Jonathan Sacerdoti Jonathan Sacerdoti

Why does Louis Theroux keep picking on Israeli settlers?

Louis Theroux will travel to the West Bank for his latest documentary (Credit: BBC/ Mindhouse)

When is Louis Theroux going to make a documentary where he embeds himself with Hamas in Gaza? Or Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, or Qalqilya? Probably never, because he’d most likely come to a sticky end.

His attempt to make a show about British Muslims who were sympathetic to Isis “fizzled out”

Instead, Theroux is once again making a film about Jews in Judea and Samaria – the region known as the West Bank – focusing on so-called “settlers.” His last foray into this subject was The Ultra Zionists, in 2011, a documentary criticised by some for cherry-picking the most extreme and controversial voices from the settler movement to create a caricature of violent, religious fanatics. Many felt it ignored the historical and security-driven reasons behind Israeli settlement policies, overlooked the very real threats posed by Palestinian terrorism, and failed to present any real balance.

The BBC has just announced that, with his next film, The Settlers, he is back at it again.

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