In 2010, British journalist Louis Theroux traveled to Israel to interview ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers who believed it was their religious and political obligation to settle in the West Bank for the BBC documentary Ultra-Zionists. Last year, more than a decade and a half later, the station revisited the region to examine how the Israeli settler movement had escalated since October 7’s “The Settlers.”
Speaking at CPH:DOX after a sold-out screening of the documentary, the British writer said he remembered well the “intensity” of being in occupied territory during the war. Asked what drew him to this subject matter, Theroux said that at the heart of his work is the “strangeness of humans” and the ways in which “human beings self-destruct or act in ways that seem illogical, immoral, or controversial.”
He added: “Here, a religious nationalist ideology is being imposed in an area that has become a kind of prison in collusion with a huge military organization. I have never seen anything like that unfold openly and without shame.”
The Israelis interviewed in Theroux’s documentary are portrayed as loud and outspoken about their plans to fully occupy the West Bank and facilitate the settlement of Palestinians. The documentary’s most striking subject is Daniela Weiss, the settler settler and Israeli politician who founded the far-right organization Nachala. Over the past three decades, Weiss has directly supported the establishment of dozens of Israeli outposts, or settlements, built in the West Bank without legal permission.
Throughout the documentary, Weiss fiercely defends the Israelis’ right to occupy the West Bank, saying things like “they are doing for the government what they cannot do for themselves,” before boasting about his direct line to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At one point, an elderly woman asserts that “there is no such thing as settler violence,” implying that the video, which has been widely shared online, is an edited and manipulated snippet of a settler response to provocation.
Louis Theroux of CPH:DOX
Theroux said Weiss’s strong stance on the Palestinians, whom he calls the “godmother of the settler movement,” is “a kind of joy that flows through her, the joy of her sense of mission to the chosen people that she wants to represent.”
Asked about Weiss’ motivation for taking part in the documentary, the Brit added: “People who take part in documentaries have a reason for doing it.” “It could be narcissism, it could be a need for publicity, it could be because she’s trying to bring in converts… In her case, it’s difficult. She probably thinks there’s some point in having a profile. She relies on an international community to support her work, and she probably thinks it helps her profile.”
Theroux noted that since the documentary first aired on the BBC last year, Weiss has become “something of a thorn in the side of Western media.” “I think Piers Morgan interviewed her after that, and she seems to enjoy putting it out there.” This could be said to add to the general criticism that some voices on Theroux’s work platform shouldn’t get attention in the wider media. Poking around on this, the journalist said he doesn’t like the word “platforming”.
“It feels very broad, as if having someone appear on a live podcast is the same thing as spending weeks interviewing someone in the right way and shaping the story in a way that feels truthful and responsible,” he said. “Those are two very different things. I have a podcast, and my approach on a podcast is very different than when I’m making a documentary.”
For “The Settlers”, Theroux was particularly concerned with “doing a good job” of portraying the complexity of the subject matter he was working on on screen, due to how important the subject matter was to his creative team. Unlike recent works like the Netflix hit “Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere,” the author said he was “more proactive with this one.”
“One of my frustrations in making this film was realizing that we weren’t capturing the worst of what was going on,” he said. “I’m doing stories about some themes that are clearly mainstream, like crazy people in America and porn movies. What I’m dealing with here is something that people might perceive as less obvious for the mass market. The idea that I would (turn) my kind of documentary lens on this story… (my team) made me realize how important it is that we do good work.”
As for criticism that may arise from the fact that “Settlers” primarily focuses on Israelis in the West Bank, with only brief interludes following Palestinians in the area, Theroux said he “understands” how that would be viewed.
“That would be frustrating,” he admitted. “At the same time, this is not the only film that depicts the situation in the West Bank. This is a film that I have made, and it is part of a series of films that have tried to reach a large audience in a way that does justice to the moral urgency of the situation. And in the end, it’s the people of action who are holding the guns, right? They’ve been holding on to an area where over 3 million Palestinians live for over 60 years” under military occupation. ”
Finally, when asked about the impact of dealing closely with the tragedies and devastation of war, the British presenter emphasized that “part of telling a documentary is the unfortunate privilege of moving forward,” adding, “You can’t get too attached to the idea of changing the world.”
“I have a great family, a great wife, and three great sons. I feel very blessed,” he continued. “I have the luxury of leaving. I don’t suffer. I’m not the kind of war correspondent who goes home and is traumatized or thinks, ‘I have to go back to the field.'” I enjoy this job, and there’s a real sense of pride and purpose that comes with documenting things that I feel are worth documenting. ”
