Al Jazeera probe exposes fake viewing numbers for Israeli counter-film
Data investigation casts doubt on claims that Israeli counter-documentary to 'NAZA' received 40 million views.
Key points
- An Al Jazeera investigation found that an Israeli counter-film to NAZA claimed over 44 million views, but independent traffic tools estimated far fewer.
- The counter-film's website initially disguised itself as the official NAZA site before changing to 'NAZA: The Real Story'.
- Israeli officials, including Tzipi Hotovely, promoted the counter-film and awarded its creators certificates of recognition.
An Al Jazeera investigation has found that an Israeli counter-film to the documentary NAZA claimed more than 44 million views, but independent traffic tools indicate the figure was fabricated. The probe examined domain registries, web archives, source code, and three independent traffic tools.
The original NAZA film, based on testimony from 24 unnamed Israeli military whistleblowers, won the special jury prize at the Venice International Film Festival and was scheduled to screen in 56 countries. Its success triggered a political storm in Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding investigations and threatening to revoke the citizenship of directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
Fake viewing numbers exposed
The counter-film's website, nazadocumentary.com, was registered on September 16 via Cloudflare with hidden owner details. The Internet Archive showed it initially posed as the official NAZA site, then changed to 'NAZA: The Real Story' by September 30. The counter-film was made by Ariel Averbuch, Roy Danino, and Hagai Gutman, who claimed it was self-funded.
By October 14, the site displayed 43,758,421 views without disclosing the source. Semrush estimated about half a million visits by October 8, while Similarweb estimated only 326 visits for September. The domains were absent from the Tranco top one million list. Source code showed the number was tagged internally as 'visitors' but displayed as 'views', and the counter starts at 97 percent and counts up for three seconds to appear live.
the film had garnered tens of millions of views
— Tzipi Hotovely
Official promotion and recognition
Despite the fabricated metrics, official Israeli accounts promoted the counter-film. The Israeli Embassy in Washington shared it on social media on October 3. Tzipi Hotovely, head of Israel's National Public Diplomacy Directorate, awarded the three creators certificates of recognition for countering the original film.
Hotovely said the film had garnered tens of millions of views, turning an unsupported number into an official talking point. The campaign comes amid Israel's war on Gaza, which began in October 2023 and has killed at least 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health.
