The Settlers and the Exposure of Settler-Colonialism
by Kym
Robinson | May
5, 2025
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-settlers-and-the-exposure-of-settler-colonialism/
The talent of Louis Theroux is his ability to ask the
most obvious questions with a disarming innocence. To draw out truth is a
forgotten or less than celebrated trait in modern journalism. In his latest
documentary, The Settlers, Theroux is not a mouthpiece for the
establishment, though the production was done through the BBC. Theroux follows
in the footsteps of Robert Fisk by giving the microphone to the innocent—and
their tormentors. In doing so he has drawn controversy, but not because he
manipulated or changed words. He simply let people speak their minds; the truth
is harmful, even to those who agree.
Theroux spoke with Israeli
settlers in the “disputed territories,” or Palestine. The settlers call the
area “Judaea.” To them and their backers it’s a land promised to them. The
Palestinians who have lived their for countless generations are to be disposed
of, eradicated. This is settler colonialism. It is giving us a twenty-first
century glimpse of what in the nineteenth century was considered the right of
civilized nations. It’s ugly and brutal, and the words of the settlers expose a
colonial entitlement that is now widely frowned upon in the West.
Theroux has been here before.
In his 2011 documentary The Ultra Zionists, he reported on the
religious nationalism of the settlers then. Fourteen years later, the settlers
are no longer considered outsiders or zealots, but rather the tip of a spear of
expansionism that now has wider support not only from the Israeli government,
but post-October 7 the public as well. The Hamas attack made Arabs and Islam an
enemy of the West again. Forget the reason for the attack. There is never a
justification for terrorism, but terrorism always seems to justify revenge.
The United States has a
special friendship with Israel; it’s both a dependent and a petulant partner.
So it’s no wonder that Theroux would interview a Texan who, finding himself an
ardent Zionist and romanced by his religion and myths of the United States’ own
founding, moved to the West Bank. The parallels to Manifest Destiny are
obvious, but so to are the Hitlerian demands for “living space.” The
Settlers is not just about Zionism; it’s a reflection on nationhood
founded through settler-colonialism.
With just such self-reflection
I can look back as an Australian who was raised in the two worlds, one of
which understood that the “Abo” or “Boong” were backwards and
useless as far as a human being goes. “No good lay-abouts” was the oft-heard
phrase, or the best they could hope for was a romanticized, celebrated
portrayal as Stone Age fixtures of land in films like Crocodile Dundee.
It was only the arrival of Europeans who made Australia into a nation,
civilized and built it into a modern state. That is the mythos that helps the
benefactors sleep at night.
I was raised to understand
that what happened to the Aboriginal people was wrong, a genocide which
included colonial brutality that stole children and exterminated entire
communities, and today still results in lower than average life expectancy.
Ironically, we are told to feel guilt and bear the burden of shame by the very
government and elite class who most benefit now from the stolen land and
exterminated people. They indulge in token ceremonies and look at the people of
the land as dependent children to be guided and protected through welfare. That
is the two faces of settler colonialism: conquest, then eventually revisionist
guilt. In The Settlers we are witnessing the conquest phase
and hear the voices of those self-righteous conquerors.
In The Settlers,
Theroux gives us the pragmatic expansionist, who see Palestine as theirs to be
taken, developed, and settled into a modern society, but in actuality an
ancient tribalism. We see in the documentary a rabbi who calls the Palestinians
“savages” and “camel riders.” Our Texan, Ari Abramowitz, does not even
acknowledge the Palestinians. It’s his people’s land and his people’s
destiny. And he doesn’t mean his fellow Texans. He believes this, and so to do
many others, Jewish, secular and Christian alike. Many far beyond Israel
believe in the biblical claim to conquer Palestine for Israel.
The Settlers‘
main attraction is Daniella Weiss, a high level member of the movement. She has
been active for over fifty years and in her own words, can ring up the prime
minister. She is honest, brutally so. Weiss is unapologetic in her
ambitions. As she said last year, “We have the experience that we have
accumulated in fifty-five years of settling Judea [and] Samaria [the occupied
West Bank], the Golan Heights.” She seeks to ethnically cleanse the region. She
has been honest and open in all her public appearances about the conquest of
Palestine and what that entails. She has no regard or care for the
Palestinians.
In the aftermath of October 7,
2023, the violence committed by Hamas made it hard for public discussion on how
the common Palestinian had been treated. Suddenly they were all “snakes” and
deserved to die. We witnessed that at the end of 2001 and into the following
year. But it’s May 2025, and the genocide and harsh conditions experienced
by the victims of the IDF are hard to avoid. More people are taking notice and
finding the courage to speak up. The timing of this documentary coincides with
that now emerging bravery.
It’s only now, for the current
blip of internet interest that Weiss and the attitudes of other settlers are
being side-eyed. That is thanks to Theroux and the BBC for making a trendy
documentary. But when it stops trending, then what? We’ll go back to how it
always is; harassment from IDF soldiers, the misery of the Palestinians as they
suffer military checkpoints and endless abuse from armed Israelis. Not to
mention the shootings, or regular torture, or the fact that rape is a systemic
tool inside of Israeli prisons for Palestinians.
Just because the Theroux’s
settlers are true believers does not mean that there is not a degree of
material self-interest involved. Stealing the produce and land from others has
always been a satisfactory compensation for those who civilize the frontier for
a spiritual destiny. For those who push the natives out, there is always a
reward and investors. The Israeli government and to some degree the U.S.
government both conspire to make Weiss’ sinister ambition possible. You can add
in many churches in the United States. They may claim to love their God and
have his blessing but they are also inspired by very worldly greed.
For those of us outside
spectators, we are told that it’s “complicated.” For Daniella Weiss and the
settlers it’s not complicated. Palestinians either leave or die. Their
continued subjugation seems less and less tolerable, so they’re to be removed
by force or motivated to do so. But to where? Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and the
wider world are expected to take more or share them all (in addition to the
many already expulsed by Israel in the past).
For the Palestinians, it’s not
complicated. They are a people who are being killed and forced from their
homes. It’s only complicated to the outsiders, who perfume themselves in the
dignity of principled values while they balance loyalty to Israel. It’s only
complicated to those who claim to love a peaceful god while supporting violence
and indignity. It’s only complicated to those who see the Arab as oriental,
alien, and backwards.
For anyone who has been paying
attention the words of the settlers and the Palestinians, what they’re see on
the screen is nothing new. What will happen with the information being widely
broadcast on the BBC and its new attention is unknown. Maybe, it will buy some
of the Palestinians a brief reprieve. The settlers, however, are as
patient as they are relentless. With the support of the Israeli and American
governments, they can afford to be.
Please watch the documentary.
What you do afterwards is up to you, what can you do? Anything would be better
than scrolling on and dismissing it as someone else problem.
