote of the Day – December 8, 2023
• Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations
• Sabrina Salvati: Quote of the Day – January 2, 2024
• Michael Fakhri: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Josh Paul: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• “A Genocide Has Been Normalized”
• “This Is a Genocidal Project”
• Outrage and Despair
• Kyle Kulinski: Quote of the Day – May 23, 2024
• John Cusack: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2024
• Yousef Munayyer: Quote of the Day – August 30, 2024
• “It’s a Systematic Slaughter That We’re Funding”
• Protesting Weapons Manufacturer and Genocide Enabler General Dynamics
• Something to Think About – September 26, 2024
• “A Year of War Against Children”
• Anti-Genocide Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Reflects on the First Anniversary of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”
• Hope and Courage – Christmas 2024
• Chris Hedges: “Israel Has No Intention of Halting Its Merry-Go-Round of Death”
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Caitlin Johnstone: Quote of the Day – January 22, 2025
• The Only Difference
• Silence on Gaza Genocide Is “More Than a Mere Moral Abdication; It Is Lethal”
• The Theft of One’s Soul: Omar El Akkad on the “Lesser of Two Evils” Argument
• How Genocide Becomes Ordinary
• “A Holocaust, Live-streamed”
• Why What’s Happening in Palestine – and Our Response to It – Is So Important
• Caitlin Johnstone: Quote of the Day – July 23, 2025
• Israel’s Actions in Gaza: “A Clear and Present Moral Collapse”
• Protesting Israel’s “Starvation Campaign” in Gaza
• A Call to Divest from Israel
• Idrees Ahmad: Quote of the Day – August 25, 2025
• A Poem That Remains Painfully Relevant
• Two Years of “Indescribable Horror”
• The Architecture of Settler Colonialism
• Kym Staton: Quote of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Omid Safi: Quote of the Day – March 7, 2026
• Chris Hedges: “The Genocide in Gaza Is the Beginning. Welcome to the New World Order”
• “The Moral Issue of Our Generation”
• Genevieve Fraser: Quote of the Day – August 26, 2026
• “One More Destruction of Our Collective Humanity”
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
• “Essential Viewing for All Who Care to Understand the Plight of the People of Palestine”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian “Nightmare” (2021)
• Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
• Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
• David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014
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