As a chronicler of American subcultures, Louis Theroux is used to being in uncomfortable situations. But when he started to research his latest documentary—about Israeli settlers in the West Bank—what surprised him most was how open everyone was about their project, which violates international law. “It was just shocking and strange,” Theroux told me, “because most times, activity that feels really predatory or immoral takes place in the dark.”
Some of the outposts depicted in The Settlers are illegal even under Israeli law, Theroux says—although the country’s government just approved 22 additional settlements in the West Bank, in some cases retrospectively legalizing ones already established. Achieving such expansions has been the life’s work of Theroux’s main subject, Daniella Weiss, who is widely described as the “godmother” of the settler movement and boasts on camera about having senior politicians on speed dial. When Theroux tells the 79-year-old that moving a civilian population into a conquered territory is considered a war crime, Weiss laughs. “It’s a light felony,” she replies. Her next target is the Gaza Strip.
To Weiss, the timing seems perfect. Israel’s war on Hamas has displaced a majority of the population in Gaza at least once, according to the United Nations, and Donald Trump has spoken of turning the area into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” In America, this idea of Mar-a-Gaza has become a late-night-show punch line, but to the most hard-core Israeli settlers, retaking the Strip would be the fulfillment of a longtime dream.
The Settlers was broadcast in Britain, where I live, in late April. Within hours, bootlegged versions were circulating on X, where they racked up millions of views. This shouldn’t be surprising, because many online outlets, from The Joe Rogan Experience to the start-up Zeteo, have taken a more skeptical line on Israel’s war objectives than the major U.S. television networks, reflecting the views of their audiences.
Theroux, who is British-American, described himself to me as “not terrifically political,” but he has nonetheless created a damning portrait of a group of religious extremists who believe that their claim to the West Bank comes from a higher authority than any mere UN directive or international treaty.
Like many of the settlers Theroux interviews in the film, Weiss believes that the Jewish homeland is her birthright. “She embodied this emboldened settler movement, both in her outlook, the fact of how long she’d been doing it, her level of influence, the passion she projects, and her kind-of completely uninhibited quality,” he told me. Toward the end of the film, Weiss even shoves him to make a point. Were he to respond in kind, she says, people could present that clip out of context and accuse him of physically abusing a woman. The implication is that what Theroux calls “settler violence” is merely self-defense—a natural response to Palestinian provocation.
The documentary, which recently became officially available to watch in the United States on the streaming service BBC Select, also features a number of Americans who have moved to the region to pursue what they see as a more meaningful life. One of them, Ari Abramowitz, was born in Texas and came to live in the land he calls “Judea and Samaria” after visiting as a teenager. He now runs a farm and vacation retreat in the West Bank. “I’m so uncomfortable using the word Palestinian,” he tells Theroux of a local Arab village, “because I don’t think it exists.” Another, a man from New York who now lives in Hebron, tells Theroux: “Our right to be in this land is the Torah, is the godly promise. Where we don’t settle, terror grows.” Both men are armed with rifles when Theroux meets them.
Theroux has tackled the settlers once already, in a 2011 documentary called The Ultra Zionists, which showed a more rounded picture—both the zeal of the West Bank arrivals and the backlash they face from displaced Palestinians. (When traveling with one settler convoy, Theroux’s car was pelted with rocks; a settler house he visited was later firebombed.) This new documentary feels more polemic, focusing on the demeaning daily restrictions on Palestinian life and the intensity of the Israeli military occupation. “The architecture and infrastructure of power and domination is really interesting,” Theroux told me. “As much as the why of the psychology, or the political outlook, is fascinating—actually, if you strip that out, there’s also this extraordinary process that takes place involving walls, gates, guard towers, specially built roads. And I very much wanted to do justice to that as well.”
I’m not shocked that this documentary was made by the BBC, rather than an American network. To a degree that surprises me, many Americans treat pro-Palestinian activism as a fringe leftist pursuit, irredeemably tainted by disruptive and anti-Semitic protests on college campuses. But disillusionment and anger with Israel are widespread, among both ordinary voters and ruling politicians, in Europe and other places that are otherwise friendly to America and its allies. In a December 2023 filing in the International Court of Justice, South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. By October 2024, eight other countries, including Ireland and Turkey, had joined the case. In the latest YouGov sentiment tracker of six Western European countries, “only 13–21% in any country have a favourable opinion of Israel, compared to 63–70% who have an unfavourable view.”
Although only a small minority of the surveyed Europeans believed the October 7 attacks were justified, less than a quarter of respondents agreed that Israel’s ongoing response is proportionate. These figures make uncomfortable reading for British Jews who abhor the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government but also recognize the existence of anti-Semitism within some parts of pro-Palestinian activism. My friend Hadley Freeman, for instance, wrote an agonized column reflecting on how the “existence of anti-Jew hatred does not change the fact that thousands of people are dying on the Gaza strip.” In April, 36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a group whose perspective is broadly pro-Israel, published an open letter condemning the war. “Israel’s soul is being ripped out,” they wrote.
One inevitable criticism of The Settlers is that Theroux has unfairly focused on a fringe minority of Israelis in order to demonize the entire country, which is taking military action to respond to the October 7 attacks, rescue its remaining hostages, and protect itself from future terror plots. “What could have possessed the BBC to make a documentary about the very worst Jews they could find?” Jake Wallis Simons, the former editor of the Jewish Chronicle, wrote after the initial broadcast on the BBC. By focusing on the “freak show” of the viciously contested town of Hebron and demonstrating a lack of curiosity about Palestinian violence, Wallis Simons argued, the documentary showed a “patrician, sneering perspective that in the eyes of the BBC passes for impartiality.”
Theroux has indeed made a career out of interviewing extremists, weirdos, and people living marginal lifestyles. His previous subjects include swingers, porn actors, and the Westboro Baptist Church. By focusing on the hard-core settlers, is he being unfair? Theroux counters that some of Netanyahu’s most powerful cabinet members, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, share Weiss’s outlook. Smotrich, who oversees the civilian administration of the West Bank, has repeatedly threatened to leave the ruling coalition if Israel agrees to a cease-fire in Gaza. Ben-Gvir is perhaps the most unpopular member, outside Israel, of Netanyahu’s cabinet—a man who joked at a recent appearance in the U.S. about how little food Palestinian prisoners were given. In the film, Ben-Gvir appears at a settler rally where the annexation of Gaza is openly discussed, and he urges attendees to “rebuild, settle, encourage Palestinian emigration and win.”
Here in the U.K., the documentary aired just as elite opinion soured decisively on Israel’s war in Gaza. Because Britain’s most important ally, the United States, strongly supports Israel, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s left-wing Labour Party has struggled to find a position that reconciles its supporters’ distaste for Netanyahu and the demands of realpolitik. (The toxic legacy of the previous Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who was kicked out for denying the extent of anti-Semitism that flourished among party members on his watch, has also complicated Starmer’s response.) On May 19, however, Starmer released a joint statement with Emmanuel Macron of France and Mark Carney of Canada condemning Israel’s actions, and calling for more aid to Gaza and an end to settlement expansion in the West Bank. “Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7,” the three leaders wrote. “We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate.”
The next day—less than a month after The Settlers appeared on the BBC—the British government sanctioned Weiss, declaring that she was involved in “threatening, perpetrating, promoting and supporting acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals.” (The Israeli government characterized this move, which prohibits Weiss from traveling to Britain and freezes any assets she might have in banks there, as “unjustified and regrettable.”) Theroux doesn’t know if his documentary affected this decision, but “it seems coincidental, doesn’t it?” He doubts the sanctions will make much difference to Weiss. On June 10, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich were also sanctioned by Britain—as well as by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway—for what Foreign Secretary David Lammy described as their “horrendous extremist language.” In response, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that America “stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.”
Like the majority of my fellow Britons, I don’t believe that Israel is currently fighting a proportionate war. Launching a new armed campaign against Iran strikes me as reckless. Netanyahu is taking advantage of the Trump presidency to prolong the Gaza conflict, keeping his extremist coalition partners in the fold and himself in power. In doing so, he is being cheered on by Ben-Gvir, Weiss, and others in the settler movement who believe that they have an uncompromisable right to disputed land, backed by God’s will and military might.
No single film can do justice to the complexity and tragedy of the Middle East. But even if Theroux has settled upon the “very worst” interviewees he could find, it’s troubling that they have support at the highest levels of Israel’s government.
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