Whether an Oscar-nominated movie depicting 48 hours in the lives of two Palestinian men contemplating a suicide bomb attack wins the Academy Award could come down to just a few votes. The number of signatures on a petition requesting the film’s nomination be withdrawn has surpassed 25,000.

Directed by an Israeli-born Palestinian, Hany Abu-Assad, “Paradise Now” is one of the five films nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Award.

A petition circulated on the Internet by an ad-hoc group known as Decent People World Wide claims the movie “attempts to explain away the actions behind mass-murderers.”

The petition was inspired by an open letter written by an Israeli man whose 16-year-old son was killed in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Yossi Zur.

“Granting an award to this kind of movie gives the filmmakers a seal of approval to hide behind. Now they can say that the world sees suicide bombing as legitimate,” Mr. Zur wrote after the film won a Golden Globe award.

The movie portrays the emotional turmoil of two young Palestinian men as they try to decide whether to commit a suicide bombing, weighing their belief that “death is better than inferiority” and “a life without dignity is worthless” against their fear, doubts, and commitments. One does not go through with the bombing; the other’s decision is left inconclusive.

Because Academy members who want to vote for the best foreign language film must attend screenings of all five nominees,the number of people who actually vote is small. The author of the perennially updated “All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards,” Emanuel Levy, said in a telephone interview that only several hundred of the Academy’s nearly 6,000 members vote for the award. An article this week in Newsweek estimates the number at 300.

The award’s winner could depend on fewer than 10 votes, Mr. Levy said, adding that the small number and the self-selecting nature of the members who vote on the award could slant the Academy’s decision toward a particular viewpoint.

A spokesman for the Academy, John Pavlik, told The New York Sun via e- mail, “It’s a democratic vote. Practically anything can skew it. That’s the way the process works.” He said their was no political motive to the nomination of “Paradise Now,” and added that he had no response to the criticism of the film as an apology for terrorism.

“I understand that it will be upsetting to some that I have given a human face to the suicide bombers; I am also very critical of the suicide bombers, as well,” the director of “Paradise Now,” Hany Abu-Assad, said in an interview posted on the distribution company’s Web site. “The film is simply meant to open a discussion, hopefully, a meaningful discussion, about the real issues at hand. I hope that the film will succeed in stimulating thought. If you see the film, it’s fairly obvious that it does not condone the taking of lives.”

Mr. Levy said he thought Academy members were more left-leaning, which would work in the film’s favor, but he predicted that either the German nominee,”Sophie Scholl – The Final Days,” or the French, “Joyeux Noel,” would win this year’s award. He said he had voted in favor of the film receiving the Golden Globe award.

Critics have also faulted the Academy for describing the movie’s country of origin as Palestine, which is not recognized as a country. “Paradise Now” is the first movie to be nominated for an Oscar that has been so designated. Its director and female lead, Lubna Azabal, along with many members of its cast and crew, live in Europe, though the director and many cast members are ethnically Palestinian.

It was filmed on location in Nablus, a West Bank town controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and in Nazareth and Tel Aviv, both in Israel proper.

Mr. Pavlik said “Paradise Now” was not the first film designated as Palestinian to be considered for an Oscar nomination, though it was the first to receive one. He added that the Academy also accepts films from regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Puerto Rico that are not recognized as sovereign countries.