The Settlers

This documentary provides us with an excellent historical view of how the settlements started in the "conquered" territories. We see how the Israeli government was inept at stopping this - or really in many cases actively aiding the settlements.

And it is very obvious that religious belief added to this - giving it a very toxic mix. When a people feel that their beliefs gives them a right over others, namely the Palestinians, to own land trouble will ensue.

The film illustrates how Israeli society and government have been infused by religious beliefs. Israel is not a secular state.

This film gives us an understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict

I've watched so many West Bank documentaries by now. Plus the comic books and whatnot. Of the tens I've seen only 1 was pro-Israel. Everything else was anti-Israel and pro-Palestine. I noticed the comments on the video as it's posted officially on Youtube. So many activists saying such weird stuff I was prepared to watch something anti-Semitic here. But I was positively surprised. While this does use a few cheap tricks to create pro-Palestine propaganda it stays neutral most of the time. Which is practically unheard of when talking about West Bank. This may just be my favorite documentary on this topic.

They interviewed a lot of the most extremist settlers, as always, and we see an old Palestinian lady cry over her condition. But the history parts make up for everything. We get the war with Jordan and see the area reannexed into Israel. Then Israel doesn't quite know what to do with it as Jordan had it for nearly 2 decades and settled it with Arab Muslims. Where can you move them? The former Jewish villages are now Muslim villages. The area is then split in 3 parts via an agreement so that the Arabs there can get their own territory for the first time ever. Then the Jewish settlers arrive deciding for Israel. Israel wants to restrict the settlers, but too many in and outside Israel are pro settlers. And furthermore we don't quite know what the rules are. You can't actually move the current inhabitants out even if they are in the Israel zone of West Bank. But you can move new people in legally I assume? And furthermore we see no war so the war regulations should not even apply? They never quite explain what rules apply. But if you own a land area why can't you move people around if you need this for big projects? This happens in other nations, but for some reason Israel has to oblige by war rules for this area despite Jordan annexing it illegally and now also saying they don't want the area back. So it belongs to the UN zone that was supposed to be split in 2 nations. But since Arabs refused to sign the UN deal Israel has to take control over it as otherwise it would be like Antarctica and no one would own it as such. Basically a no-mans land where the strong take all power and kill everyone else. I would have loved for them to explain these more complex ideas. But maybe there was no runtime for this.

Overall this is the strongest intro to the topic.

The Settlers makes the politics of Jewish settlement in Palestinian territories into a compelling story that combines high-stakes politics, history, and intimate portraits of human experience. We get an inside look into the daily lives of a broad range of characters that live on the most contested land in the world. Whether or not you agree with their choices, their stories are impossible to ignore. It's amazing that a small number of people on a few small patches of land can have such a massive impact on global politics. It makes global geopolitics engrossing and human -- it's a movie that everyone should watch, regardless of their own politics.

The movie ran long: over two hours, and maybe closer to three than two. I'm not sure, though. I was immersed. The filmography was beautiful and immersive. The interviews, despite being entirely presented in subtitles for we English speakers/readers, were compelling, as was the story the director was telling. The film is partly historical storytelling and partly political analysis. It asks questions rather than attempts to offer any solutions, as the director said in a Q&A afterward. It depicts the birth of what you might call the modern Zionist movement, at least as it expresses itself in the outpost settlements in occupied territory outside of sovereign Israel. The interviews are with people placed high and low in the settlement communities and in universities in Israel, and they present a stark and worrying portrait: Israeli settlers, though a minority of the Israeli population, are a destabilizing force that has run unchecked because of politicians' fears of facing up to their ardent beliefs as espoused by devoted followers. The moderates of the country are mute in the film, and they can't be much louder in reality, given the extent to which the settlers have been permitted by their government to run roughshod over laws that the country itself, let alone international agreements, have set in place. The film worried me, and the picture of a new Apartheid it presented is vivid.