Anonymous Video Alleges NAZA Filmmakers Paid for Inflated Casualty Claims
A video posted by an Israeli private investigator features an anonymous man alleging NAZA's makers paid for inflated death tolls. The claims are unverified.
An Israeli private investigation firm has posted a video in which an anonymous man claiming to have been involved in the production of the documentary "NAZA" alleges that its makers paid interviewees to inflate the number of Palestinians killed. The claims have not been verified.
The video was posted on Facebook by Shmulik Maman, owner of the firm Quentin Investigations. In it, a young man whose face is concealed claims the filmmakers paid 10 shekels for each death an interviewee described. By that rate, he said, someone claiming 500 people were killed in an incident would receive 5,000 shekels.
The man also said the film's figures, according to which 400 to 500 people not involved in the fighting were killed in a single incident, did not match military reality as he knows it. He said the largest case of collateral damage he had heard of was the strike that killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, in which about 90 people were killed, roughly half of them Hamas terrorists.
He expressed regret for taking part in the film and claimed its makers, whom he described as far-left, were driven by ideological and financial motives.
Maman told the Israeli news site Walla that he did not check or verify the man's claims and had no wish to, describing his role as providing a platform, the business news site ICE reported. Neither the man nor the firm has presented evidence supporting the allegations.
The video comes amid intense controversy in Israel over "NAZA," directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and accuses the IDF of killing Palestinian civilians during the Gaza war.