‘NAZA’ Fails to Show IDF Efforts to Prevent Civilian Casualties, Former Officer Says

The film, Zehavi said, is consistent with a pattern over the past three years of people judging Israel without understanding the realities of war.

By Amelie Botbol, JNS

A former senior IDF officer who helped develop procedures for warning civilians ahead of military strikes disputes claims
made in the documentary “NAZA,” telling JNS that the film fails to reflect the Israeli military’s efforts to prevent civilian casualties and does not sufficiently address or acknowledge the steps taken to do so.

“NAZA,” whose title is derived from the Hebrew acronym for “collateral damage,” has drawn international attention since winning the Special Jury Prize at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 12. The Israel Defense Forces has vehemently denied the film’s central claim that it systematically targeted Palestinian civilians during the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Lt. Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi, founder and CEO of the Alma Research and Education Center, which focused on Israel’s security challenges along the northern border, helped develop procedures and establish a framework for warning civilian populations about 20 years ago while serving in the IDF’s Northern Command.

Zehavi told JNS that there are two types of targets: those targeted to neutralize immediate threats on the battlefield, and intelligence-based targets; she handled the latter as an officer. Intelligence-based targets can be tactical, operational or strategic, with each requiring approval from a commander based on its nature and an assessment of potential collateral damage.

“The goal of the collateral damage assessment is to reduce it as much as possible,” she said. “Once we’ve calculated the assessment based, for instance, on the size and nature of the building and the number of people inside or around the structure, we then have to think about what to do with it.”

Once this step is completed, the target is sent for planning, which does not necessarily mean it will be attacked. If there is a risk of high collateral damage, the relevant teams consider ways to reduce it, including whether to use different munitions, whether and how to warn the population, who will carry out the attack and under what circumstances, Zehavi said.

After a decision is made to strike, the assessment is conducted again.

“There are many people in the IDF whose mission is to prevent or reduce collateral damage as much as possible. These are intelligence officers, operational staff, and artillery and air force personnel. My mission was part of creating the procedures to warn the population,” she said.

“That includes how to phrase the warning, what kind of warning to send, what to evacuate, whether to call for the evacuation of a building, an entire street or a whole town, and what the best timing is. It includes how to warn the population, whether through leaflets, cell phones or social media; how to monitor population movements to know whether people successfully evacuated and whether it is safe to attack; and how to relay the situation on the ground to the IDF’s command-and-control systems,” she continued.

“If we didn’t care, we would not invest so much effort in doing this, and it was done on both fronts, Gaza and Lebanon,” Zehavi added.

In wars such as the U.S. campaign in Iraq, foreign armies learned warning procedures from the IDF, she said, because the field was not as developed at the time.

The missing context

“What is also very unfortunate in this movie is that the context is missing. We fight for our existence, unlike the Americans who fought a war 2,000 miles away from home. Every mistake we make could cost us the lives of our families, and our enemies are using their own people as human shields,” Zehavi said.

“Unlike Hamas and Hezbollah, who say their intention is to conduct a genocide against Israelis and act accordingly, we don’t educate our children, who eventually become soldiers, to do so. There are no such aspirations in Israel,” she added.

In the promotional material, she said, NAZA’s directors included a scene in which someone refers to “collateral damage 500” and emphasizes allegations that Israel does not care. Zehavi said that such maximal figures should be considered red flags.

“If we don’t care, why do we bother counting it and mentioning it, and why do we work on it? The answer is that we do care, and that’s why we are asking. Writing down the collateral damage does not mean we are automatically going to attack. On the contrary, the idea is to identify the risks so that we can think of ways to prevent or reduce them,” she said.

The film, she said, is consistent with a pattern over the past three years of people judging Israel without understanding the realities of war.

“People want war without bloodshed. Israel didn’t start the war and didn’t want to get into this war. We paid a high price because we avoided these wars in areas and stages where our enemies were weaker. I don’t only talk about Hamas but also Hezbollah. I live up north, effectively nine kilometers from Hezbollah,” she said.

“The people criticizing us never experienced war,” she added.

From a journalistic perspective, Zehavi questioned why, if the producers sought to influence Israeli society, they chose to launch the film at the Venice festival. She also criticized the filmmakers for not seeking a response from the IDF and for not disclosing the ranks or positions of IDF personnel interviewed anonymously.

“There is no need to disclose their identity, but they should say where they served and what their positions were. Are they soldiers or commanders? We don’t know enough. They never even asked the IDF for a response. This is not journalism,” she said.