Louis Theroux: The Settlers

Louis Theroux: The Settlers is a 2025 BBC documentary film by Louis Theroux about illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank and the movement for Israeli settlement of the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war. The film features interviews with Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including prominent far-right Zionist settler Daniella Weiss. The film is a part of Louis Theroux's BBC Two specials.

Background

Israeli occupation of the West Bank

Israeli settlements

The Ultra Zionists (2011)

14 years before The Settlers, Louis Theroux made the 2011 documentary The Ultra Zionists; it was similarly centred on Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone (2025)

Earlier in 2025, the BBC had released and subsequently pulled a separate documentary on the effect of the Gaza war on children in the Gaza Strip in Palestine titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone. It was pulled after it was reported that the child who narrated the film was the son of the deputy minister for agriculture in the ruling Hamas administration.

Production The film's creation was announced on 10 February 2025. It was commissioned by the BBC's Head of Documentary Commissioning Clare Sillery. It was directed by Josh Baker with senior producer Sara Obeidat, producer Matan Cohen, production manager Emily Wallace, and executive producers Fiona Stourton and Arron Fellows.

Louis Theroux travelled to the West Bank for three weeks in late 2024 to film the documentary. He characterised his style of documentary film making as "perpetrator focused". Describing his intentions when creating the film, he wrote:

Synopsis

In the documentary, Theroux interviews and observes both Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and members of the Israeli settler movement. Theroux interviews Ari Abramowitz, an Israeli settler from Texas, United States, who tells Theroux that he is "uncomfortable" with the word "Palestinians" because "I don’t think they exist as a real nation, with a real claim to this land."

He speaks with and follows prominent far-right Zionist settler Daniella Weiss as she holds meetings of groups aiming to reoccupy the Gaza Strip and makes an attempt to enter the territory herself. During the film, she claims to have recruited 800 Israeli families to become future settlers in the Gaza Strip; she also claims that the movement has the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who she says is unable to express it publicly.

Theroux meets Malkiel Bar-Hai, a founder of the settlement Evyatar.

He talks to and travels through the occupied Palestinian city of Hebron with Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist, navigating through IDF checkpoints and around areas in which Amro and other Palestinians are not allowed.

While Theroux is with Mohammad Hureini, a Palestinian activist living under Israeli occupation in Masafer Yatta, Hureini, his crew, and Theroux have to hide in a building as Israeli soldiers point guns and laser sights at them.

Reception and aftermath Stuart Heritage, writing for The Guardian, frames the film as a comeback for Theroux after his perceived downturn post-COVID-19 pandemic, describing it as a "true watershed moment in his career". He rated it 5 out of 5 stars, as did Gerard Gilbert of The i Paper who described it as "among his best". William Mullally, who similarly rated it a '5/5', of The National wrote that it "has the chance to change hearts and minds around the world" because of Theroux's positive reputation and BBC platform.

In an opinion piece for Middle East Eye, Peter Oborne said that the art of the film was in how it almost exclusively used the words of Israeli settlers themselves to illustrate their "inhumanity" and ethno-nationalist beliefs, but also criticised Theroux for what he viewed as omissions, notably in not using the word apartheid.

Dan Einav of the Financial Times, Phil Harrison of The Independent, and Carol Midgley of The Times rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

Reactions to the film on social media were generally positive.

Mohammad Hureini In an opinion piece published on 6 May 2025 by Mondoweiss, Mohammad Hureini, one of the Palestinians featured in The Settlers, criticised the documentary for leaving out parts they filmed where he explained his family's history dating back to the Nakba and his view of what he calls the "ongoing Nakba" from the final film, describing it as a "crucial part" of his story as a Palestinian.

He characterised its exclusion as "sanitiz[ing]" and "dull[ing] the impact" of Palestinians stories. He wrote,

Raid on the home of Issa Amro In May 2025, after the film's release, Issa Amro stated in a post on Twitter that his home in Hebron was raided and robbed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in retaliation for his participation in the documentary. His post included videos of settlers forcing themselves onto his property and soldiers with their faces covered by balaclavas. Amro said that Israeli police told him not to file a report and threatened him with arrest. Theroux retweeted Amro's post on his own Twitter page, saying that his team had been in contact with Amro since the documentary and were "monitor[ing] the situation".

Louis Theroux: The Settlers

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