The talent of Louis Theroux is his ability to ask the most obvious questions with a disarming innocence. To draw out truth is a forgotten or less than celebrated trait in modern journalism. In his latest documentary, The Settlers, Thoroux is not a mouthpiece for the establishment, though ithe production was done through the BBC. Theroux follows in the footsteps of Robert Fisk by giving the microphone to the innocent—and their tormentors. In doing so he has drawn controversy, but not because he manipulated or changed words. He simply let people speak their minds; the truth is harmful, even to those who agree.
Theroux spoke with Israeli settlers in the “disputed territories,” or Palestine. The settlers call the area “Judaea.” To them and their backers it’s a land promised to them. The Palestinians who have lived their for countless generations are to be disposed of, eradicated. This is settler colonialism. It is giving us a twenty-first century glimpse of what in the nineteenth century was considered the right of civilized nations. It’s ugly and brutal, and the words of the settlers expose a colonial entitlement that is now widely frowned upon in the West.
Theroux has been here before. In his 2011 documentary The Ultra Zionists, he reported on the religious nationalism of the settlers then. Fourteen years later, the settlers are no longer considered outsiders or zealots, but rather the tip of a spear of expansionism that now has wider support not only from the Israeli government, but post-October 7 the public as well. The Hamas attack made Arabs and Islam an enemy of the West again. Forget the reason for the attack. There is never a justification for terrorism, but terrorism always seems to justify revenge.
The United States has a special friendship with Israel; it’s both a dependent and a petulant partner. So it’s no wonder that Theroux would interview a Texan who, finding himself an ardent Zionist and romanced by his religion and myths of the United States’ own founding, moved to the West Bank. The parallels to Manifest Destiny are obvious, but so to are the Hitlerian demands for “living space.” The Settlers is not just about Zionism; it’s a reflection on nationhood founded through settler-colonialism.
With just such self-reflection I can look back as an Australian who was raised in the two worlds, one of which understood that the “Abo” or “Boong” were backwards and useless as far as a human being goes. “No good lay abouts” was the oft-heard phrase, or the best they could hope for was a romanticized, celebrated portrayal as Stone Age fixtures of land in films like Crocodile Dundee. It was only the arrival of Europeans who made Australia into a nation, civilized and built it into a modern state. That is the mythos that helps the benefactors sleep at night.
I was raised to understand that what happened to the Aboriginal people was wrong, a genocide which included colonial brutality that stole children and exterminated entire communities, and today still results in lower than average life expectancy. Ironically, we are told to feel guilt and bear the burden of shame by the very government and elite class who most benefit now from the stolen land and exterminated people. They indulge in token ceremonies and look at the people of the land as dependent children to be guided and protected through welfare. That is the two faces of settler colonialism: conquest, then eventually revisionist guilt. In The Settlers we are witnessing the conquest phase and hear the voices of those self-righteous conquerors.
In The Settlers, Thoroux gives us the pragmatic expansionist, who see Palestine as theirs to be taken, developed, and settled into a modern society, but in actuality an ancient tribalism. We see in the documentary a rabbi who calls the Palestinians, “savages” and “camel riders.” Our Texan, Ari Abramowitz, does not even acknowledge the Palestinians. It’s his people’s land and his people’s destiny. And he doesn’t mean his fellow Texans. He believes this, and so to do many others, Jewish, secular and Christian alike. Many far beyond Israel believe in the biblical claim to conquer Palestine for Israel.
The Settlers main attraction is Daniella Weiss, a high level member of the movement. She has been active for over fifty years and in her own words, can ring up the prime minister. She is honest, brutally so. Weiss is unapologetic in her ambitions. As she said last year, “We have the experience that we have accumulated in fifty-five years of settling Judea [and] Samaria [the occupied West Bank], the Golan Heights.” She seeks to ethnically cleanse the region. She has been honest and open in all her public appearances about the conquest of Palestine and what that entails. She has no regard or care for the Palestinians.
In the aftermath of October 7, 2023, the violence committed by Hamas made it hard for public discussion on how the common Palestinian had been treated. Suddenly they were all “snakes” and deserved to die. We witnessed that at the end of 2001 and into the following year. But it’s May 2025, and the genocide and harsh conditions experienced by the victims of the IDF are hard to avoid. More people are taking notice and finding the courage to speak up. The timing of this documentary coincides with that now emerging bravery.
It’s only now, for the current blip of internet interest that Weiss and the attitudes of other settlers are being side-eyed. That is thanks to Theroux and the BBC for making a trendy documentary. But when it stops trending, then what? We’ll go back to how it always is; harassment from IDF soldiers, the misery of the Palestinians as they suffer military checkpoints and endless abuse from armed Israelis. Not to mention the shootings, or regular torture, or the fact that rape is a systemic tool inside of Israeli prisons for Palestinians.
Just because the Thoroux’s settlers are true believers does not mean that there is not a degree of material self-interest involved. Stealing the produce and land from others has always been a satisfactory compensation for those who civilize the frontier for a spiritual destiny. For those who push the natives out, there is always a reward and investors. The Israeli government and to some degree the U.S. government both conspire to make Weiss’ sinister ambition possible. You can add in many churches in the United States. They may claim to love their God and have his blessing but they are also inspired by very worldly greed.
For those of us outside spectators, we are told that it’s “complicated.” For Daniella Weiss and the settlers it’s not complicated. Palestinians either leave or die. Their continued subjugation seems less and less tolerable, so they’re to be removed by force or motivated to do so. But to where? Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and the wider world are expected to take more or share them all (in addition to the many already expulsed by Israel in the past).
For the Palestinians, it’s not complicated. They are a people who are being killed and forced from their homes. It’s only complicated to the outsiders, who perfume themselves in the dignity of principled values while they balance loyalty to Israel. It’s only complicated to those who claim to love a peaceful god while supporting violence and indignity. It’s only complicated to those who see the Arab as oriental, alien, and backwards.
For anyone who has been paying attention the words of the settlers and the Palestinians, what they’re see on the screen is nothing new. What will happen with the information being widely broadcast on the BBC and its new attention is unknown. Maybe, it will buy some of the Palestinians a brief reprieve. The settlers, however, are as patient as they are relentless. With the support of the Israeli and American governments, they can afford to be.
Please watch the documentary. What you do afterwards is up to you, what can you do? Anything would be better than scrolling on and dismissing it as someone else problem.
