Netanyahu wants to strip Israeli citizenship for criticizing IDF

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced two legislative initiatives aimed at citizens who, according to the authorities, are engaged in discrediting and defaming the IDF. According to Haaretz, one of the initiatives provides for the deprivation of Israeli citizenship for public denigration of military personnel and defamation of the IDF. The second bill will increase the maximum amount of compensation for lawsuits for defamation of the army by 20 times.

The reason for the Prime Minister’s statement, among other things, was the recent success of the documentary “NAZA” by Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Shor at the Venice Film Festival. The film uses anonymous accounts from 24 Israeli military and intelligence officials to criticize the methods of warfare in the Gaza Strip. Commenting on the film, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that its creators “do not belong here” and the state “will hit both their pockets and their citizenship.”.

In addition, the Prime Minister mentioned two more cases that became the reason for the introduction of tough legislative initiatives. In particular, these are the words of the leader of the Democratic Party and former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the IDF, Yair Golan, said in May 2025. A sane country does not wage war against civilians, kill children for entertainment, or engage in mass displacement. The second case is the leak of a video from 2024 showing footage of Israeli soldiers harassing a detained Palestinian. Netanyahu said all Israelis “were shocked by the three incidents that caused tremendous damage to Israel and IDF soldiers.” The bills have yet to be approved by the Israeli parliament.

Alena Miklashevskaya