BBC’s Settlers Documentary targets Daniella Weiss as an arch villain

Daniella Weiss is an 80-year-old leader in Israel’s settler movement and head of the Nachala organization. She has spent decades pushing for Jewish settlement expansion in Judea and Samaria, and, since the October 7th, Gaza.

Born in Bnei Brak to a religious Zionist family, Weiss’s activism took root in the 1970s with Gush Emunim, a group that powered settlement growth after the 1967 war.

As the former mayor of Kedumim, she now advocates for a Jewish state encompassing all of biblical Israel, explicitly calling for Palestinian displacement from certain areas.

Her rhetoric is uncompromising: at a Likud-backed conference in October 2024, she stated, “The Arabs will disappear from Gaza… We will settle the entire Gaza Strip,” arguing Palestinians “lost the right” to stay due to Hamas’s actions.

In January 2024, at the “Conference for Israel’s Victory” attended by 11 cabinet ministers, she proposed starving Palestinians to force them out, saying, “We don’t give them food… They will have to leave.”

Weiss’s influence draws far-right support, with figures like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attending her events, suggesting backing from Israel’s ultranationalist coalition.

In November 2024, IDF soldiers reportedly allowed her to survey potential settlement sites in Gaza’s Netzarim corridor, defying civilian entry bans, hinting at unofficial military tolerance despite being a violation.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed Gaza resettlement as “unrealistic,” distancing himself from her plans.

Internationally, Weiss faces backlash: Canada sanctioned her in June 2024 for enabling settler violence in the West Bank, and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese (a huge antisemite herself) has linked her rhetoric to ethnic cleansing concerns in Gaza. Critics argue her influence is confined to far-right circles, not the entire government, despite some X posts claiming she has “full support of the Israeli government” to displace Palestinians.

Her supporters view Weiss as a patriot responding to existential threats, pointing to Hamas’s October 7 attack and ongoing rocket attacks as justification. They cite Hamas’s charter calling for Israel’s destruction and polls, like a 2023 Palestinian Center for Policy survey, showing Gazan support for armed resistance.

Daniella Weiss was nominated for the 2025 Nobel peace prize by two Israeli professors. She was nominated for strengthening Jewish communities. But because Nobel nominations are secret, official confirmation is pending.

Yet, her call to displace over two million Gazans has drawn accusations of advocating genocide, making her a polarizing figure.

The BBC’s documentary, Louis Theroux: Settlers, aired today and centers on Weiss and the settler movement, with a focus on her Gaza ambitions.

Directed by Theroux, a British-American journalist known for his immersive storytelling, the film portrays Weiss as a grandmotherly yet radical figure. In a tense exchange, she denies ties to terror, insisting, “We are supporting the government,” while doubling down on her vision: “No Arab… They will not stay there. We Jews will be in Gaza.”

In the documentary, Theroux sets her up, asking, "What about the suffering on the other side?" She says it's her job to worry about her own children and her own people and not to worry about those on the other side.

Theroux instantly calls her out, labeling her a sociopath. Considering the rising tides of antisemitism, it's no wonder that her views have stirred up strong feelings, with some going so far as to call her “sociopathic” and “dangerous” for her “supremacist” views.

Here's what Theroux conveniently "forgot" to say.

When we look back at October 7th, there are clear as daylight videos of Gazans in Gaza singing and cheering and shrieking 'Allahu Akhbar'. In fact, the only reason some of them are not ecstatic that Jews are being butchered at that every moment is that they fear the repercussions which will soon come their way (which they were right about.)

But it's actually worse than that. Ordinary Gazans beat Jewish hostages, even returning a hostage who had escaped Hamas back to Hamas, but first beating him up viciously.

Have you ever heard of a Gazan collecting money for Jews or taking sick Jewish children to the hospital? No, because it's never happened. But Israeli Peace activists used to do this, before their illusions about Gazans were shattered and they were dragged to Gaza thesmelves.

The sad truth is that Gazans despise us, and they talk about it openly all the time. Many are driven by fury at the 1948 Nakhba, and instead of building up their own lives, they turn to hate and violence: The Jews, they claim, are responsible, for all of their suffering.

And that's not even Hamas, which is a whole other ballgame.

By sidelining Hamas’s genocidal intent and Gazan support for “resistance,” the BBC creates a double standard. By portraying Weiss as a villain while barely addressing Palestinian militancy, it encourages anti-Semitism and oversimplifies the conflict. The omission of Netanyahu’s rejection of her plans and the lack of focus on Hamas’s actions further skews the narrative.

Theroux gained fame with Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends (1998–2000), exploring subcultures with empathy and humor. His BBC documentaries, like When Louis Met… and Dark States, tackle complex issues, earning him two BAFTAs. He's known for his disarming style, but his Settlers is just more Jew hatred on a different day. It's nothing we haven't seen before, except he cleverly, insidiously, manages to make Daniella Weiss look like a deranged lunatic, when he's the one with the clear bias, hiding in plain sight, under cover of 'good journalism'.

I've got news for you, Louis. There's nothing disarming about Settlers. There's nothing cool or cute or even intelligent about it. It's just another BBC opportunity to bash Jews, and none of u are even remotely surprised.