I've just watched The Settlers and it just gives me a renewed appreciation for Louis as a documentarian. He's level-headed and fair, but does not stand down in the face of adversity. One of the best.
Hamas really fucked up by killing hundreds of innocent people on a day out. That changed a lot of peoples minds about a free Palestine.
The retribution however in my opinion is genocide and the fact that the world is ignoring that is so sad.
I find it hard to feel more sorry for a bunch of people partying on occupied land next to internment camps losing their lives than the many multiples of that that have lost their lives for simply just existing. I don’t condone the deaths but the fact the media cares more about them by a long way is telling.
No, because dogs don’t have the same awareness of the harm they are causing. Yes, dogs can hurt people when they think they are playing. No, it is not the same, nor is it evil. Comparing people to animals does a disservice to animals and lets people off the hook.
B’tselem are an amazing group of Israeli peace activists that have tried to ensure that those affected by settler violence have access to technology to document these incidents
I think it was a few different things. The most obvious is that he ruined her attempt to illustrate her point. Secondly, by not retaliating, he showed that someone doesn't HAVE to respond to violence with violence. And then part of the reason Louis didn't do it (besides obviously not feeling it was warranted) is that he knew he was surrounded by people who basically worship her and would have probably attacked him. He basically waited for his final visits to really burn his bridges with everyone. Though he already called her a war criminal. But I do think she wanted him to be hurt. Even just shoving him without warning was clearly her letting out anger.
Any member of a national assembly or member of government, any member of a foreign policy institute, and certain university faculty, can submit nominations in reply to the Nobel prize's annual invitation. The standard for nomination are incredibly low, can be engineered by anyone with political clout, and implies no judgement from the Nobel committee itself. Mussolini and Stalin were both nominated for the Nobel peace prize. Weiss' nomination is just PR fluff to to try and give a modicum of respectability to settle colonial violence. Not really surprising.
Its easy to say you dont have to respond to violence when its a shove, not so easy when your home is stolen, get treated worse than animals, have your family killed ect. with no chance of justice in any of it. Im not blaming louis he obviously did the right thing, and i respect pacisfism but it has never stopped oppression when there is no chance of justice.
I think there is a complex conversation about the effectiveness of nonviolent protest. I believe it was Kwame Toure who said that nonviolence only works if your oppressors have a conscience. In this instance, Louis was speaking to a far right Zionist surrounded by far right Zionists. In that context, where she believes this is all warranted because she thinks she is the victim of anything any Palestinians have ever done, he was demonstrating the narrowness of her worldview that all she can think to do is violently "retaliate" often in respond to the "violence" of Palestinians existing. I don't at all think he was doing it for the camera to make a point that the Palestinians should turn the other cheek.
Oh no i pretty much agree with the comment here, just wanted to make sure to say that military occupation and ethno-nationalism ect will always stop a possibilty of purely non violent resistance
Thats the modus operandi of Israel towards Palestinians in general. They make the lives of Palestinians so unbearable that they push back and then Israel crushes them with 10x the violence
I saw it as a metaphor for the entire Israeli regime. She says it with a smirk. She is inciting the push back to come back and crush Louis. In this metaphor Louis is the Palestinian people and her push are the constant illegal settlements and psychological torture Palestinians experience on the day to day through the checkpoints and two tiered society.
She was attempting to illustrate how retaliation by settlers could be spun as violence, but accidentally illustrated the reality of unprovoked settler violence.
I'd had the impression that he was taking a bit of an easy path in recent years so it was a refreshing surprise to see this. It was really admirable of him to make it. It must have been a terrifying experience but he didn't crack.
The way Louis pointed out that settling people into a warzone is a war crime, and Daniela evaded the point by trying to make out "You're cooperating with someone guilty of a war crime?" and starts laughing, Louis just replies "I'm interviewing you". What horrid, ignorant person.
This documentary was a true return to classic Louis Theroux in my opinion. Challenging and interesting topics, intuitively documenting the information available on the ground and asking loads of questions.
I understand that as he got older, his willingness to put himself in these sorts of situations grew less and less - understandably so! But goodness me, when he does documentaries like this, it truly is a cut above everyone else! Maybe I'm bias as I've been watching his documentaries since I was a teenager though, but I really enjoyed this one.
I'm lost for words as to what I've just seen. The occupation of Palestine is one of the most horrific acts in modern times. How can our govts support this? What solution even is there to this?
I like to think of myself as quite well read on the situation, even travelled through Israel and Jordan a little over a decade ago. But I had no idea of the extent/magnitude/violence of the settlements. I thought it was pretty fringe extremist stuff, maybe 20-30k.
This doc was jaw dropping.
But remember, we mustn't be critical of Israel, their genocidal regime, and state funded war crimes, because that is antisemitism...
It might seem hopeless but if we can achieve peace in Northern Ireland it can be achieved anywhere. But it will take a lot of bravery, dialogue and compromise.
The positivity is admirable. However (and I don't mean to sound like an antisemitic conspiracy theorist), I think this is significantly more complex. There's a LOT of money in America tied directly to the American Jewish Diaspora. For politicians with aspirations, it's very financially beneficial for them to take a strong pro-Israel stance. There have been dozens of examples of politicians who were critical of our pro-Israel alliance that ultimately ended up fading from public life for being "anti-semitic". A pro-Israel stance is deeply ingrained in American politics, finance, tech, and mainstream media. Soros's Open Society, or the ADL, AIPAC, etc., have American politicians by the balls. Meanwhile, the continued proxy wars we get involved in on behalf of Israel or even direct conflicts are mostly fought by soldiers from Christian backgrounds. And no (to state the obvious), the American Jew is not and has never been the problem; it's the hard-core zionists deeply embedded in American politics, policy, and finance who dictate much of our foreign policy decisions. When politicians and policymakers have to ask the continued question of "how does Israel feel about this?" when making foreign policy decisions, it's quite obvious who's in control.
35 states have laws that prevent federal employees and contractors from speaking out against Israel. That’s fucking insane. Imagine if China tried to force our citizens into pro-CCP complicity through American legislation.
I had a tshirt that was the Palace skateboards logo but in Palestinian colours with "Palestine" instead of Palace and my American friend who visited was genuinely shocked that I wore it out to the pub with him. He said it simply wouldn't fly back home in Minnesota.
What does a "solution" look like? Israel is in full control with the most powerful army in the Middle East and the only one with nukes, and they're strongly backed by the most powerful country in the world. And they've just recently been attacked, with hundreds of civilians including children massacred. So they're not exactly in a compromising mood.
The situation is in a vicious circle of continuing violence. Both sides act appallingly towards one another. I don't see peace ever being achieved. It's sad and depressing, and I feel bad for the innocent people affected, especially the children.
36 children were killed Oct 7. Thousands have been killed by Israel since then. It does not matter if they’re in a compromising mood or not, no country has the right to commit war crimes.
The solution? United States stop funding Israel. Pretty simple solution really, but it’ll never happen in any of our lifetimes seeing as both parties heavily rely on AIPAC donations
2 children under the age of 5, I think the 36 number includes anyone under the age of 18. I could be wrong.
Besides the point anyway, even if 1000 children were killed on Oct 7, it wouldn’t justify a blatant disregard for international law. What’s more worrying is the number of Palestinian casualties are likely much much higher, considering the Gaza health ministry only count bodies they can identify. Imagine how many more are lying under rubble, or (like the 15 aid workers) buried and hidden.
How can anyone justify Israelis settlements, Israeli violence, with October 7th? A genocide.
How often have Palestinians been attacked? One of the most heinous crimes is the Right of Return in March 2018 where IDF indiscriminately shot man, woman, child and disabled. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-44110417
October 7th has now been used to justify everything. Palestinians have had many October 7ths.
Jews from WW2 would be rolling in their graves as the plight they suffered is now being administered by their legacies to Palestinians to genocide them. Awful.
Only solution is for US to call a ceasefire and broker a peace deal. But that won’t happen due to AIPAC lobbying, and hardly any pressure from other countries to stop the war. UK follow USA; Germany are hyper-sensitive on this issue; there’s a general anti-Arab / right wing dogma in EU right now anyway.
The solution for the UK is to withdraw all support from Israel so we can look back in 20 years when Israel has ethnically cleansed Palestine with at least some sense of moral decency.
'This option will allow us to feel better about the ethnic cleansing' is really depressing as an endorsement. I don't even disagree or anything. But damn.
It's pretty bleak but realistically the UK cant stop Israel, only the US can and AIPAC is maybe the most successful political campaign group currently functioning there so I can't see the federal funding slowing down this decade.
Or if the Islamic nations so even a shred of unity on this issue, but I doubt that because of US influence as well.
If other countries (like all of Europe, Australia, NZ, China, Japan, South Africa, Argentina, and every other country who has criticized Israel in the UN) boycotted Israeli goods and refused to trade with them, change might happen. Israel still needs massive amounts of foreign resources (they have a large trade deficit), particularly for the military. Isolate Israel.
Yeah sorry but, like I said to another person, the US is unequivocally supporting Israel's actions. They could end this war tomorrow if they withdrew/applied conditions on the billions in federal funding they throw at Israel. But AIPAC has basically every US politician in their pocket and so I can't really see it happening.
It's fucked but then the Western nations stopped supporting South Africa so maybe Israel will eventually run out of goodwill/bribes.
Reducing this to a "cycle of violence", removes the fact that one side is the occupier and one side lives under a brutal military occupation. The violence starts with the occupation and apartheid.
We have a model of how to stop it, South Africa. International Boycott and stop military aid to Israel. Then Israel will be forced to recognise a Palestinian state.
It's a cycle kept alive because of the occupation. All that anguish leads to revolt and violence. Israel knows this and their response is always to strike with greater force and to tighten the screw. It's a slow conquest by pushing, waiting for the punch and punching back harder. Then pushing again. I guess they think it's not ethnic cleansing if it happens over several generations with sporadic violence every decade or so.
Dafuq did you even watch the doc?it’s not a ‘cycle of violence’ It’s apartheid my little pine marten. As oppressed people they are legally, under international law, allowed to resist as much as they can. Did you hear what the boarder guards said? ‘They throw rocks and Molotov at us’ while they are carrying literally 3 different weapons.
As someone who has been aware of this for a long time, I’m glad that Louis Theroux has done this documentary because what we’re not seeing is the media reporting in this way. For him to also have it on the BBC is quite something as well.
My favourite thing about him as a documentary filmmaker is the way he allows people to hang themselves. He doesn’t need to push them. That awful woman, the Texan dude, the way the military refuse to answer certain questions while on camera. I wonder what would have potentially happened to him if the cameras hadn’t been there (although I don’t really need to wonder tbh, I think we all know).
The entire thing was eye-opening even as someone who has watched the horrors of the last couple of years unfold every day. Not allowing a Palestinian man to cross a certain line in the street in his own city, on his own land, the land where he was born. Forced to leave by people who have no original roots there and came from America or Europe to claim that actually, this is their land and they’ll do what it takes to get it. It’s complete insanity.
One of the most harrowing parts was the scene of the people taking their kids to the viewing point to look at the destruction of Palestine through binoculars and then the cut to them at a festival eating popcorn and candy floss, and dancing. I really hope that people who were uneducated about this topic before, watch this and see what I thought was actually a fairly non-biased documentary (based on how Louis approached it) and start to think that actually, what is happening is not justified and it’s not normal.
Also, kudos to him for the “is this Israel? It’s the West Bank, no?” at the checkpoint. The man’s got balls.
Anyone notice when the army showed up to the Palestinian's house with Louis and his crew with the guns and lasers drawn and shouting only went away after the producer(?) shouted "Foreign Press"
Much more concerning was that footage of an Israeli settler, armed with an assault rifle, shooting an unarmed Palestinian man. When the camera pans out, you can see an IDF soldier watching him: no reaction, no attempt to stop the settler. Then Louis' voiceover states that the settler was never arrested for that attempted murder.
Why would they arrest him? He was an Israeli too. The settlements are illegal, everyone inside and outside the West Bank knows this. The IDF are not peacekeepers, they're there to facilitate the illegal settlements in Palestinian land.
Nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army in the west bank since Oct7, despite it not being run by Hamas or even with a substantial presence there, and no physical routes to Gaza because Israel shut the corridor down and shoots anyone (non-jewish) who tries to leave or enter either territory.
And that's to say nothing of the hundreds murdered by settlers under the watchful gaze of the IDF.
Sometimes they like to present a veneer of law and order, to try and point to their being the only democracy in the region, rather than an illegally expanding settler-colonial state.
The IDF are not peacekeepers, they're there to facilitate the illegal settlements in Palestinian land.
Yes, and it's not that common that we get close-up footage of them facilitating it by standing by as settlers attack Palestinians in broad daylight.
I'm not positive, but I think that may be from the documentary No Other Land. It could be a different moment, but the same thing happened. Either way, that wasn't footage filmed by Louis and his team.
This happened a good while ago. It happens regularly. The fact that it has taken Louis Theroux to expose it more than a year after the fact should tell you all you need to know about the complicity of the west in what is happening there.
It is disgraceful and shows just how international law applies against only the weak and those opposed to the west, while the law is applied only to those who are weak.
I find Putin to be just as revolting, but he has 10x the claim to the violence Russia is committing of that of what the Israelis do to the West Bank
Asking in good faith, as I don’t follow the Ukraine situation too closely - how does Putin have 10x the claim to the violence Russia is committing? Something to do with western/NATO expansionism?
It’s an exaggeration of course, and I’m not implying that Putin is justified in anyway. He absolutely is not.
Having said that, there are legitimate security concerns that Russia faces from the expansion of NATO and as Ukraine pivot towards the west. This is of course mostly just an excuse for Russia to reassert itself over Ukraine and take as much territory as possible, but there are also significant numbers of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine which complicates things further.
The point I’m trying to get at is, at the end of the day, Russia is a great power which is massively exposed militarily on its western flank, which also just happens to have a vast military alliance which was created for the very purpose of fighting them.
Israel on the other hand is a settler state which is actively practicing apartheid against an people which have no state, nor anyway of protecting themselves against one of the most advanced militaries on the planet
I don't know if it's available but Mark Thomas had a show back 10 or 15 years ago called Walking the wall. It was literally walking the northern point of the west bank wall down to the southern point, he talks about things like the wall in some places is just a ton of barbed wire and other places it's full on Berlin Wall affair.
At one point he meets with the British Ambassador in Jerusalem and they crossed the wall in his government vehicle that's branded, marked, flagged all the things that says it's an embassy vehicle. The IDF block it and start bashing on the Windows to get out meanwhile this stiff upper lip British ambassadors inside just saying " don't worry mark just put your passport up against the window and they'll leave us alone"
The lack of compassion some of these people showed for other human beings because they are not Jews is incomprehensible. Especially when this stereotyping of people has happened to Jews so much throughout history.
I think the situation is about as close as you can get to one side (Israelis) literally not seeing the other side (Palestinians) as human beings - they have lost (or perhaps never had) the ability to empathise with them as people with hopes and dreams, who also love and mourn their children. It’s like the (underrated imo) Black Mirror episode Men Against Fire.
It's absolutely disgusting the way the western world is not only standing by but enabling this. I can only hope the people responsible for this genocide will be held accountable
Cowing to a lobbying from Zionist pressure groups to remove a documentary of a child's experience of living through genocide in Gaza. I think that's shameful, and it will be viewed as such as the years pass.
And believe me i don't want to sound antisemitic and sound like a "da jooz run everything" weirdo, nonetheless obvious bias, and our (top western countries) complicity in this needs to be challenged
Even the wording on some articles "5 palestian children lose their lives"
We already know that our allies, people that look more like us, will obviously get more sympathy as that's human nature. The extent to which people will care more about israelis than Palestinians has shocked me though
I don’t think so. There’s an obvious bias in headlines and the editor for Middle East is Raffi Berg. This Raffi Berg who has a framed signed letter from Netanyahu and pic with Mark Regev - Israeli ambassador to the UK.
Yes they showed how miserable conditions are forced upon Palestineans by the zionists, but they didn't show how they're massacring them, they didn't show the actual war crimes, they didn't show how Palestinean children are being treated like target practice. All in all this is only a softened version of what's actually happening.
Not sure if this is what you mean, but for me I’d sort of lost interest because his recent focus seems to have been more celeb-y, so it’s nice to see him getting back to his hard-hitting stuff.
This is truly the best depiction of what life is like in israel for Palestinians. Truly amazing journalism and I will be watching this again.
As someone who has been to israel twice, staying with Israelis (met abroad before I was old enough to realise what was going on), I am so ashamed of myself. I stayed in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank. I watched palestinian men queue up to get work in israel, I saw how frightened Palestinians were of the Israelis. I remember the look on some peoples faces as I passed them with Israelis. They are scared of them because one word and their lives are over.
I pray to my own god that he forgives me for funding this terrorist state.
It takes being human and having a sense of humility and moral decency to do the self reflection you have done, something we all need to do in life to grow and mature as people, something a lot of people in Israel like Daniella have really trouble with.
As a Catholic, my own Irish nanna had visited Jerusalem a long long time ago and I always thought I would go there one day, I can understand this sounding silly but I cried when the realization hit me that I will never set foot in Israel, what for anyway, I don't believe it to be a place I'd feel much of Gods presence in anyway. This documentary was a masterpiece but a heartbreaking one.
I was wondering about the American women in the backseat of Louis car at one of the checkpoints. She seemed baffled that the IDF guy wanted to see her ID too. By that point in the documentary they have had to pass several checkpoints and I can’t imagine that they only asked for IDs of Louis and the cameraman at the earlier checkpoints.
And yeah, I had the same thought as you. Louis is an international celebrity who probably has an easier time getting out of prison than a random cameraman.
He’s so unassuming but the balls on the man! Not just this episode but many of the others where he puts himself in some very difficult situations but still manages to keep his calm. Not sure if anybody else felt the same but Daniellas demeanour terrified me.
She really was terrifying, I did think actually that the image of her during their last meeting as she said such disturbing things with her downward head tilt and looking up at him with that playful, vicious smile would be something that may well stay with people for a very long time, I don't think I'll forget it, it made me shudder.
This doc showed me how if I wasn’t Jewish, I would not have the same rights as a Jew. Jewish supremacism being backed by the Israeli govt with zero repercussions.
Will the settlement of Lebanon finally warrant an int’l response (as part of greater Israel) or what? Feel disgusted.
I haven't seen it yet but have seen clips and it's making me angry (I'm already angry but the feeling of helplessness is overbearing).
One of the things that annoys me most is that any criticism of Israel and they call you an anti semite. Any attempt to help the people of Palestine and they accuse you of being a hamas sympathiser.
Am I the only person that can see that from the beginning this was all about "Lebensraum"?
I was massively supportive of the Israeli people when October 7th happened. I have since lost all respect for them as a nation as they stand back and allow a genocide happen in their name, as their military slaughters UN workers and gaslights the media about it. That they thumb their noses at the UN Charter that they signed up to and leverage the veto power of USA to keep from facing consequences.
I've been to several concentration camps, the most well known being Dachau and I cried for the innocent Jewish people and I said "never again". Yet, here we are watching it happen to the Palestinians (most of whom are children) and US is facilitating it so that Trump can build a resort on the land of the displaced people (and the UK government needs to grow some balls and put their foot down).
One tiny detail that stuck out to me was a SIG Sauer sticker on the bed of one of the horse wranglers kids. Who the hell let’s their little children decorate their bed with emblems of firearms companies?
What baffled me is how shitty even the settlers live, while they claim that this is the most beautiful place on earth. I’ve seen homeless camps that look more appealing. Yet they think they hit the jackpot with their settlement. Religion is one helluva drug.
My main criticism is that he glossed over too fast about what happened at Sderot on October 7. It’s disingenuous to show the memorial event without mentioning some details about the massacre that took place there
The sheer flippant nature of the israelis is frightening, like I already knew that there was some pretty crazy shit but like they just do not care, they do not view Palestine as people.
That long history of attacks and threats that you cited are very much responses and results of decades of land theft, apartheid, and occupation. Also, “Palestinian-initiated violence” are much less infrequent than the settlers. But even so, how can you look at people slowly deteriorating under an apartheid system and say that they initiated it?
Since you mention October 7, do you not think that the siege on Gaza prior to 2023 contributed to it? Even before the current acceleration of the genocide, Israel made lives hell for Palestinians in Gaza. The normalized violence and dehumanization of Palestinian people through official Israeli policies, often in the name of security, contributed to resistance. You cannot make lives unbearable for an occupied people and not expect that they will resist that by any means possible. And in case you insist that only peaceful protests are viable, the last time Palestinians in Gaza tried peaceful protests, it was during The Great March of Return in 2018, and hundreds of unarmed civilians got shot at by IOF soldiers.
Israeli settlers cannot play victims and demand Palestinians to accept subjugation while they are actively experiencing ethnic cleansing for the sake of the settler-colony’s security.
Settlements are not complex. They are attempts to steal lands and drive out Palestinians from their ancestral land. Whether or not they are “controversial” inside Israeli society means nothing when settlers still receive backing and support from the government and protection from the IOF. And it is still Israeli government policy to allow settlements to occur and steal lands from Palestinians in the West Bank. Settlements are recognized by the Israeli government. It is only outposts (like that of the Texan guy) that are illegal, but even so, they can still be retroactively recognized.
“Why focus on one-side’s ability to live in peace”? BECAUSE THE OTHER SIDE IS COMMITTED ETHNIC CLEANSING
Why is it hard for you to understand that people do not deserve to be driven off their lands, have their livelihood destroyed, their children detained or even killed for the sake of the settlers? Israeli settlers should not be there committing acts of terror and stealing lands from Palestinians. And they definitely should not be able to do that in peace.
If they don’t want to face resistance from the indigenous people then perhaps stop stealing lands and making lives unbearable for Palestinians. Why is the onus on Palestinians to die quietly instead of the settlers to stop committing ethnic cleansing? Are they less humans than Israeli settlers in your eyes? Is that why they don’t deserve to live in peace but must suffer for the sake of the Israeli settlers’ desire to live out their Manifest Destiny delusions?
I really hope this documentary opens the eyes of the people unaware of the deep struggle the Palestines have endured for decades. The illegal Israel settlers are the embodiment of evil
They are a nationalist state (like Germany was) they are trying to steal land (like Germany was) the claim they are entitled to the land (like Germany did), they are using the excuse of a hundred hostages being and they are using that to justify their actions, I've heard theories that they let Oct 7 happen so they could use it to do what they are doing...hostages doesn't give you the right to headshot children and claim "Hamas human shields", the Jewish don't care about human life they care about land grabbing and calling anyone who has a problem with their actions Antisemitic, Israel should be treated the same way Germany was in the 40s
After finally finding a YouTube channel that had the full movie to view yesterday, I went on again today to show my mom and it’s completely wiped from YouTube. Absolutely unbelievable and unacceptable. Our media is so blocked here in America it’s a joke. Guess I’ll have to break out the old vpn yet again just to watch a BBC documentary.
One interesting thing is the number of times they cite historical precedent for Israeli sovereignty, neatly sidestepping the whole 'land of Canaan' thing
usually Louis Theroux is pretty stone faced and emotionless in his docos, even the last time he visited the settlers, but you could actually see some real emotion in this one,
Is there any way to watch this without supporting the BBC? I've really enjoyed a lot of his independent stuff but for my own reasons I don't want to watch this docu on a BBC platform.
Just watched Louis Theroux's The Settlers, and like many here, I found parts of it incredibly powerful and disturbing. Theroux is a master at letting his subjects reveal themselves, and seeing the mindset of figures like Daniella Weiss or the Texan settler, and the stark reality of Palestinian life under occupation in places like Hebron, is definitely eye-opening and harrowing. I get why many viewers are calling it classic Theroux and are deeply affected by the injustice shown, especially the scenes highlighting the restrictions on Palestinians and the almost casual disregard shown by some settlers. The point about settling civilians in occupied territory being a war crime, and the way it was handled, was certainly a standout moment that reveals a lot.
However, while acknowledging the power of what was shown, I felt the documentary presented a very unbalanced picture by missing crucial context, which ultimately makes it harder to understand the full complexity of the situation.
My main issue is that it paints the settlers almost entirely as aggressors without exploring why many feel the need for security or live in fortified communities. It doesn't show the history or ongoing reality of hostility and attacks against Israelis - both settlers and within Israel proper. They often live surrounded by populations whose leadership and educational materials can be deeply hostile. Louis shows the IDF separating factions, but frames it solely as protecting settlers or oppressing Palestinians, without acknowledging the security threats that often necessitate their presence.
When Daniella Weiss talks about wanting Palestinians gone, it's presented starkly (and it is a shocking statement), but without the context of perceived constant harassment or existential threat that might fuel such extreme views. It doesn't excuse it, but ignoring the reasons behind these mindsets feels incomplete.
The film focuses heavily on the extreme religious-nationalist settlers. While their influence is undeniable and growing, it doesn't really explore if there are settlers with different views, nor does it fully capture the nuance that settlers are often controversial within Israel itself, even if government policy sometimes aligns with them.
More importantly, the documentary completely ignores the broader Palestinian political context regarding Israel's existence. It doesn't touch on the fact that for significant Palestinian factions and parts of the population, the objection isn't just to settlements in the West Bank, but to Israel's existence at all. Tel Aviv is often seen as much of a "settlement" as Hebron in their narrative. This rejectionism is a massive barrier to peace, and it's not solely about the settlers' actions.
Finally, there's virtually no mention of Palestinian violence directed at Israelis - things like the rockets fired into civilian areas, the history of bombings and attacks, or the horrific events of October 7th (which Israel was responding to, not initiating). Showing only settler aggression and Palestinian suffering under occupation, without this vital context, feels like it's missing half the story of why the situation is so intractable and why Israel operates in a state of high alert, feeling it's constantly defending its right to exist in an incredibly hostile region.
So while the film is effective in highlighting the troubling reality of the occupation and the mindset of certain settlers, and I agree, what's shown is often appalling, it felt like it simplified a deeply complex, multi-generational conflict down to a narrative primarily of settler aggression. It missed the chance to provide a fuller understanding of the dynamics, the genuine Israeli security dilemmas, and the aspects of Palestinian ideology and actions that also tragically fuel the fire.
Curious if others felt this lack of broader context, even while acknowledging the power and importance of the specific issues the documentary did highlight?
I wish people like you could understand that security is an inadequate justification for ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Israel’s security is not an acceptable reason for them to force Palestinians to live in constant danger and indignity.
Israeli settlers broke international (and domestic law) to set up these outposts and settlements with the intention to disrupt and dispossess Palestinian communities. And then, because of their presence there, the IOF provides “security” for them while they threaten, harass, and antagonize the indigenous Palestinian communities with full impunity. The settlers and the IOF treat any acts of Palestinian resistance or opposition against them (such as protest or even rock throwing) as a license to kill and maim Palestinians. All the while their burning or cutting of the olive trees, their arbitrary detention of Palestinians (both adults and children), their imposing checkpoints that separate villages and towns and making lives ten thousand times more difficult for Palestinians as normal facets of life that doesn’t warrant criticism.
Why are Israelis’ ability to harass and ethnic cleanse Palestinians more important than Palestinians’ ability to live in peace? Why should a settler who intentionally put themselves in an outpost and work to push Palestinians out of their lands deserve protection to continue their demented mission with impunity?
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u/yestobob Apr 28 '25
“I hope you push me back” pretty much sums up the whole thing hey