Yuval Diskin stated Nawi should be jailed quickly but cautioned that " the data shows that there is no basis for comparison between violence coming from the right and violence coming from the left . " B'tselem commented on its Facebook page that while opposed to tortures and executions , reporting Palestinians who intend to sell Israelis Palestinian land was “ the only legitimate course of action . ” Attorney Leah Tsemel , who defends Palestinian rights , said the complaint would not be difficult to deal with . Gideon Levy criticized Uvda 's presentation , writing that it systematically ignored the crimes of Israel 's occupation of the West Bank , and noted that Nawi was being likened to the perpetrators of the Duma arson attack . Both Levy and Amira Hass wrote that Uvda had failed its brief as an outlet for investigative journalism by lending its services uncritically to what Levy called a McCarthyist right-wing organization about which nothing is known ( Levy ) or passing on a ' puff piece for a privatized , mini-Shin Bet ' ( Hass ) . They say that no background research on the sources or the contexts had been conducted . For David Shulman , Nawi 's work is one of the main reasons why the civilian Palestinian population in the South Hebron hills still maintains a precarious purchase on fragments of their historic lands , and the entire episode , mounted by " moles " from a shadowy organization to discredit him has , he concludes , all the appearance of a sting operation to trap him and ' legitimize the theft of Palestinian land . ' Nawi 's story has been recounted in two documentary films . In 2005 , Canadian-Jewish filmmaker Elle Flanders made a documentary entitled '' Zero Degree of Separation '' , which intertwined the story of her family in Jerusalem , for whom Ezra Nawi once worked as a gardener , with the lives of two gay couples , one of which was Nawi and his companion . In 2007 , a further film about Nawi 's life and work , ' Citizen Nawi ' ( '' HaEzrach Nawi '' ) directed by Nissim Mossek and produced by Sharon Schaveet , premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival , where it won a special jury mention . The film documents the plight of the Bedouin , the difficulties of Israeli-Palestinian relations , and the hardships of being gay . Made over five years on a shoe-string budget , it was judged a somewhat messy docu by '' Variety '' film critic Leslie Felperin , who thought its director " too in love with its subject to ask tough questions " . Yet , he added , it managed " to expose both Israeli and Arab bigotry and has its heart in the right liberal place " . Raya Morag sees the film as basically about deep-seated Israeli homophobia and racism . Dan DiLandro , reviewing for '' Educational Media Reviews , '' wrote that the film had a number of evident problems , technical and narrative , yet judged it " an important work that shed light on many of the area ’s conflicts and dynamics " . Michael Fox , writing for '' Jweekly '' , finds ' Citizen Nawi ' to be " a rough-hewn profile in courage that diligently tallies the cost of conscience " , and writes of the " discomfiting power " of a " raw and occasionally wrenching film " , which stirs a " certain cognitive dissonance " when one " sees Nawi threatened and insulted in the crudest terms by religious Jewish settlers and embraced as a trusted friend by a Palestinian family living in a tent " . For Fox , as the film follows Nawi 's travails with his lover , run-ins with the police , and battles with settlers , it suddenly jolts one out of the initial impression that Nawi 's activism has liberal roots : - " One just assumes that Nawi has always been a liberal , and that his treks to the West Bank reflect a longstanding empathy for the Palestinians . It comes as a shock when he remarks well into the film that he was n't particularly aware of or concerned about their day-to-day hardships until he got involved with Fuad " . Nawi 's instincts , Fox concludes , are those of the humanist , and the director Mossek 's gutsiest move was to have made " a film that does n't aim to inspire us with platitudes but instead tries to shock us with the hard business of building a road to peace "
Duma arson attack
Duma arson attack
Ezra Nawi