Do you want to show
where we are right now? Cos I think
we're quite deep inside what are
called the Palestinian territories.
What you call
the Palestinian territories.
I call it the heart of Judea. If you
say the Palestinian territories,
you're essentially already saying
that this right here,
right here is going to be
a jihadist Palestinian state
right in the heart of Israel.
Not only in the heart of Israel,
we're talking about, like,
the biblical... But why Jihadist?
Why do you say Jihadist?
Why couldn't it just be
a Palestinian state?
OK, to understand
the Arab way of thinking
that they understand,
there's a w*r.
They win the w*r
if they get territory.
They lose the w*r if they lose
territory. You could flip that
and say, "Well, that's what,
in a sense, you're doing."
That's what I aspire to do.
That's what I aspire to do.
This programme contains scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting
and language which some
may find offensive
Beyond the eastern edge of Israel
is the Palestinian territory
of the West Bank.
It was occupied in w*r
by Israel in 1967.
Since then, hundreds of thousands
of Jewish settlers have moved here,
illegally, under international law.
Among them,
a group of religious nationalists
who see it as their divine right
to build a greater Israel...
..and drive out the Palestinians
who've been here for generations.
I made a film about them in 2011.
But now, since the attack
of October 7th, I'd heard
that they were accelerating
the settlement process...
Why you filming me?
..while being protected
by the Israeli military.
I'd come to try to understand
their mindset
and to see the consequences of their
ultra-nationalist vision up close.
They don't see us
as equal human being
who deserve the same rights they do.
I was close to Israel's
southern border.
At a viewpoint, tourists
were surveying the ruins of Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll
at this point was more than 43,000
and rising,
in a w*r that had commenced
a year earlier,
after Hamas gunmen
attacked Israeli communities,
k*lling more than 1,000
and taking hundreds more hostage.
UPBEAT MUSIC
Now, with bombs falling nearby,
settlers from across the West Bank
were holding a jamboree
to promote the idea of putting
new Jewish outposts in Gaza,
with workshops
offering practical advice,
while a vanguard made their case
in front of the world's media.
How are you doing? Louis. Nice to
meet you. What's your name? Orit.
Orit. And why are you here today?
To show support
and that I believe that Gaza's ours
and that we need to be living there.
To those Palestinians who'd say,
"Well, we'd like to live
"in a Palestinian state,"
what do you say?
The Bible says this place was given
to the Jews. This place is ours.
Ours meaning? It's a Jewish state.
What's your name? Aaron.
Aaron. Nice to meet you. Louis.
Where are you from?
I'm from Hebron. And before that?
Until I was nine years old,
lived in New York
and then my parents
made Aliyah to Israel.
We're here to call our government
to go and settle Gaza.
We're here because
we have a right to be here.
Our right to be in this land
is the Torah, is the godly promise.
Where we don't settle, terror grows.
Among the attendees
were many senior political figures,
including Israel's
Minister of National Security.
APPLAUSE
CHEERING
CHANTING
In his youth, Itamar Ben-Gvir
had been convicted
of incitement of racism.
He is himself a settler.
But in a sign of the changing times,
he now sits in the government of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Presiding over the event was the
godmother of the settler movement,
Daniella Weiss.
Daniella,
this is your event, isn't it?
Tell me about what this is. No,
no, no, not now, not now, not now.
Ten words. No, no, no. Not...
Not now, not now...
SHE CHUCKLES
We, the settlement movement,
organised this event
in order to enhance
the practical idea
of establishing
Jewish settlements
in the entire Gaza Strip.
We very much encourage and enable
the population in Gaza
to go to other countries.
You will witness how Jews go to Gaza
and Arabs disappear from Gaza.
They lost the right
to stay in this holy place,
please God. Thank you very much.
APPLAUSE
CHANTING AND WHISTLING
From up on a nearby hill, there came
the sound of protesting.
An Israeli group
demonstrating for a ceasefire
and the return of hostages
taken by Hamas.
What are you doing here?
I think the idea of resettling Gaza
is absolutely ridiculous.
The question is what kind of country
do we want to be?
Do we want to be
a colonising country,
or do we want to be a country
that at least offers peace
and wants to live in peace
with the Palestinians?
That has to be what we strive for.
I'd been hoping
for a moment with Daniella,
but then came a warning
of a possible rocket attack
and the event was quickly evacuated.
Let's grab the cameras and let's go.
For Jewish settlers,
Gaza is the latest frontier
in a process that's been unfolding
for decades across the West Bank.
A region of not much more
than 5,000 square kilometres,
the West Bank is home to around
three million Palestinians,
most of them living in large cities
with limited autonomy
under the Palestinian Authority.
The Israeli military occupied
the area in the Six-Day w*r in 1967.
Since then,
hundreds of thousands of Israelis
have moved in to form settlements...
..hoping to expand Jewish presence
in the region,
or simply looking for cheap housing.
Often, they start out
as a few tents or caravans,
pitched by ultra ideological
settlers on hilltops
next to Palestinian towns.
These are known as outposts.
They are ill*gal under Israeli law
until they are authorised
as settlements.
But both settlements and outposts
are ill*gal under international law.
The army, nevertheless,
protects them.
Hello. How are you?
Everything's great. Where are you
from? London, England. Oh, nice.
Where are you from? Russia. Russia!
Most settlements tend to be
suspicious of media.
But I'd managed to get an
appointment at one, called Evyatar.
It had started out as on outpost
on the edge of
the Palestinian town of Beita.
It was only recognised
as a settlement by the Israeli state
a few months earlier.
Hi, there. Good morning.
Good morning. How are you?
I'm fine. How are you doing?
You must be Malkiel. Yes, I am.
I'm Louis. How do you do?
I'm fine, thank you.
Thank you for having us.
Thank you for coming.
One of its founders is
horse-wrangler Malkiel Bar Hai.
All right, so let me show you
a bit about Evyatar.
Um, I'm just going to have to ask
you not to take any films
of the army base.
That's where they're sitting.
So there's an army base there?
This is an army base.
That's where the dormitories are.
Really? And this is a house,
there's people living here.
The army base is for your security?
For all the region's security.
Uh, the story about Evyatar,
this was a hilltop.
We started from day one
living in tents,
and by the end of the month,
we were 50 families living here
in these houses.
All of these houses
were built back then.
Coming from where?
All over the country.
Shall we go inside?
All right.
It is a little untidy.
This is where you're living
at the moment? Yes.
This is our humble home.
This is our living room,
our kitchen.
Um... How many children do you have?
Eight. Four boys and four girls.
Wow. Behind here
we have another kids' room.
This is the girls' bedroom.
Two older girls, 13 and 11.
They sleep here.
And over there, this is the laundry,
bathroom and a shower.
So where do you stay? Mum and Dad.
This is me and my wife.
You and your wife are in there.
If it rains? Yeah, if it does rain,
so we go into the small caravan.
Hopefully we'll finish building
the house before winter's here.
Do you enjoy being
out on the frontier
where it's a bit more
rough and ready?
Where there's more uncertainty?
Our mission is to settle Israel,
new settlements
all over the country.
So most of the world sees this
as the West Bank,
as occupied territory.
It's under a military occupation.
Correct? Like, it's not part
of the state of Israel,
as most nations recognise it.
The ancient name of this area
is called Judea.
The meaning of Judea
is it belongs to the Jews.
Mm-hm.
So you can't take all the history,
put it in the garbage and say,
"OK, it's not belong to the Jews."
The history said it belonged
to the... To Israel.
With a selective reading of history
that ignores the Palestinians
who have lived on the land
for generations,
the aim for settlements like Evyatar
is to become full-fledged towns,
guarded round the clock by soldiers,
walled off from the millions
around them.
The godmother
of the settler project,
going back more than 50 years,
is the woman I'd seen at the Gaza
border event, Daniella Weiss.
I want to see big cities here,
like a city of two million people.
So, it's not a settlement.
A settlement is caravans,
it's trailers, it's a home here
and a home there.
This is not what my dream is about.
The trailers
in that video of Daniella
have now grown into the settlement
of Kedumim, where she still lives.
Hi.
UNTRANSLATED RESPONSE
Supported by some
in the Israeli government,
Daniella's viewed by others in power
as a dangerous extremist.
She'd agreed to talk to me at home.
Shalom, shalom. Nice to see you.
So we've got pictures of you
as a young woman.
Is the one of you getting married,
is that the oldest one?
This is when we got together.
I was then 15 or something.
Your parents were from...?
My mother was born in Warsaw.
My parents came here
and invested fortunes,
believing that some day
there will be a Jewish state. Mm-hm.
With their vision and their faith,
I continue to expand the Israel
and to be as close
as possible to the Promised Land.
This is your map.
So this is what most of the world
knows as the West Bank,
which you call Judea and Samaria.
This is what you call
occupied West Bank.
And what the Palestinians
would like to see
is a future state of their own.
No, they are not satisfied
with this. But complicated issue.
These little pink wedges,
what do they represent?
The Jewish communities
that were established since 1967.
I'm curious to know roughly
how many settlements and outposts
you've been, let's say, in some way
involved in the establishment of?
Almost every one.
For real? It's 50 years. Mm-hm.
You know what it means? 50 years
that I do what I do today.
Because it's territory
that was won in the '67 w*r,
under the Geneva Convention,
transferring a civilian population
into a conquered terrain,
that's considered a w*r crime.
What I do here is a w*r crime?
According to the UN.
And you're cooperating
with the person
who committed w*r crimes?
Well, I'm interviewing you.
SHE LAUGHS
It's a light felony.
I'd read a couple of things
suggesting that you were viewed
as an extremist and possibly
sympathising with Jewish
or Israeli terror. The confrontation
is not over terror.
The confrontation is just
on whether, yes or no...
..we stay here. There's a quote.
"So alarming is the situation."
It's talking about the situation
of settlers
and what they describe
as settler extremism and violence.
"Last week Ronen Bar, the head
of Israel's security service,
"wrote to Netanyahu,
the Prime Minister,
"and the Defence Minister warning
that what he called Jewish terror
"by violent settlers was doing
indescribable damage to Israel."
The reason Ronen Bar
says that I'm extremist
has nothing to do with terror.
Whatever I represent
threatens his peaceful,
secular life.
I have nothing to do with terror.
He knows I have nothing
to do with terror,
and he insists on saying it.
It's a lie.
And he knows that it's a lie.
Does that really explain...
He doesn't like me! Mm-hm.
Because I have a lot of influence.
Much more than he has.
Influence over who?
The young generation
that is growing in Israel.
And government, too?
And government what?
Do you have influence
over government? No question.
Who did all this?
Can you call Netanyahu?
SHE CHUCKLES
What do you mean? Like this?
Mm-hm. No, I call his aides.
So the idea
is to force the government
by putting people,
it starts with small settlements,
then they get bigger, then they get
recognised by the state of Israel
and basically creating
a new demographic reality.
We do not force a government.
We do for governments
what they cannot do for themselves.
Um, even if you take Netanyahu now,
he is very happy with what we do
here and also about our plans
to build Jewish communities in Gaza.
He is happy about it,
but he cannot say it.
He says the opposite.
"It's not realistic."
Good!
We will make it realistic.
It's not forcing the government.
It's helping the government.
It's step number one in politics.
You don't force the government.
You give the government the courage,
the ability, the public support,
the political support.
I think you understand what I said,
even if you disagree.
There was something unsettling
about hearing Daniella's
ethno-nationalist vision
being laid out so plainly,
especially when I considered
the support she claimed to have
from some in power.
With their backing,
the settlement project
has accelerated,
with many of those going to live
in West Bank settlements
coming from other countries.
Anyone from anywhere in the world
with Jewish heritage,
since they qualify
for Israeli citizenship,
can live in a settlement.
Have you ever been to Judea?
Well, consider this an invitation,
because I could try to describe it
to you in words, but it would
just be impossible.
Ari Abramowitz was born
and raised in Texas.
He now helps run Arugot Farm,
a small retreat hosting birthdays,
weddings and corporate events,
often catering to tourists.
The farm was established
as an outpost in 2014 -
illegally, according to
international law -
on land deep inside
the occupied West Bank.
Hi.
We're going to Arugot Farm.
Thank you.
HORN TOOTS
HORN TOOTS AGAIN
Are you Ari? I am.
There you are.
How are you doing? Good to meet you.
Welcome, welcome.
Nice to meet you. You as well.
Louis. Louis. Louis? Yes.
Lewis, Louis. Louis. Yes.
Or Lewis. I don't mind too much.
Welcome to Judea. How are you doing?
You've come armed.
I d... But we're so friendly.
I know how it looks. I know.
I know, it's not true.
So this is our synagogue.
And I remember
when I first came here,
I wanted to build my house here.
And then I learned that,
according to Jewish law, you build
the synagogue on the highest place,
which makes sense.
What, my home is going to be
lording over the synagogue?
That wouldn't be right.
These are the Torah scrolls.
Is it weird to have your g*ns on
in here?
No. My g*n is here
to protect the nation of Israel
from those that seek to harm us.
And during a service,
would you typically wear them?
Yes. Is it that dangerous?
It is until it's not.
Thank God, never had any issues
of infiltrations here.
And I think it's because they know
that we're...ready for it.
How old were you
when you came to Israel?
I think I was 16.
When you moved here?
I came here after high school
to study Torah.
It was supposed to be a few months.
It's called the gap year programme.
Mm-hm. When you breathe the air,
when you taste that,
when you feel
mission and passion in life,
you can't... You can't go back.
This is where I choose
to come and pray
with the creator
of heaven and earth.
I think this is the most beautiful
place in the world, right here.
Where's the nearest
Palestinian town?
I'm so uncomfortable
using the word Palestinian
because I don't think
that it exists.
You don't think they really exist?
I don't think that they exist
as a real nation
with a real claim to this land.
What are they, then?
They are... They're Arabs.
With a connection to this land?
Yes, they have a connection to it.
It's nowhere near the depth
and...
I mean, we were in this land
planting vineyards
before Muhammad
was in the third grade.
Is that a settlement there?
That is a Jewish settlement
called Pnei Kedem.
Pnei Kedem.
Which means facing the east.
"Face to the east."
Would that be considered legal
under Israeli law? I don't know.
You don't really care.
I don't, I don't care at all.
At all. I don't care at all.
Um, I mean... Why don't you care?
This land here
in the heart of Judea,
there's some things that transcend
the whims of legislation,
and this is one of those things.
For millions of Palestinians
up and down the West Bank,
the presence of settlers
makes life precarious.
They live under
Israeli military law,
restricted from most
Israeli roads,
subject to frequent run-ins
with the authorities
and detention without trial,
in a legal system
that is opaque and arbitrary.
Israel says the measures
are necessary for security.
I was in the South Hebron Hills
during the olive harvest,
a time when tensions run high,
with Palestinians prevented
from getting to trees they say
they've harvested for years.
How are you doing?
VOICEOVER: I was curious to see
the interactions for myself.
I'd heard from an Israeli
activist group,
they were trying to help a farmer
named Isaac Jabereen.
Louis. Salam.
What's happening here today?
The army arrived.
A nearby settlement
had allegedly called them
to report the olive picking.
One of those on the scene
was a long-time Israeli activist,
mathematician Kobi Snitz.
Kobi, do you know... Do you know
what they're doing right now?
The army has said, "You got to
leave in five minutes."
And now the landowner
has to make a choice, uh,
if to try to insist on staying here
and taking a risk.
They're liable to do anything.
They could arrest the Palestinians.
They can arrest us.
Who knows what they might do?
Have you been arrested before?
Do you think
he would have been arrested?
40% of all Palestinian men
have been arrested, so probably.
Where are you from?
British television.
Passport.
Can I ask why
you're taking my passport?
I need to check. Check what?
QUIETLY: Check what?
Nothing. They don't check nothing.
They just want to scare us.
If he'd kept picking,
he would have been arrested?
No, it's not to arrest.
It's just to evacuate the area.
Meaning what, though,
if he says, "I'm not leaving"?
I'm grateful
we didn't get to that part.
Because what would happen?
I actually don't...
As a soldier, you would have to,
what, detain him? That's...
I rather not speaking it.
SCREAMING
Alongside their interactions
with the army,
Palestinians
throughout the West Bank
also suffer attacks by settlers.
INDISTINCT SHOUTING
These videos come from
the South Hebron Hills,
where I'd seen the olive picking.
In the town of Tuwani,
a settler was caught on camera
sh**ting and severely injuring
a Palestinian man.
SCREAMING
The sh**ter had his g*n licence
revoked, but he was never arrested.
I'd heard of other
similar incidents.
SCREAMING
In the same town of Tuwani,
I'd made contact with a 20-year-old
Palestinian student
and local activist
named Mohammad Hureini.
He'd offered to take me
to the top of the hill
to meet his neighbour who lives
at a spot closest to a settlement.
Louis. Nice to meet you.
Thank you for having us.
Musahb Rabaee's house
still bears the scars
of what he says
were settler attacks.
So there's b*ll*ts
that have come through here? Yeah.
Where that bright light is?
So what is that? Is that an outpost
or... What is that?
Is there anyone in there?
VEHICLE APPROACHES
Hang on, something's happening.
What is it?
Are they coming in?
SOLDIERS SHOUThat's a laser on the r*fles.
What do we do? Just stay in here?
Matan, what do you think?
It's not safe at the moment.
There's obviously
multiple g*ns pointing at us.
Let's wait.
What can we do?
Can we call the police?
This doesn't worry you?
After more than an hour, the
soldiers appeared to lose interest,
and the crew and I slipped away.
The violence committed by some
settlers is often justified by them
as a response to violence
they experience from Palestinians,
which is much less frequent.
Nevertheless,
it's hard to disentangle it
from an ideology
of the superiority of one group
and their rights over another,
promoted by leaders
like Daniella Weiss.
Hiya, how are you?
Come in.
Hoping for more insight
into her and her work, I was back.
I have a meeting, so...
But do have a seat.
Thank you.
So we'll just wait. Great.
OK. From now on, follow me...
OK. ..if you want to know.
Are we leaving?
So we're going to meet you there?
All right.
I was joining Daniella
and some friends of hers
in a convoy heading towards Gaza.
Mission unclear.
Two hours later,
we were 1km from the Gaza border
in the Israeli town of Sderot,
arriving at a yeshiva,
a religious school,
where Daniella took part
in an assembly
alongside two prominent rabbis.
What's happening next, Daniella?
Shall we follow you?
We'll follow her.
Our next stop was a memorial
for the victims of October 7th.
Sderot had seen heavy fighting
during the Hamas attacks
and suffered many losses.
For some passersby, Daniella
held a degree of celebrity status.
Then the settler convoy arrived at
what seemed to be its destination.
A viewpoint
overlooking the w*r zone.
Daniella had told me
she'd signed up 800 families
who were ready to move into Gaza.
One of her team
explained how it would work.
The idea seemed to be
to get spiritual buy-in
from the two rabbis.
One of them was next to speak,
Rabbi Dov Lior.
SINGING
As the day ended,
we were following Daniella's car,
driving on what seemed to be
army-controlled land,
approaching ever closer
to the Gaza border.
You can see the destroyed houses.
It had previously been reported that
Daniella had been illegally escorted
into Gaza by soldiers
who supported her,
to recce locations for settlement.
Suddenly her vehicle broke away.
HORN BLARES
On this occasion,
she was intercepted.
So, basically,
she had a military escort
and then she just peeled away
and made a sprint
for the border of Gaza? Yeah.
She's just tried to run away
from the army, hasn't she? Yeah.
Did you try and make a dash
for the Gaza border?
What was happening down there?
DANIELLA LAUGHS
I enjoyed it so much.
Our two jeeps were...
Drew too much attention.
But what's the idea?
Why do you want to go down to...
I wanted to...
You wanted to enter Gaza? No.
What I wanted to do,
I wanted to show the rabbis
that Gaza
is not something beyond reach.
Would you say October 7th
made people more receptive
to your message
and to your point of view?
No doubt.
The October 7th
naturally made people more receptive
to the idea of the great Israel.
But the next step,
Jewish settlements in Gaza,
is a very difficult step
that demands a lot of work.
You have to influence the leftists,
the government,
the nations of the world,
using the magic system, Zionism.
You redeem the land,
you establish communities,
you bring Jewish families.
You live...live Jewish life.
And this will bring light
instead of darkness.
And this is how the state of Israel
was established.
And this is what we want to do
in Gaza.
This process of making the whole
of the West Bank and Gaza Jewish,
do you feel like
it's moving more quickly?
As far as Judea and Samaria
is concerned,
so we want to move
from one million to two million.
So this is the next step.
This is my vision.
Not so complicated.
Daniella's vision has been made
possible by the Israeli occupation.
But it in turn
has led to the creation
of a vast military infrastructure,
which impacts every aspect
of Palestinian life.
Nowhere is it more evident
than in Hebron.
Hebron is an ancient biblical city,
home to some 200,000 Palestinians,
a place holy
to three major religions.
Hi, how are you? Fine, thank you.
Where you guys from?
We're from a British TV crew.
In 1968, the year after
it was occupied by Israel,
a community of Jewish settlers
moved in illegally.
They now number around 700,
existing in a cordon
of military protection.
I visited in 2010,
when I'd spent time
with a settler leader.
Now 14 years on, I was curious
about life
within the Palestinian community.
I'm Louis. Hi, Louis.
Nice to meet you. Welcome.
Thank you for having us.
Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist,
was born here
in a settler-occupied area.
You've got fences all around?
All around.
Fences from here... Yeah.
Who lives on the other side?
Israeli settlers.
You've got army there. What are they
doing? Have they come for a reason?
No. They come for intimidation.
How are you?
They're not speaking but I think
what they would say is,
"Well, we're here
to provide security for the settlers
"who live here,
and want to live in peace,
"and experience animosity
from the Palestinians."
So they want to live in peace at the
expense of my basic human rights.
I didn't choose to live in Hebron.
I was born in Hebron. It's my land.
It's my homeland. Mm-hm.
The settlers chose to come here,
and if it's not safe for them,
why they continue building more
and more settlements in my own city?
By international law,
the settlements are ill*gal.
They don't see us
as equal human beings
who deserve the same rights they do.
Lead the way. Yeah.
For nearly 20 years,
Issa has been an advocate
for nonviolent resistance
against the occupation.
He is one of around 30,000
Palestinians living inside
the high-security area of Hebron,
the so-called sterile zone.
For them, just doing their shopping,
going to work, or going to school
means passing through
military checkpoints.
Let's see how it works.
Hi. Hi.
How are you guys doing?
Good. How are you? Fine.
Everything OK?
I need your passport, please.
All of you. OK?
Uh, sure. What for? Why? Check.
Why? Hi, Issa. How are you doing,
mate? How you doing? Hi.
Why you cover your faces?
Because of the cold. No!
Come on, guys. Don't hide.
Only gangs hide their faces.
You are a military. You should have
your faces obvious to everybody.
You know Issa? He lives here.
Yes. Yeah, he lives here.
He says it's making life
very difficult
to have the military presence here.
What are you doing here?
What are you all doing here? What am
I doing here? Making a documentary.
A documentary? Yeah, for British
television. Of what? Of what?
About settlers in the West Bank.
Settlers in the West Bank? Yes.
OK. And what do you tell to the
television about the settlements?
It's not about what I'm telling
them, it's about what I'm hearing
from the people who I speak to.
Where do you live?
I don't... I don't want to tell you.
OK.
I told you where I was staying.
UNTRANSLATED
Say that again.
UNTRANSLATED
What does that mean?
It's, "Enjoy from the trip
in Hebron here." Thank you.
Wish you all the best, guys.
How is life here? Is it...
It's like... You're very well-armed.
Do you... Do you...
Is there a situation here
that needs careful control?
Of course. What is it?
Tell me about it.
What was he saying about Arabi?
No, he wanted to see
if you're an Arab.
He asked you if you speak Arabic.
Hello, how are you doing? What's up?
Hey, how are you doing?
I'm doing excellent. American?
What do I look, Chinese?
Yeah. From Brooklyn?
You bet. Let me just pull over
to the side. OK.
Do you know him?
No, he doesn't live here.
You OK?
Do you need help? Are you OK? No.
Are you stuck? Are you in a rut?
Why are you filming me?
SOLDIER SIGHS
It's all good, don't worry,
we can't even see your face.
Look, you're obscured.
No-one can even see who you are.
Don't worry.
I don't know what to do with you.
I have work to do.
Get on with your work, you're fine.
You stay here in the check post
and filming everything.
You can't do this here, OK?
Come with me.
No, you can't do that.
Come with me. No, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no. Don't touch me.
No violence. You just touched me.
Don't touch me. No violence.
Listen to me.
Yeah, I'm listening.
Come, come. No.
I'm from the military, OK? Mm-hm.
IDF, Israel Defence Forces.
I'm above the police
here in the West Bank. OK.
I'm the highest responsibility
of law. OK.
We'll tell it like this, OK?
And as this man, IDF,
I need to tell you,
not staying here. OK.
We'll move along. That's fine.
OK. Leave. Leave this place.
Leave this area, OK?
Yeah, we'll move along.
Right now. Yalla. Louis, let's go.
OK. Yalla. Let's go.
So who lives here?
Palestinian families.
And where are they?
They are hiding behind their doors.
What would stop these shops
from being open?
It's closed by military orders
and marked as closed shops.
It's marked.
From this shop would be
five families, at least,
live and earn their living.
Look, this is something new.
This, not to hire Arab workers
in Israel.
Two faces, the faces of an Arab
and a face of a t*rror1st.
This is how they stereotype us.
Middle finger.
He gave you the middle finger?
Yes, to you, too.
You think it was to me? To you.
I think it was to you. To you.
To both of us. Because
you deserve the middle finger
if you report about Palestinians.
UNTRANSLATED
Wait, wait. ID, please.
For what reason?
It's the policies.
Yes.
That one?
Why can't he...
Why can't he be with us?
How come Palestinians
can't come down here?
It seems ironic that that's the
visitor's centre, right?
For tourists and whatnot?
And he can't actually visit
in his own...in his own city.
You knew that was going to happen.
No, it's new that they asked me
to come back to here.
He told me
that I'm allowed only to here.
So they expanded
the closed area for me.
What's it all about?
Taking more and more land.
It's about fragmented life,
restricted life for Palestinians.
No quality life.
You live with the basics,
with the basics,
even with less than basics
of a family need...
..to make you leave.
And they are doing well.
The majority of the houses
are empty.
Families are leaving.
You could flip it and say,
well, if they really wanted
to occupy the whole of Hebron,
or at least this area,
they could literally
deport Palestinians.
They do it slowly.
But now, they are speeding up.
They want approval from their allies
and their partners in the world.
Is it worth going through
to see the other side?
Yes, I can show you.
To see what it looks like?
This gives you a little flavour
of what it was like in there before?
Yes. The market
was much more busy inside.
It was our Oxford Street inside.
So busy, my father used to
hold my arm not to lose me.
Not any more.
It's closed completely. Restricted.
In order to get back in,
we can't go through there now,
cos they've closed it. It's closed
now. So how do we get back in?
You try from another checkpoint.
Mm-hm.
Through here? Yes.
Louis.
Coming through? Yes. All right.
OK, just a moment, just a moment.
When it's green. With the green
light, go in.
This one, please.
So now we're on the other side
of the area
where you couldn't walk before,
right? Yes.
Where they stopped you from walking
in front of the visitors' centre.
But you need to get home. Yes.
So what will you do?
I will go around again.
I will go outside this checkpoint,
go around,
to enter from another checkpoint,
and wait till the checkpoint opens,
to get into my house with my son.
You definitely can't come this way?
I can't come this way. OK.
I can... They won't let you through?
No, they will not.
I'm not allowed. I was happy
to meet you. Thank you so much.
Bye-bye. Take care. Bye-bye.
On the drive back from Hebron,
I reflected on the separate lives
lived by Israelis and Palestinians
and the unequal system
of rights and justice.
We ran into a traffic jam,
caused by a b*mb scare.
The road,
the main artery in the West Bank,
is one of the few
shared by Israelis and Palestinians.
For once, all were subject to delay.
It was a sobering experience
visiting Hebron again.
Issa had told me he believed
life was being made intolerable
for Palestinians deliberately
to make them leave
and that the process was speeding up
since October 7th.
And it was true that some settlers
I'd met supported the deportation
of Palestinians who won't submit
to Jewish authority.
One of them was Ari, a Texan,
born and raised in Houston,
now resident deep inside
the occupied West Bank.
Good to see you. Good to see you.
How are you? I'm all right.
A little under the weather.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Thank you for having us back.
Hoping to understand
a little better,
I'd returned to see him again.
OK. We're ready for the coffee.
I really hope I do this right.
I never know if you wear those g*ns
just for effect.
I don't know what effect
I'm looking for.
Do I want to look more militant?
Yeah, no, I'm not wearing it just
for effect. Do you want to sit down?
We've talked a lot about
how you see the, uh...
the importance of Jewish presence
in what was termed
the biblical land of Israel.
Are you saying that you see Israel
as playing a role
for modelling a new kind of,
what, nationalism?
Is that... Is that right?
I think that all of what's happening
in the world right now is leading us
as a nation to open our eyes
to who we are.
We are the tip of the spear
fighting the battles of America
in defending
the entire Western world.
And not just the Western world,
anyone who wants any semblance of
liberty and freedom in their lives.
Nevertheless, there are millions
of people up and down the area,
uh, Arabs, Muslims,
who aren't living free, right?
They're enclosed
without the same rights,
without national self-determination
and, in many respects,
feeling besieged.
And I just wonder, do you see that?
I don't have tremendous compassion
for a society that has
an unquenchable, genocidal,
theological bloodlust.
It's like a death cult.
It seems to me there's a danger
with that characterisation
of Palestinians. You define them
as eliminationist
and hateful and...and genocidal.
Yeah, I used the words
death cult also. As a death cult.
Um... That that then permits you
to almost create a mirror image
of that, that you say, "Well,
if they want to do that to us,
"then we need to do that to them."
I think that
when you're living amongst people
who have perpetually proven,
not only by word but by deed,
that they want your blood
spilled in the streets,
that they want
to m*rder your children,
that they want to slay all of you,
k*ll all of you
in the most horrific
genocidal way...
All of the polls showed
after October 7th that these people
who you continuously call
the Palestinian people,
that I reject the very premise
that they are actually a real nation
for a lot of reasons. I mean...
But the millions of people who have
nothing to do with October 7th,
right? Who actually just would like
to live free, full lives.
If that's really what they wanted,
they would have had it
a long time ago.
They want to wipe Israel
off the map.
They want every last Jew dead.
Because... So what's the answer?
The answer is for us
to declare sovereignty
over all of Judea and Samaria,
and all of the land of Israel,
and Gaza.
And to settle Gaza
and all of Judea and Samaria
with Jews in the land of Israel.
Did the question annoy you?
Annoy me? I just...
I hear it so often.
And it feels like it's being
addressed again and again and again.
Even if the entire world
is pointing accusing fingers
and gnashing their teeth
in rage and anger,
we know the righteousness
and the truth of our cause,
even if we stand alone.
That's what it means to be a Hebrew.
That's what it means to be a Jew.
If we know the truth of our cause,
that's all we need.
For Ari, it was clear that nothing
is greater than the word of God.
And that word had led him to believe
that it was the divine right
of the Jewish people
to settle and rule this land.
Good to see you.
See you later.
God should bless and protect you.
Amen.
The Bible was, as he saw it,
a land deed to the West Bank.
With an afternoon free,
I stopped for coffee in the
Palestinian city of Nablus...
..surrounded by the ancient
architecture of the old city,
and the undeniable fact of the
hundreds of thousands of people
living there,
and their aspirations for statehood.
At the edge of the city, we were
held up at one of the many
checkpoints that control the people
entering and leaving.
Can you put the g*n down?
Where are you from?
From London. London.
You've been in the market? Yes.
You also?
Yes. Yes.
She work with you?
Yes. She's American.
Can you show me ID?
Me?
Everyone.
Yeah, sure.
It's very slow going.
We're in there...
in that queue for an hour or more.
What, uh...
How much time you going to stay
in Israel?
Hang on,
but I don't think we're in Israel.
Huh? Are we in Israel?
You're in Israel now. Are we? Yes.
In the West Bank, no?
In the north of the West Bank,
I was heading back
to the settlement of Evyatar,
where I'd been hosted by Malkiel,
the horse-wrangler.
Since my visit, I'd learned
a little more about the settlement's
relations with its neighbouring
Palestinian town of Beita.
How Beita had been subject
to settler attacks
and how it, in turn, had organised
regular protests of the settlement.
Demonstrators had been k*lled and
others wounded during the clashes.
SIREN WAILS
One of the deaths
of a Turkish-American volunteer,
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, made headlines.
Now the settlement
was holding a festival
to celebrate its recent recognition
by the Israeli State.
MUSIC PLAYS
Entertainments had been laid on
and families from settlements
from around the West Bank
had converged for a day of music
and activities.
One of those speaking was Daniella.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
How are you?
You want to go there?
Yeah, it's a bit quieter.
As the festivities wound down, I had
a moment to speak to Daniella
on a hilltop overlooking
the Palestinian town of Beita.
So you've been talking
about settling.
You've talked about displacing,
wanting the Palestinians to go,
you said, to Africa,
to Canada, to England,
you don't care where. Turkey. Mm-hm.
What would be wrong with
either a two-state solution
or a one-state solution
where everyone had the same rights?
We want to have a Jewish state
based on Jewish rules,
on Jewish values.
It's not a relationship
of neighbours. Why not?
Cos we are two different nations.
Different.
I just wonder whether you feel,
or you're aware that, um...you know,
they're really suffering.
And there's been settlers
rampaging through the area
of the West Bank,
so there's all this... Agitation.
..death. Tragedy. Right? Tragedy.
When a people is invaded, right?
And then put under
a military occupation,
deprived of their rights,
that anger seems to be
an understandable response,
an appropriate response.
There is no such thing
as settler violence.
Did I speak... I don't know if...
I don't mind saying it again.
Mm-hm. And I don't mind...
I will be glad to explain.
You don't believe it's real?
There are videos. You can see them.
You see what? OK.
Let's say... Mm-hm.
..we have a camera here. Yes.
And I do this. Yeah.
Do something.
You don't mind what I did to you?
You don't...
Well, I won't do that to you.
You won't do that. No.
And then the camera takes just part.
Mm-hm.
You don't have the full picture.
Then I say you're violent.
You're violent against a woman.
This is exactly what is going on
all the time with what you call,
er... Settler violence.
Settler violence.
Settlers do not wake up
in the morning,
or do not go and wait for sundown
to attack.
No, no, no, no.
Why should we wake up in the morning
and think about violence?
Why? Our life is good!
Because you want
the Palestinians to leave.
No! No, no, no!
You've said so.
I said that what is on my mind
all the time...
..is how to bring more people
to settle the land.
This a new development by Jews.
This is Yitzhar,
this we can...
Here we can develop.
Here we cannot develop.
I never think in terms of...
I know this is Beita.
Mm-hm. I don't think in...
I don't think about Beita.
Why not? Because I think about,
I am a Jew.
They're people. I'm a settler.
They're people. I'm a human being.
Yes, you are. And so are they.
So I do not think about this.
You're thinking about tribalism.
Thinking of your own people
to the exclusion...
It would be understandable
to think of your own people
or your own children first.
But to think about other people,
other children not at all?
That seems sociopathic.
DANIELLA CHUCKLES
I can, uh... Doesn't it?
No, not at all. This is normal.
To my children, I give everything
because I... The normal thing,
normal thing for me
is to pray for my own people.
That's it. So now I continue.
I hoped you'd push me back.
And so I said goodbye to Daniella
and her extreme ideology
delivered with a smile.
14 years on from my first visit,
with the horror of October 7th
in the interim
and the ongoing devastation of Gaza,
the settler dream
shows no sign of abating...
..along with the dislocation,
displacement and death
that follows inevitably
in its train.
Advanced by ideologues,
backed up by those in power
and accountable only to God.
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Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025)
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