Louis Theroux’s Israeli Settler documentary removed after dividing UK press reviews.
By Lisa Mohr; Image: © Josh Baker
Since its release on the 26th of April 2025 on BBC 2, Louis Theroux’s “The Settlers” has prompted a mixed response in the British press. Praised by the Guardian, and the Financial Times, and criticised by The Daily Mail and The Telegraph, the one-hour piece has captured public viewer attention.
A road movie in the West Bank
In the documentary, Theroux travels around the West Bank. This is an area of the former British-mandated territory of Palestine and occupied by Israel since 1976. The journalist investigates the Israeli Settler movement, focusing particularly on its religious-nationalist members. These strive to gain a foothold in the area by establishing Israeli communities and driving out Palestinians.
“We envisioned the film as a kind of road movie through a region under military occupation,” references Theroux. Louis Theroux is the man whom most are likely to recognise not by name, but by his straight-faced performance in the viral clip: “My money don’t jiggle jiggle, it folds.” He looks back on a career as a multi-award-winning journalist and successful documentary producer.
Allegations of bias due to the choice of interviewees
Not everyone is happy with the cast of the “road movie.” In fact, The Daily Mail claims to have identified a “deep streak of cynicism” underlying Theroux’s “charade”: “His interviewees are carefully chosen, to reinforce the BBC narrative that Israelis are the oppressors and Palestinians their victims.” The interviewees aren’t representative of Israeli society, say other critics.
And it is true. Theroux does speak to people with extreme, out of the norm views. In a documentary about people with extreme views. Surprise? (Of course, he could indeed have further investigated those who settle for economic reasons and the Israeli activists defending Palestinian olive pickers.)
The Times of India have also noted that “detractors” (such as other critics) can argue for a more sympathetic representation of Palestinians after the documentary failed to mention an interviewee’s post, which dates 11 years back. Meanwhile, one doesn’t need to go back a decade to find violent messages in the speeches of most other interviewees as they roll them out on camera.
When push comes to shove: THAT moment
Most debated in the reviews was an incident towards the end of the documentary, in which Daniella Weiss, “godmother” of the settler movement, pushes Theroux. In an attempt to get Theroux to shove her back, she hopes to make a point about selective allegations.
Instead of turning physical, Theroux calls her belief that one group’s wellbeing at another’s expense is legitimate, sociopathic.
The Guardian review celebrates this moment, attributing a new “seriousness” to Theroux’s approach.
Meanwhile, The Daily Mail colourfully remarks: Daniella Weiss […] became so tired of his pretence at gaucheness that she placed both hands on his chest and shoved him hard. […] he shot her a hurt, bewildered look like a puppy that’s just had its nose smacked.” Are we getting personal?
Journalistic style – a matter of taste
Some like it, some don’t, and others don’t understand it as a journalistic strategy: calm faux-naivety. The Guardian and the Financial Times honour Theroux’s “usual brand of disarming faux-naivety and well-honed questioning style that invites interviewees to reveal the extent of their views and expose their hypocrisies.” Basically, he asks simple questions and stays silent while the other person talks.
This ‘gentle’ approach gets a downvote from The Telegraph, whose reviewer mic-drops: “It’s a shame that journalists aren’t allowed into Gaza, because a film in which he gently accuses a Hamas leader of being a bit of a sociopath would be one to watch.”
“Oh, BBC. Why do you do this to yourself?”
… mourned a The Daily Mail review, making analogies between “The Settlers” and another heavily criticized, later removed BBC documentary about Gaza. The broadcaster’s confidence must have taken a serious blow by now, as Theroux’s documentary is also no longer available on the BBC 2 platform.
What Theroux himself observed in response to the airing of “The Settlers” was “a feeling of: ‘At last.’ ‘At last, mainstream British TV is saying something about what is happening.’” Well, so much to that. And in spite of the critical voices, the documentary was generally well received.
One is left to wonder which platform will be able to host any controversial pieces – no matter to which extent, and does this not apply to all journalistic work anyway? – in the future. It seems probable that it won’t be the British media tycoons like the BBC.
“It is impossible to tell a story about this region without being accused of partisanship”
… assesses The Time of India. Where seamless satisfaction would be a hopeless ideal, even an image of the neutral journalist is impossible to achieve. This also goes for the acclaimed Theroux. Not even the most experienced can satisfy everyone or avoid becoming a partisan. The critics lurk everywhere, and the media’s response to them is a hasty retreat.
If the only choice is wrongdoing and the resulting hate, what is left to journalists, then – martyrdom? Let’s look at Louis Theroux and learn to love the flying tomatoes in a sophisticated, unapologetic manner, because the BBC (and who knows who is to follow), won’t be holding out an umbrella for us.
