Louis Theroux on Capturing Reality of Israeli Settlements in ‘The Settlers’: ‘I’d Never Seen Something Like This Unfold in the Open With No Shame’

The British journalist and author took a break from promoting hit Netflix documentary 'Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere' to discuss his 2025 BBC doc about Israeli settlers in the West Bank at CPH:DOX

By Rafa Sales Ross

Rafa Sales Ross

Guest Contributor

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In 2010, British journalist Louis Theroux went to Israel to interview ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers who believed it was their religious and political obligation to populate the West Bank for the BBC doc “Ultra Zionists.” Last year, over a decade and a half later, the broadcaster returned to the region to investigate how the Israeli settler movement has escalated following October 7th with “The Settlers.” 

Speaking at CPH:DOX following a sold-out screening of the documentary, the British author said he mostly remembers the “intensity” of being in the occupied region during wartime. Asked about what drew him to the subject, Theroux said the throughline in his work is “human weirdness” and the ways in which “human beings self-sabotage or behave in ways that maybe seem illogical, immoral or controversial.”

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