Israeli troopers and settlers have harassed a Palestinian activist featured in a current BBC documentary that has obtained reward for shedding mild on the plight of Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution.
Because the world’s consideration has been fastened on Israel’s 18-month battle on Gaza, settler assaults towards Palestinians within the West Financial institution and occupied East Jerusalem have spiked, forcing Palestinians to flee their properties. A scarcity of Israeli police motion has additional emboldened settlers, who cite the Torah in claiming rights over Palestinian lands.
Issa Amro, who was featured in The Settlers documentary made by British-American journalist and broadcaster Louis Theroux, launched footage on-line displaying how armed troopers and settlers raided his home in Hebron within the occupied West Financial institution.
Amro stated police additionally threatened him with arrest and advised him to not file a criticism in what he stated is one other occasion of apartheid imposed by Israel within the West Financial institution. Rights teams, together with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Worldwide, have accused Israel of practising apartheid in occupied territory.
Amro added on Sunday that the Israeli settlers who attacked him a day earlier advised him United States President Donald Trump backed them. The settlers felt “emboldened due to the Trump administration’s blind help”, the activist stated.
Theroux stated he and his crew have remained in common contact with Amro.
. @Issaamro who featured in The Settlers has posted movies of his newest harassment by settlers and troopers. Our crew has been in common contact with him because the documentary and over the past 24 hours. We’re persevering with to watch the scenario. https://t.co/asEWKkVX5h
— Louis Theroux (@louistheroux) May 4, 2025
The BBC documentary, a follow-up to Theroux’s 2012 movie The Extremely Zionists, displays on how the scenario has advanced in occupied Palestinian territory.
Whereas conducting interviews with Palestinian and Israeli figures, the documentary explored how the settler inhabitants has grown considerably and the way new army outposts and Israeli infrastructure have expanded throughout Palestinian territories, typically with direct state help.
It delves into the non secular and ideological motivations behind the Israeli enlargement, which has led to mass displacement of Palestinians and violent clashes, and it questions the legality and morality of the occupation as courts rule that it undermines worldwide legal guidelines and norms.
“You carry Jewish households [to the occupied West Bank], you reside Jewish life, and it will carry mild as a substitute of darkness. And that is how the state of Israel was established, and that is what we need to do in Gaza,” Daniella Weiss, a key member of the Israeli settler motion for many years, says within the documentary.
Weiss, who has loved help from quite a few Israeli rabbis as properly, stated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “joyful” concerning the settler enlargement. Netanyahu has opposed the Palestinian sovereignty over Gaza and occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem.
Settlers are Israeli residents who dwell on personal Palestinian land within the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem. They now quantity greater than 700,000. All Israeli settlements are thought of unlawful beneath worldwide legislation.
Settlements and their expansions are seen as the most important hurdle within the realisation of a sovereign and impartial Palestinian state residing aspect by aspect with Israel.
The United Nations General Assembly final 12 months referred to as on Israel to finish its occupation of Palestinian territory. This got here months after the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) dominated that the Israeli presence in Palestinian territory is ‘”illegal”.
Theroux himself was harassed as properly when making a part of the documentary in Hebron when Israeli troopers approached him and tried to make him depart the world.
The harassment of Amro comes shortly after Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was attacked by Israeli settlers in his dwelling within the West Financial institution village of Susya.
Armed and masked settlers vandalised his dwelling and car in late March and injured Ballal. Whereas receiving remedy in an ambulance, Israeli troopers blindfolded and arrested the filmmaker, who was later launched with out cost.
Just like the harassment of Amro on Saturday, that assault was additionally seen as retaliation for the documentary’s worldwide acclaim and its efforts to point out the struggles of Palestinians within the West Financial institution.
The incidents have additionally additional highlighted the hazards confronted by journalists and filmmakers beneath Israeli occupation at a time when Israel has killed more than 200 media workers in the Gaza Strip.
