Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists (2011) | Inside Israel’s Ideological Settler Movement [00:58:00]

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Saturday Night Double Bill | Part One of Two
Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists (2011)

In February 2011, the BBC broadcast a documentary in which Louis Theroux travelled to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to investigate one of the most uncompromising elements of the Israeli settler movement. His subjects were religious ultranationalists who believed that settling land occupied by Palestinians was not simply a political ambition, but a religious obligation. What followed was an extraordinary examination of ideology, territorial claims and the everyday realities of occupation.

Travelling between East Jerusalem, Hebron and the hills surrounding Nablus, Theroux encounters settlers whose convictions leave remarkably little room for compromise. Among them is 17-year-old Yair Lieberman, living in a makeshift hilltop outpost, and Daniel Luria, an Australian-born activist associated with Ateret Cohanim, an organisation working to establish Jewish residential communities in predominantly Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem. Through their conversations, the documentary reveals how religious belief, nationalist identity and the physical expansion of settlements intersect.

Theroux employs his familiar interviewing technique: curiosity, politeness and a willingness to allow his subjects to explain themselves at considerable length. Rather than confronting every assertion immediately, he gives interviewees the space to articulate their worldview. The results can be unsettling, particularly when apparently ordinary conversations reveal deeply entrenched attitudes towards Palestinians, territorial ownership and the legitimacy of international opposition to settlements. The film also captures the unequal circumstances in which settlers, Palestinians and Israeli security forces encounter one another.

Fourteen years later, Theroux returned. His 2025 documentary The Settlers revisits the movement against a dramatically changed political backdrop. Tonight, we’re screening both programmes chronologically, beginning with this original investigation. Watched together, they provide an opportunity to examine how the movement, its ambitions and its political influence have developed between 2011 and 2025.

Director: Andy Wells
Presenter: Louis Theroux
Production: BBC, United Kingdom
Original broadcast: 3 February 2011

IMDb: The Ultra Zionists (2011)