1 week Ago By Sally Guyoncourt
Louis Theroux has stepped outside the comfort zone once again to make a new programme about the West Bank.The award-winning journalist, famed for his candid documentaries such as Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends and When Louis Met..
. exploring difficult topics such as white supremacy and pornography, returned to the Palestinian Territory late last year to meet the Israeli settlers living there.It is his first visit to the area since 2010, when he made the documentary Ultra Zionists for the BBC.
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addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }This time his visit and resulting programme comes as Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza.Clare Sillery, the BBC’s head of commissioning for documentaries said: “After more than 25 years of documentary making, Louis Theroux’s appetite for tackling difficult and complex subject matters remains completely undiminished. “I look forward to him bringing his humanity and curiosity to this most challenging and timely of stories.
”Louis Teroux spent three weeks in the West Bank late last year (Photo: Josh Baker/:BBC/Mindhouse Productions Ltd)When is Louis Theroux: The Settlers on BBC? Louis Theroux: The Settlers will air on BBC Two on Sunday 27 April at 9pm.if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }The hour-long documentary will also be available to stream on the BBC iPlayer after broadcast and it will be repeated on BBC Two on Wednesday 30 April at 11.30pm.
What is Louis Theroux: The Settlers about? Louis Theroux spent three weeks in West Bank, an Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territory on the western bank of the River Jordan, late last year visiting places such as the city of Hebron and meeting the growing ultra-nationalist community of Israeli settlers based there.The settlements are illegal under international law. But they have been protected by the Israeli army, police and government.
And since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when 1,200 Israelis were killed, the settlers have expanded their areas of control in the West Bank.In a statement to the UN Security Council last September, the UK’s Permanent Representative at the UN Dame Barbara Woodward said: “We must address the deteriorating situation in the West Bank. “Expansion of settlements, in clear violation of international law, undermines prospects for peace and must cease immediately.
“We have witnessed, with grave concern, how an increasing number of Israeli settlers have systemically used harassment, intimidation and violence to pressure Palestinian communities to leave their land. if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }“We call on Israel to hold those responsible to account.”Theroux visited the city of Hebron (Photo: Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu/Getty)Theroux, 54, embedded himself in the West Bank for the programme, meeting prominent settlers and travelling throughout the territory to understand the consequences of their activity.
Among those he encountered were the so-called ‘godmother’ of the movement, Daniella Weiss and the Palestinians whose lives have been affected by settlers moving into their communities.Theroux said: “In 2010, I made a programme called The Ultra-Zionists that looked at the extreme end of the Israeli settler community in the West Bank. “Since then, those same extreme settlers are even more emboldened.
“I’m interested in ideologues and fundamentalists of all stripes. “In going back to the West Bank, I wanted to see settler expansionism up close, and the human cost it entails. if(window.
adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_mobile_l3"}); }if(window.
adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l3"}); }“It’s a story specific to a time and a place and a region, but it’s also a universal insight into tribalism and the ways in which we can blind ourselves to the humanity of those around us.
”What has Louis Theroux said about the documentary?Theroux has hit back at accusations of “platforming”, in other words giving airtime to the ultra-nationalist Israeli settlers, in his new programme.And he said he accepted “that some may see my documentary as anti-Israel.”But he justified the decision to adopt a “perpetrator focused” for this documentary, saying “if done in a way that is considered and forensic, this approach gives viewers access to attitudes and ideologies that is more powerful for being unmediated.
”Writing for the US news website Deadline, he said: “The narratives around Israel and the Palestinians are fiercely contested. “No piece of coverage will please everyone. “In general, I try not to overworry about how my reporting will be received.
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addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l4"}); }“I trust my instincts. I accept mine is just one contribution in the vast offering of coverage. Others are valid.
“Louis Theroux in Hebron (Photo: Josh Baker/BBC/Mindhouse Productions )He said his unique style and approach to documentary-making was to try to “hear from those at the heart of a story who, broadly speaking, are viewed as being ‘in the wrong'”.And he admitted this meant “potentially millions will be exposed to the views of people who may be racist or fundamentalist or bigoted”.#color-context-related-article-3610247 {--inews-color-primary: #E33A11;--inews-color-secondary: #F7F3EF;--inews-color-tertiary: #E33A11;} Read Next square ISRAEL As Trump turns a blind eye, Israel moves closer to annexing the West BankRead MoreHowever, he added that making a documentary “isn’t just a matter of handing someone a megaphone and saying ‘have at it.
’“It’s a process of asking the right questions, challenging, contextualizing. “The settlers’ outlook – their beliefs, openly anti-democratic and supremacist, as they sometimes are – is seen for what it is.”One of the reasons, he said, for wanting to go back to the West Bank was the sense that increasingly the wider world was looking to what is happening in Israel and the occupied territories for clues as to what their own future might look like.
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addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l5"}); }He said: “Some global populist leaders view the ideology of the settler community as a prototype for a type of nationalism they would like to practise.“They regard Israeli settlers as the tip of the spear of what they frame as a global war against Islam.“And so there is renewed relevance to understanding what is happening in the West Bank.
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