Louis Theroux: The Settlers a superb view of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians

Irish Examiner

29-04-2025

There is something missing in Louis Theroux: The Settlers (BBC Two and BBC iPlayer).
Louis is there, driving around the Palestinian territory of the West Bank with his permanently puzzled face. The Israeli settlers are there, still staking a claim to new bits of hilltop on the West Bank in contravention of international and Israeli law. That's why Louis is puzzled.
The Palestinians feature too, a man living next to an Israeli settlement facing constant harassment by Israeli security personnel and another man who takes Louis around the ancient city of Hebron. In the standout part of the show, this second man is moved along from the area outside the tourist office purely because he is Palestinian.
This is the Israeli defence forces at work, asking to see Louis' passport about 20 times during the show, just because they can.
The point of this one hour documentary is clear. Palestinians are treated as second-class human beings by the Israeli state and are barely seen as human at all by the settlers who baldly tell Louis that they should be deported out of their sight.
Louis is there, driving around the Palestinian territory of the West Bank with his permanently puzzled face.
This is most of the show as Louis does what Louis does, hanging around in kitchens and cars with extremists, getting them to open up on their views. The settlers are happy to talk – they see themselves as fulfilling God's wishes, returning to their ancient homeland in an attempt to make it exclusively Jewish.
I don't know God myself, but I'm not sure this is what he had in mind. The Palestinians are more weary than angry, worn thin by harassment and humiliation. Other people might struggle to understand the psychosocial impact of native people been driven off their land by religious fanatics, but the Irish got a few handy lessons in that from Cromwell and co.
You get a sense of shame from the Palestinians interviewed here, along with despair because it can only lead to more violence.
It's a superb ground level view of one aspect of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. It could have done with a little bit of context, a few minutes to explain how the West Bank came into being and why the settlers are now getting strong support from Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
The other thing that's missing is the voice of Arab extremism. The settlers are open about the ethnic cleansing they have planned for the area. But hundreds of Israeli civilians were murdered by Hamas on October 7 2023 – that didn't come from nowhere. It would have been a more complete picture if Louis talked to people who want to wipe Israel off the map. But it's still a superb piece of film-making.