Entertainment

Nashville Sees It Differently

A strange thing occurred in May 2026. Billboard Country Airplay charts debuted a single from an unknown artist in Nashville. Stella Lefty was the singer and “Boston” was the title of her song. This was an unusual occurrence for a music genre which doesn’t often have songs featuring Northern cities. The song was written by a female, which is another rarity in the male-dominated world of radio country.
The song “Boston”, however, sounded remarkably similar to Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season”. As a result, the Vermont-based songwriter was given credit for the composition. In a Vanity Fair article, Lefty stated that she had added Kahan to the writing credits when Kahan’s team contacted her before the official release of “Boston”. On Music Row, familiarity is a plus, so no one minded.
RJ Curtis is the executive director of Country Radio Broadcasters Inc. and he says that “country music” has always been a form of borrowing.
Lefty continued to rise. Boston has soared up the Billboard Hot 100 and Country Airplay charts. It is currently at number two. Lefty’s tour dates began selling out as soon as Nashville’s CMA Fest in June rolled around. She was performing to an almost full house. Lefty was accused by a large part of the Internet of being “industry planted” and a “nepo-baby” for her relationship with Groupon billionaire Eric Lefkofsky. However, audiences at Lefty’s shows had a different opinion. Country fans and young girls sang along to every line, while Lefty signed their “Lefty’ hats. The people who came to hear her live were having a good time, despite the online anger.
A lot has happened in the past two months. The internet is awash with memes referring to Lefty as “Stella Thefty”. Music fans also noticed similarities between “Summer You Were Mine” from Lefty’s debut album, Long Way Home and “There’s Your Trouble,” a 1998 Chicks hit.
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Rolling Stone revealed that there were a number of claims. The 2025 song, “Why Wouldn’t We”, is a resemblance to Blake Shelton’s “I’ll Name the Dogs” from 2017, while “Seven Eleven,” from Lefty’s Tragic Really EP, sounds like Wheatus’s “Teenage Dirtbag.” The most recent comparison, “Misery,” a song from Lefty’s Tragic Really EP, has been compared with “A Million Dreams” from the musical film The Greatest Showman (2017). The most bizarre comparison was that the song “Summer You Were Mine”, from Lefty’s Tragic, Really EP, sounds similar to the theme of Full House. Full House aired long before Lefty. Lefty’s staff has not credited the writers or acknowledged them, and it is unclear if this needs to happen. A representative for Lefty didn’t immediately reply to Rolling Stone when they asked for comment.
Other accusations range from the reasonable to the absurd. Some claim that Lefty was part of a AI experiment started by her dad, who owns a healthcare business that uses AI to cure cancer. He began the company after Lefty’s mom, his wife, had been diagnosed with it. Lefty’s performance at the Grand Ole Opry in October prompted some to criticize her appearance in the country music institution. They did this in comments on a video that showed Lefty singing at St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital for children undergoing treatment. Online chatter has also leaned toward antisemitism (Lefty’s Jewish) and comments portraying her as an opportunistic thief who knowingly plagiarized songs.
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Nashville is a city where many people are shaken. Some industry insiders believe that Lefty’s vitriol is not justified. While many would agree that artists should credit others for their work, they feel that Lefty has been unfairly targeted. This is especially true since Top 40 and country radio are often filled with songs that have a similar sound. Sir Mashalot, a YouTube channel, once created a mashup that included six songs from artists such as Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan. The songs blended together so well that it was almost impossible to tell them apart.
The 2010s’ prevailing trend in country music was Bro-Country, which consisted of songs with the same beat, sung to familiar tunes like trucks, tailgates and women wearing jeans shorts. By 2023, the male country contingent had adopted a new trend of rewriting older songs. “Interpolation Songs” were dominating the charts. Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina”, which won the Song of the year award at the ACM Awards, remade a part of Jo Dee Messina’s 1996 hit song “Heads Carolina Tails California”. Jake Owen changed Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” to “On the Boat Again”. Dustin Lynch & Jelly Roll remade Dobie Gray’s 1973 hit song “Drift Away”, into “Chevrolet”. All of these songs credited the authors, but also lifted whole melodies and sound patterns. Even without a direct interpretation, country music is prone to borrowing, and male artists are allowed to be successful under this system with minimal scrutiny.
Curtis: “Let’s face it, this has been happening for many years.” Curtis asks, “How many artists have Nashville mass produced once an original has become popular?” Curtis cites the fact that new musicians and writers are able to access a “nearly limitless” musical universe. “Country. Rock. Pop. Hip-hop. R&B. Americana. Indie. EDM. They listen to music from previous generations and songs released yesterday in other countries. When someone says in the writing room, “I want something like that,” ‘that could be anything.”
Lefty is a great example of an artist who has matured as he covers songs for TikTok. Artists aren’t inspired by a collection of CDs they played as children, but instead an endless scroll of 30-second melodies.
This is also true for listeners. Curtis says that the fans are their own amateur musicians because they have unlimited music to listen to. He says that there have never been more people who can instantly recognize and point out where they believe they heard something previously. There’s a thin line between copying and being influenced. “There always was.”
Ed Sheeran once said that there are only a few notes in pop music and very little chords. Sheeran won his court case.
Nashville has defended Lefty more than once. Chris Kappy, Luke Combs manager and Kelsea ballerini have both backed Lefty up. Lefty performed at CMA Fest and was named as one of Stagecoach 2027’s performers on the same poster with Shaboozey, an outlaw country songwriter, and Cody Jinks. Lefty continues to stream worldwide: According to Luminate’s data, Lefty has averaged around 30 million U.S. on-demand streams per week.
Leslie Fram is a music executive in country who runs the FemCo artist development company. She finds that the “intensity of the backlash” has been exaggerated. Country and pop country has always used a limited range of chords, and melody. Fram says that the same progressions, hooks and lyrical DNA are present in decades’ worth of hit songs. Many songs are echoes of older hits without any one rushing to claim it. It’s sometimes a pure accident. Sometimes an artist will absorb something that they have played or covered many times and it comes out without their knowledge. If a similarity can be clearly seen, it is easy to follow the correct professional course: remove the interpolation from the song and credit the original artist. It was the same with Chicks’ and Noah Kahan’s references.
Lefty, to her credit did quickly correct the publication credits for “Boston”, and “Summer You Were Mine”. However, comments made by Lefty to Vanity Fair where she said she wasn’t thinking of Kahan when she wrote didn’t help her. Musicologist Dr. Jada W. Watson does notice some similarities between the songs Lefty has been accused of stealing, but she says it is easy to question a writer once they establish a pattern.
Watson says that “one accusation leads to a fishing expedition.” Watson says, “Unfortunately the similarities can be found.” In each case, there are valid reasons to scrutinize the situation. Misogyny, however, can influence the nature and intensity of this scrutiny. Women, particularly young women are more likely than men to be the target of a listening mission where finding similarities becomes a “game.”
Watson believes that the discussion should be about more than Lefty’s practices. Who gets to pass on traditions of country music? She says that Lefty’s inheritance is unusually evident in several ways: financial wealth, the ability to access the institution machinery to protect and support a career and the entry into a music genre where ideas about authenticity and belonging are historically shaped by class, race and gender. The point is not that she’s undeserving of any one thing. Not everyone is entitled to inherit or use what they inherit on the same terms.
Fram cautions that it is not a good idea to dismiss an artist because they have similar songs. The familiarity of a track is not a reason to throw out the entire catalogue. She says that if you follow this logic too far, a lot of popular music will disappear.
Lefty’s music career is certainly scrutinized because she has a billionaire dad in an era where the financial divide is greater than ever. Her family’s wealth will make it easier for her to deal with any legal issues that might arise, and also give her the freedom to create music without worrying about day-today concerns. It doesn’t, however, mean that Lefty can buy fans. The songs, not the money, are what get people to attend concerts. As manager and music publisher Tracy Gershon says, “Good Is Good.” But since the majority of the concertgoers are young women, the general public is quick to discount their tastes.
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Kappy, Comb’s manager, wrote “I manage musicians” on Instagram. I am very wealthy and successful. Money is not the basis of success, otherwise I’d be able to book every show in stadiums and arenas. Your arguments and idiotic comments are the real problem. You need to know the truth. Yes, these people are idiots. “No amount of money can buy success. It’s all about the music.”

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Here’s who’ll be on ‘SNL’ when Season 52 starts next week

“Saturday Night Live” added two new names to its cast for its 52nd season, while another cast member is moving on.
Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter will join the sketch comedy show as featured players when it resumes next weekend, “SNL” announced Wednesday.
“Welcome to the cast!” the show said on Instagram, in all capital letters.
Saidah Belo-Osagie
Belo-Osagie is a New Yorker from Queens. She wrote and directed “Tinge,” a short film; created an event series, “Afrobeats Futura”; and had a solo show, “Saidah Gets Closure,” “SNL” said in a news release about the two additions.
She shared the “SNL” post on her Instagram Story, writing, “A DREAM COME TRUE.”
Grace Reiter
Reiter, who is from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, co-wrote, directed and stars in the upcoming Netflix show “Minimum Wage,” a series about teenagers running a pizzeria. It’s based on the series released online in 2024, which made waves on TikTok and elsewhere, Netflix said.
‘SNL’ departures
Chloe Fineman, who joined the show in 2019 for the 45th season and beyond, said July 16 that she was leaving to try something new.
“It’s really hard to leave SNL but it does feel like the right time,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.
Fineman spent seven seasons as an “SNL” cast member, performing impressions of Drew Barrymore and Britney Spears and appearing in sketches and advertising spoofs, such as “Domingo,” “Snackhomiez” and “Forever 31.”
Deadline reported that Fineman would be joining the cast of “Myron Bolitar,” a Netflix drama series based on Harlan Coben’s thriller novels about a former basketball star who reinvents himself as a sports agent.
The annual turnover of cast members can be minimal, indicating that the show and its longtime executive producer, Lorne Michaels, are fine-tuning its cold open, sketches and news segment. Every several years, a greater number of on-air and writers room departures foreshadow a virtual reset for “SNL.”
Amid and after the 50th season and its accompanying anniversary specials, the show had some big-name departures, including those of Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim and Bowen Yang. Fellow departing talents Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker and Emil Wakim held the freshman-like title “featured player,” a position that often leads to repertory player status.
Season 52 of “SNL” premieres Sept. 26 with New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson as host and musical guest Katseye. “SNL” airs on NBC, a division of NBCUniversal, which is also the parent company of NBC News.

Entertainment

‘Dancing With The Stars’ Season 35 Premiere Night 2 Recap: Who Goes Home?

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the second of ABC‘s two-night Dancing with the Stars Season 35 premiere.
Why have one night of Dancing with the Stars when you can have two? Fresh off the news that last night’s premiere was the most watched in six years, the kickoff continued Wednesday night with the women celebrities making their performance debut.
ICYMI, the male celebs performed last night (and were in the audience to dutifully support the ladies on their big night), and Conner Leavitt was the first to go home. There’ll be another contestant sent packing by the end of Wednesday’s show. The results are at the bottom of this post.
You can breathe a sigh of relief, because there’s only one cha cha in this round. Also, online voting was back after it crashed during Tuesday’s live show.
Let’s get into it.
Actress Tatyana Ali with Jan Ravnik. Reuniting with her on-screen brother Alfonso Ribeiro here, Fresh Prince of Bel Air star Ali performed a jive to “Knock on Wood” (her kids’ song choice, she says). Ravnik is one of the newer pros, making his debut last season, and the jive is quite an ambitious dance style for the very first performance. Ali struggled with some timing issues at the start, but they ultimately pulled off a fun first routine. “That was a bit of a rough start,” Carrie Ann Inaba told her. “But what I see in you, that is positive, is that there is a fierce fire burning under you.” SCORE: 12 out of 30 (kind of rough!)
Olympian Amber Glenn with Pasha Pashkov. The gold medalist has some big shoes to fill, considering the show’s lengthy track record of figure skaters who found success on the ballroom floor. She dances the lone cha cha of the night to a Santana song, and while you could tell she was deep in thought the entire time, she rose to the occasion. “OK ice queen! I see you!” Derek Hough told her. “You have such a beautiful awareness of your body…just a little bit more finesse.” SCORE: 18 out of 30
Reality star Ciara Miller with Brandon Armstrong. When she says at the top of her intro package that she’s had a “hell of a year,” she’s pretty much understating it. The Summer House star thinks, at this point, she can take on anything, and she’s ready to express herself through a medium other than words. She and Armstrong come out of the gate with a rocky foxtrot, but listen, it’s the first performance. On a positive note, she nails the “sophistication” of the dance style, Bruno Tonioli tells her. “It’s all there with you to use.” SCORE: 15 out of 30
Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis with Alan Bersten. Dancing a tango, this celebrity chef is trying to bring an elegance she says she learned in the kitchen to the ballroom floor. She’s just got to find the right recipe! Looks like she’s sniffing it out, because the judges were truly surprised at her performance despite her zero dance experience, but Derek says he wished it was a little less safe. “With that said, I love seeing the joy in this dance,” he adds. Prepare yourselves for a lot of cooking puns this season. The judges were really packing them in there. SCORE: 16 out of 30
Actress Julia Stiles with Ezra Sosa. While she might’ve starred as a Julliard student in Save the Last Dance, Stiles really doesn’t have much dance experience. If you didn’t know, the movie was doubled, she tells viewers in her intro package. (“I’m well aware,” Sosa sweetly replies when she tells him). These two brought a quickstep to “9 to 5” by the late Dolly Parton to the show on Wednesday, and there may be room for growth, but this DWTS superfan totally disproved Andy Cohen’s previous remarks that Stiles can’t dance! Yes, they did bring that up. “Andy Cohen, you can eat it!” Derek said to the camera when the performance was finished. SCORE: 18 out of 30
Reality star Maura Higgins with Mark Ballas. These former Traitors co-stars reunited for a foxtrot on their first night in the ballroom. She’s been on several reality series at this point, and yet she’s never prevailed in the end, so she’s got her eyes on that mirrorball trophy. Too bad dance does not come naturally to her. Yet, Ballas still had her out there looking like a pro herself strutting across that floor to “Black Velvet.” A blessing and a curse to deliver like that the first week, because she’s now set the bar high. “You foxy traitor! So seductive, so enticing, smooth as silk and ready for the kill,” Tonioli said. “The movement, I’ve never seen something like that on week one.” SCORE: 21 out of 30 (highest of the night)
Reality star Sarah Jane Nader with Hailey Bills. Sarah Jayne is no stranger to the ballroom, since her sister Brooks previously competed. She took the stage for one or two counts on Season 33, but now she’s ready to take the stage for herself. This is the second time that DWTS has had a same-sex female couple, and last time it was Bills’ aunt and longtime pro Jenna Johnson paired with JoJo Siwa. So, they both have a lot to prove with their jive to “Sk8er Boi,” and it seems they did decent. “Can I just say what we’re all thinking? That was super hot!” exclaimed Inaba before delivering a hard truth: “You were out of sync.” Room for improvement! SCORE: 14 out of 30
Actress Jenna Dewan with Val Chmerkovskiy. The Rookie and Step Up star Dewan closed out the show with a tango. After starting her career as a backup dancer, she’s been focusing on purely acting for a long enough time now that she’s not sure if she can meet the expectations that she assumes people have for her run on DWTS. Chmerkovskiy is ready to push her, though, and he got a lot out of her on night one. “You put the ‘go’ in ‘tango,’” Derek says. He called it “a little frantic in places” but it certainly sets the standard for her performances to come. SCORE: 19 out of 30
So, who goes home?
After just one performance, Sarah Jayne Nader is the first female celebrity to be eliminated from the competition. The 14 remaining contestants will take on Week 2 to some viral hits next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+.

Entertainment

‘Barely Breathing’ Singer Duncan Sheik Hospitalized in New York

“Barely Breathing” singer Duncan Sheik has been hospitalized in New York … TMZ has learned.
Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter is currently receiving care at a New York City hospital.
It’s currently unclear what led to his hospitalization, and details about his condition remain unknown.
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His team posted a statement on his Instagram late Wednesday saying he remains in critical but stable condition.
Sheik rose to fame with his 1996 debut single, “Barely Breathing,” which earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
He is also known for his work as a composer and actor.

Entertainment

AGT Live Results: Season 21 Finalists

The votes are in, and we now know which acts will be competing in next week’s Season 21 finale of “America’s Got Talent.”
Prior to the Wednesday, September 16, results show, four acts — magic group Hundred Fingers, rocker Nene Royal, singer Lai Noelle, and robot dance troupe Unitree — had already secured their spot in the finals after receiving Golden Buzzers from the judges during the quarterfinals.
This left just six open spots for the season’s remaining semifinalists — dog group Acro Canine Crew, magician Kameron Marshall, comedic singer Cesar Dias, aerialist Veronika Goroshkova, rapper Luke Taleno, Royal Lasers, dog act Olivia Befus, magic duo Young & Strange, dance troupe Come Here, comedian Daniel Alvarez, magician Geno Ploeger, and singer Travis Garland — to fight for. And fight they did, delivering a night of unforgettable performances on Tuesday, September 15.
With Simon Cowell still on medical leave from the competition, regular judges Howie Mandel, Mel B, and Sofia Vergara presided over Wednesday’s dramatic results hour, as host Terry Crews gradually revealed which acts America chose to vote into the finals.
Read on for a complete breakdown of Wednesday’s results to find out which acts are competing in the two-night Season 21 finale, beginning on Tuesday, September 22.
For their semifinals performance on Tuesday, the Acro Canine Crew invited “America’s Got Talent” viewers to an all-pink sleepover, complete with more impressive flips and tricks from humans and dogs alike. The soundtrack? Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” of course.
“I mean, we’ve had dogs on the show before, but what you do and what you bring is something so different,” Mel B told them after their latest routine. “So fun, so exciting. Your dogs are brilliant, your company is brilliant — I just have the biggest smile on my face. Thank you!”
And we’re sure the viewers had similar smiles on their faces as they voted Acro Canine Crew through to next week’s finals.
Determined to leave a good impression on the judges and voters, Kameron Marshall returned to “America’s Got Talent” for the semifinals with another mind-boggling act, this time revealing a new tattoo that matched the card Sofia Vergara came up with.
“Kameron, you really keep getting better and better and better,” she told him. “That is a commitment to tattoo part of your act! I helped you a lot, I did a great job. But I am so proud of you, you deserve to be here tonight!”
Marshall might be regretting that tattoo after Wednesday’s results show; he was the first act eliminated during the live broadcast.
Shocker: nothing went “according to plan” during Cesar Dias’ semifinals performance of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” on Tuesday. From a wardrobe malfunction to a fall from the stage, it was more of the same shtick we’ve come to expect from him.
“I said it last time, but you’re a clown, and now the surprise is kind of over as far as what’s going to happen,” Howie Mandel told Dias. Fortunately, he pivoted to compliments from there: “I’ll tell you what the joy is — the joy is when you’re performing, looking over at Sofia’s face and seeing the tears and the laughter and the joy that you are putting on that woman’s face is worth more than $1 million.”
Sadly, Dias will have to spread his signature brand of joy elsewhere, as the “America’s Got Talent” voters eliminated him during Wednesday’s live results show.
Olivia Rodrigo’s “Stupid Song” provided the soundtrack for Veronika Goroshkova’s semifinals routine on Tuesday, which is fitting, as the gravity-defying display was nothing short of stupefying.
“I mean, I’ve said this before, but you’re so elegant, and what you’re doing seems so seamless and effortless,” Mel B told Goroshkova, asking if she ever gets dizzy when she’s spinning around on stage. The short answer? No, but only after a lot of practice.
And Terry Crews had good news for Goroshkova on Wednesday: she earned enough votes to spin her way right into next week’s finals.
Luke Taleno hoped to impress the judges and the voters at home with another uplifting original song, this time titled “The American Dream,” during Tuesday’s live semifinals.
“You know what? You are the American dream,” Howie Mandel told Taleno. “You have had to battle your whole life through your health, and then you manifested yourself last year backstage, telling Simon you were going to end up on that stage. … You are making your dream come true, and now it is up to America. You’ve got to keep this dream happening! You are, to me, the new Eminem.”
Those words from Mandel only make it more painful for us to say that Taleno was, in fact, eliminated during Wednesday’s live results show.
You could say that Royal Lasers took things to the next level in their semifinals performance on Tuesday, performing a video game-themed routine set to Benson Boone’s “Mr. Electric Blue.”
Covered in streamers, Mel B couldn’t stop singing Royal Laser’s praises when all was said and done. “I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed that,” she said. “By the way, your choreography is on point. The way that you are so precise, following along with [the game], it’s just brilliant.”
Unsurprisingly, the “America’s Got Talent” voters beamed Royal Lasers into the finale during Wednesday’s live results show.
The other Season 21 dog act, Olivia Befus, was done playing around when her moment on stage arrived on Tuesday — well, except for the impressive game of volleyball she played with one of her canine companions, set to BTS’ “Dynamite.”
“My favorite thing about your act is that I can tell that those dogs love you,” Sofia Vergara told Befus. “They can’t wait to be on stage on with you, and that makes me very very happy. Congratulations!”
Well, the dogs aren’t the only ones who love Befus, as we learned when she was became the first act sent through to the finals during Wednesday’s live results show.
Claiming to have the “greatest magic prop in ‘AGT’ history” is a pretty tall order, but that’s exactly what Young & Strange alleged in Tuesday’s semifinals — but not everyone was impressed.
“You know I love you guys, you know I do, that did not cut it for me,” Mel B told them. “Your last performance was so much better. But it’s not up to me, it’s up to America!” (For the record, Howie Mandel couldn’t have disagreed with her more.)
The voters, apparently, sided with Mel B, eliminating Young & Strange during Wednesday’s live results show.
Olivia Rodrigo also provided the soundtrack to Come Here’s semifinals performance. The dance group moved, posed, and wowed their way through her smash hit “Vampire.”
“You are my favorite human dance troupe on this season,” Howie Mandel told them. “If they vote you through, your competition is robots,” he said, alluding to Unitree. “But you came off like machines. The synchronicity that you [displayed] wasn’t human. The way you all move, it was perfection. I wish you luck.”
And that luck came in handy! It was revealed during Wednesday’s live results show that the “America’s Got Talent” viewers voted Come Here through to the finals.
Daniel Alvarez returned for the semifinals on Tuesday with more self-deprecating humor (“I love dancing, because every dance is a lap dance for me”) and jokes about his fellow competitors (“It’s so hard to compete against dogs, because we’re all thinking the same thing… could I pet that dog?”).
Alvarez got high praise from fellow comedian Howie Mandel, who said, “I love you, and I think America loves you, and I think this audience loves you.”
Maybe Mandel misjudged the love this time around, as Alvarez was sadly among the acts eliminated during Wednesday’s results show.
Fall is officially here, and magician Geno Ploeger took the “America’s Got Talent” audience back to school with a homework-themed routine during the semifinals on Tuesday.
Ploeger’s routine left the audience roaring — and the judges’ heads spinning. “They’re chanting his name in here,” Sofia Vergara said. “I’m going to say it again, I’m so glad we’re not the ones voting or picking tonight. Every act has been spectacular. That was amazing.”
Fortunately for Ploeger, the people who were responsible for voting did so in his favor. He was the last act sent through to the finals on Wednesday.
Travis Garland closed out Tuesday’s semifinals with an appropriately emotional take on Billie Eilish’s “when the party’s over,” hoping that America would keep his own party going with their votes.
“You know I have loved your voice from the very beginning, and I love how you keep on taking risks,” Mel B told Garland. “Now, this song started off not very good, I have to say. But by the middle, when you did the key change and you did all those trills, you got me.”
Sadly, Garland will not be singing on the “America’s Got Talent” stage again; he was the final act eliminated on Wednesday.
How do you feel about the way Wednesday’s results shook out? Vote for the acts you would have sent to the finals in our poll below, then drop a comment with the act you predict will win Season 21.

Entertainment

Netanyahu Moves To Get ‘NAZA’ Directors’ Israeli Citizenship Revoked

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has joined the chorus of Israeli government officials seeking to punish the directors of the Venice Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize-winning documentary NAZA.
After decrying what he described as “global antisemitic incitement,” Netanyahu said he will be introducing two bills in his country’s parliament, the Knesset.
“We will hit them in their pockets and also in their citizenship, because their place is not among us,” declared Netanyahu. He also described the bills specifically.
“The first: to revoke the citizenship of anyone who slanders IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldiers.
“The second: to hit them in the pocket, raising the defamation damages they can be sued for twentyfold.”
The co-directors of NAZA, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, are both Israeli.
The prime minister’s comments followed those of his Culture Minister, Miki Zohar, who also threatened to revoke the filmmakers’ citizenship.
On Friday, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett criticized NAZA and its filmmakers, saying in a statement that that he is “proud” and “deeply grateful” to the Israeli reservists and soldiers “standing between us and that next massacre.” He added, “To portray them as perpetrators of ‘genocide’ is not courageous art. It is a cowardly blood libel.”
NAZA, a late addition to the competition lineup in Venice, received a record 25-minute standing ovation at its premiere there. On Saturday night, it won the festival’s Special Jury Prize. The film is directed by Israeli Jews Abraham and Szor, who were also two of the four directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.
In NAZA, Abraham appears on camera, interviewing his subjects on the rooftop; they explain that “NAZA” is a Hebrew acronym used by the Israel Defense Forces to signify collateral damage (נזק אגבי, or Nezek Agavi, per an interview included in press notes), in other words, an acceptable loss of civilian life incurred while trying to kill suspected Hamas militants. The film suggests the number of “NAZA” considered acceptable in each attack was elastic. In some cases, it would be under a dozen, but in others it could be 200 or even 500 people deemed permissible collateral damage, according to Israeli military personnel interviewed in the film.
Matt Carey contributed to this report.