Louis Theroux's The Settlers Reveals the Cruelty of Occupation — But Who Will Listen?

Still, The Settlers can’t tell the whole story in 61 minutes. It covers the 1967 war and land seizures but overlooks international law and was made before the explosion of violence in early 2025

Palestine, PUREWILAYAH.COM - Louis Theroux’s: The Settlers, is not just a foray into the Israeli settler movement, it is a powerful exposé that forces viewers to confront one of the most deeply rooted and explosive injustices of our time.

Clocking in at just over an hour, the film offers more than a travelogue or a neutral survey, instead shining a direct light on the hardline ideology that grabs land, pushes out Palestinians, and rejects the thought of peace.

A Glimpse into Manufactured Apartheid

Theroux opens the film in al-Khalil (Hebron), one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, now transformed into a symbol of occupation.

Armed Israeli settlers roam freely in Palestinian neighborhoods, often escorted by soldiers. Palestinian residents, meanwhile, live under arbitrary curfews, behind checkpoints, walls, and barbed wire.

Through raw and direct cinematography, the viewer is brought face-to-face with the stark reality of life under occupation.

Streets that once belonged to multi-faith communities are now ghostlike, split in two—one side for armed settlers, the other for the subdued and monitored. It is not merely segregation. It is a spatial regime enforced through state-backed violence.

Settlers in Their Own Words

From Hebron, the film journeys to northern Israeli settlements known for their extremist activity. There, Theroux sits down with young settlers who openly embrace violence as a means of "divine reclamation."

They talk without hesitation about expanding into Gaza and the West Bank, making it clear that they believe their theological claims justify the erasure of another people’s existence.

Theroux’s method here is signature: soft-spoken, probing questions, giving his subjects space to reveal themselves.

His genius lies not in confrontation, but in exposure. He quietly demands answers to questions the international community often avoids: Where are you originally from? The answers—New York, Paris, Moscow—reveal the great irony: those claiming indigenous rights to land are not indigenous to it.

The Dark Face of Settler Ideology: Daniella Weiss

Among the most chilling figures in the documentary is Daniella Weiss, a founding mother of the modern settler movement.

Weiss, with her venomous rhetoric and theatrical disregard for Palestinian humanity, appears almost villainous.

Theroux, visibly disturbed, labels her a “sociopath” in one of the film’s rare flashes of emotional outrage. The description, if anything, feels too restrained.

Centering Palestinian Testimony

Theroux does not let the narrative be dominated solely by settlers. He spends time with Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist in Hebron, whose testimony is both heartbreaking and quietly powerful.

Amro recounts daily life under occupation: electricity cut without warning, olive groves destroyed, checkpoints that separate families, and an ever-present threat of violence.

His voice is one of many that Theroux includes, reminding viewers that beyond the politics lie human beings robbed of dignity.

In these moments, the documentary’s emotional weight becomes clear. This is not a conflict. This is control. It is not security. It is domination.

What the Film Leaves Out

Still, The Settlers cannot tell the whole story in 61 minutes. It references the 1967 war and Israeli land grabs but does not deeply explore international legal rulings that deem these settlements illegal.

Nor does it unpack the foundational catastrophe of 1948—the Nakba—which saw over 700,000 Palestinians expelled from their homes, forming the bedrock of the current crisis.

Even more, the documentary was filmed before a new wave of settler and military violence exploded in early 2025. Since January 21, daily incursions into the West Bank have resulted in killings, arrests, and new legislation aimed at annexing even more Palestinian land.

A Deafening Silence

The ultimate tragedy may not be what The Settlers reveals, but what it reminds us of: that Palestinians have been telling these stories for over 75 years—and few have listened.

Since 1948, Palestinian refugees and their descendants have brought evidence of ethnic cleansing, systemic violence, and apartheid to global forums, newsrooms, and courts. International law is clear. UN resolutions are countless. But political alliances and economic interests continue to drown out the moral imperative.

Media coverage often frames Israeli settler violence as “clashes,” flattening the structural nature of occupation into a momentary outburst. Meanwhile, the voices of the dispossessed echo through refugee camps and checkpoints, growing hoarse.

The Power—and Limit—of Testimony

What Louis Theroux accomplishes in The Settlers is not groundbreaking in content—but it is critical in timing and format.

Theroux achieves in The Settlers is a momentary reminder of the Palestinian cause, by showing Palestinian testimony alongside unvarnished settler rhetoric, he forces viewers to reckon not only with what is being done, but with how long these actions have gone unchallenged.

But even the most compelling documentaries risk being archived and forgotten. Unless global audiences demand action, unless media shifts from euphemism to clarity, and unless governments finally enforce the laws they helped create, The Settlers may join the long list of testimonies ignored.

Who Will Finally Listen?

As Issa Amro and others speak into the camera, one hears not just the recounting of pain, but a desperate, enduring question: How much longer will the world turn away?

Louis Theroux has handed the microphone back to the oppressed. The next step is no longer his.

It is ours. (PW)

Reff: Al-Mayadeen