The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World

Possibly one of the most important books written in our time regarding war and peace. Israel is revealed with ample evidence as the central hub of the global war machine. The largest weapons distributer that brags of its efficacy by stating that it is battle tested and the most moral army in the world. The most moral army that battle tests through apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing against not only the Palestinian people, but sells weapons to anti-semites, despots and other murder hungry greedy fucks.

If you want to understand why Palestine, and the freedom of Palestine is the litmus test for peace in this world - this is the book. As Israel continues to propel the global war machine to new heights in 2025, only its complete show more disarmament will bring peace to this world. show less

I think anyone who cares about what's happening in the world needs to read this book. It uncovers how Israel uses the occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground for military and surveillance technologies, which are then sold globally.

The book is widely seen as a powerful critique of Israel's foreign policies and its global influence in the military and surveillance sectors. However, what made me pick it up was Loewenstein’s personal background as a Jewish Australian and his years of experience as an investigative journalist. I wanted to know what he had to say on the subject.

Antony Loewenstein explores how Israel uses its occupation of Palestine to develop military technology, which it then exports to other countries. He show more argues that the techniques and tools tested on Palestinians are marketed globally as "battle-tested."

I have to say, Loewenstein’s research is impressive, and the book goes beyond Israel and Palestine. It connects the dots to show how these technologies influence global conflicts and support authoritarian regimes.

Everyone should read this book to learn the truth. It's not a quick and easy read, though. It’s packed with information, and at times, it can feel overwhelming. Be prepared to take your time with it. show less

This book by Antony Loewenstein is excellent and depressing. The research is - or appears to be - meticulous. He laid out his arguments with precision and, in doing so, proved that the problem does not lie with Israel alone. With right-wing governments rising across the world, there is a massive market for the products that the Israeli government markets. Also depressing is the role that Western governments play in encouraging the apartheid in Palestine.
Antony Loewenstein tries to strike a moderate tone throughout the book and often succeeds. However, his concern comes through.
In the end, the book is worth reading for two reasons.
One is to understand the situation in Palestine.
Two, is to understand how governments across the world show more seek to control the lives of their citizens show less

An educational and important read. Thanks Antony Loewenstein for bringing the information together in a book. Let us all unite to stop the senseless killings and oppression of any group (Palestinians, Uighurs, people from Kaschmir in India, indigenous people all around the world; indigenous people in Arizona at the border to Mexico,...)

Chapter 1 deals with the critical regimes, Israel already sent weaponry to and aiding brutal regimes. (Chile Coup 1973, aiding Pinochet; Indonesia 1965-1966; Romania under tyrant Nicolae Ceausecu; Haiti under Francois Duvalier and his son; Nicaragua under the Somoza family; Guatemalan under Efrain Rios Montt)

"Exact figures are impossible to obtain, since the state never releases them, but today there are show more over 300 multinational companies and 6000 start-ups that employ hundreds of thousands of people. Sales are booming, with defense exports reaching an all-time high in 2021 of US$11.3 billion, having risen 55 percent in 2 years. Israel's cybersecurity firms are also soaring, with US$8.8 billion raised in one hundred deals in 2021. In the same year, Israeli cyber companies took 40% of the world's funding in the sector." (p.29)

Antony Loewenstein quoted Daniel Silberman: "Moral considerations are never considered when Israel aids dictatorships. It's about money and being a powerful nation." (p.23) As Israel's president from 1983 to 1993, Chaim Herzog, put it himself: "We must be guided in our [foreign policy] relationships by the one criterion that has guided governments of Israel ever since the establishment of the state:'Is it good for the Jews?'" (p.31)

Chapter 2 describes the increasing privatization of "security companies" in Israel. However the ties to the government are not cut in any way. Israel develops and uses a lot of facial recognition, surveillance and remote weapons. And sells to them all over world to other countries that want to strengthen their borders or "defend". Military service is compulsory for Jews and Druze, both men and women, and for Circassian men. The active-duty period is 32 months for men and 24 months for women, followed by reserve duty until age 40. (s: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Israel-Defense-Forces) The people are needed for this organized occupation and crimes against the Indigenous people.

Chapter 3 recaps the horrible "operations": Pillar of Defense, Cast Lead, Protective Edge, Guardian of the Wall and the Great March of Return 2018. Antony reveals blackmails and manipulation done against Palestinians. I learnt about Israeli weapons such as 1) sea of tears and 2) skunk water. Morever I learnt about the US and Israeli computer virus Stuxnet that did not just hack information but cause physical destruction.

Chapter 4 deals with the European border control agency, Frontex. It explores how advanced drones have caused more deaths in the Mediterranean Sea than before. You can see a global increase in investments in border control and walls. "In post-pandemic Europe, mirgants will face a digitals fortress." (p.106)
"Between 2014 and 2025, more than 32,000 refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. The actual number is believed to be much higher."

(Sources: 1) https://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/publikationen/detail/die-situation-a...., 2) https://fra.europa.eu/de/news/2024/untersuchungen-von-rechtsverletzungen-den-eu-...., 3) https://www.ecchr.eu/cluster/gewalt-rechtlosigkeit-an-europas-aussen-grenzen/ 4) https://www.proasyl.de/thema/tod-an-den-aussengrenzen/ )

"The EU is Israel's biggest trading partner, accounting for more than 29 percent of its trade in goods in 2020. In tandem, the Frontex budget surged from €6 million in 2006 to €460 million in 2020, rising again to €543 million in 2021. The EU pledged to spend €34.9 billion for border and migration management between 2021 and 2027." (p.105)
I recommend the documentary from Sea-Watch: Kein Land für Niemand, if one is interested in EU's border policies.

As Africans also tried to flee to Israel, Israel strengthend its borders. Furthermore I learnt about Yitzshak Yosef's racism: "It is acceptable and mainstream to hate Africans in Israel. In March 2018, one of Israel's two chief rabbis, Yitzshak Yosef called black people "monkeys" and the Hebrew version of the word "n**er" during his weekly sermon." p.99

Europe itself is not innocent, but very involved in selling weaponry. "European weapon companies such as Airbus, BAE Systems, and Leonardo contributed to mass displacement by selling arms that worsened conflict in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Turkey." (p.103)

The hypocrisy considering Ukraine/Israel is made clear in this chapter: "The EU announced in June 2022, at a meeting in Cairo with European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen alongside Egyptian and Israeli energy ministers, that it was a 'special moment' and the beginning of a new relationship. 'Significant' Israeli gas would soon be exported to Europe. The EU said that it would increase its energy independence while willfully ignoring its reliance on autocratic Egypt and occupying Israel. The message is clear: the Russian occupation of Ukraine is bad, but Israeli occupation of Palestine is completely fine." (p.109)

Chapter 5 makes one aware of the tight alliance between Israel and Apartheid South Africa (1948 to 1990). I learnt about the Non-Aligned-Movement. The hypocrisy in the West between the outrage at Uighurs in China and the silence around Palestinians is discussed.

Strong quote from the book:
"External borders are physically invisible but ideologically powerful. It includes Israel keeping Palestinians in a ghetto, Australia forcibly sending refugees on boats to remote and dangerous Pacific Islands, the EU deliberately allowing nonwhite migrants to drown in the Mediterranean, and the US repelling people from Latin America who are often fleeing policies in their home countries that were designed in Washington." (p.124)

Chapter 6 is about the global spyware industry. I learnt about the Five Eyes Intelligence. Israeli government is very much in control of the Israeli firm NSO. I learnt about Cellebrite, Black Cube and Psy-Group.

Chapter 7 dealt with the discrimination of Palestinian voices on social media (Meta, Google, Maps, YouTube).

I highly recommend the book if you are interested in Israel's past and present impact considering warfare and spyware. It is not a book focusing the Palestinian occupation or recounting the historical or present situation in Israel/Palestine. show less

Reading anything related to the taboos like Middle East, Balkans or Eastern Europe contested areas is always tricky because authors are either calm but completely biased (majority of official works on the topics that follow standard propaganda how everyone outside the Western Club is bad, bad, bad) or fully emotional and - again you guessed it right - completely biased (works of people that are on the ground, doing investigations, coming face to face with the human sufferings and thus directly with the very destruction and misery). Very rarely will there be a work that is not biased and reasons are multitude - all these areas have very difficult histories, people who all suffer from either messianic and/or martyr complexes and relive show more their past every day (and I am talking past like in beginning in The Beginning (of there be Light) not like 40 years ago), with everything that entails. Whoever writes book like that will be vilified by all parties and thus question is if the book like that would ever be published.

This book belongs to the emotional group. For a group whose targeted public is West (I doubt Palestinians are reading it or anybody in African or Asian trouble-spots) author missed a very good opportunity to show how mechanisms similar to those used in Israel for state security purposes are slowly, but steadily, getting implemented in the West itself. Because let us be honest - in current economical situation (suicidal economic moves justified with everything, from "cows release pollutants" to "we need to sacrifice all we have in our no-war efforts because we so virtuous") I doubt anyone but academia and maybe NGO's (which are special breed on their own and usually not so NG, more undercover G) will even take interest (maybe with addition of inquisitive student of social studies).

What could bring the subject to the heart of westerners is to explain how biological passports and bio-metric data is becoming part of their every day life (and unfortunately everyone elses). How crazies, currently dominant politically (I truly do not know how to call them, sorry), aka activists (following their own quasi-religious systems), are trying to enforce almost complete ban of movement (15 minute city plans), with all the enforcement details - from video monitoring, collecting data on people about their habits, movements, ways of movement, purchases and consumption (that somehow get converted into effect on the environment) to creating systems for grading people used for penalizing or rewarding them (bizarre gamification approach). Depending on the scores, people will have greatly or just limited access to everyday items and services by applying ridiculous prices to them. Worst of all everyone ends up in fully sound/video/media-proof propaganda bubbles in which anything and everything can be said about the adversaries of the current thing - to the level of utter dehumanization.

Also let us not forget prison like lock-downs, blocking financial means to people that revolt, police (including in some cases SWAT teams and local military/territorial forces) cracking on any protest (of course those of "unclean" ones) with very much force and authority that would make SA or UK police from the stormy 1960/70's say "oy, not bad, crack 'im", monitoring of social media, creation of isolation camps for The Others, the non-compliant ones, in order to "help them" or keep "people safe from them" (Ozzies and Canucks truly outdid themselves in these activities) and ubiquitous and ever present applications that need to be on persons mobile phone (oh, pinky promise, we wont use your personal data). And do I need to mention media figures, defecating the ether with disgusting talks about those not following rules set to them by powers-to-be. And to say this is different from so vilified Chinese system? Hah!

This is the actual application of technologies author talks about. Not drones, not any weapons - this is for the those outside the border, those that are kept outside media bubble, unknowns - but technology for complete control and monitoring, collection of everything that can be used for profiling - and not just by race, but basically by social structure that will firmly be set in a world that forgets nothing. We are very close to era where one will be told what careers are available, if any, based off this data profile, trust me.

If this was mentioned in any way, I would give book five stars. But unfortunately author only talks about implementation of these technologies up to the border with the West (for some reason Israeli technology is superior because Chinese is cheap knock-off? Then why all that talk about Chinese social control and policing if it is that inefficient and "cheap"?) and then subject is moved to how those baddies use it (in relation to non-western-democracy countries). I suppose that mentioning Israel working with some very powerful in-house names from Europe and US (and here not just the big boys like Lockheed Martin) and governments that pride themselves to be liberal [but are not so even when it comes to their own populace, as they showed with utter contempt last few years] would not make this book marketable or publishable.

Problem is not when those-naughty-authoritarian-states use this type of technology but when so-called free ones do. This is what needs to scare people, slow creep of system in which no-one can redeem itself in. New very, very dark age.

Author shows horrendous suffering of people under very inhumane, dehumanized, approach (impersonal interaction automated systems, profiling and censure systems, insidious surveillance systems, private small armies hired to keep the order, remote weaponry to name just the few technologies used) but all of this fails to make an effect, especially since the situation and all information about it - especially regarding Israeli Palestinian relations - is unchanged since at least early 1970's to those who read anything on the subject (which unfortunately is not major public). Just check the excellent documentary and book Gatekeepers.

What I find weird is that very mechanism of oppression of non-privileged [that author talks about], globalism, is seen by author as a possibility of solving the problem. Unfortunately globalism is just a template maker under a single power, where every nation is made look-a-like and loses its voice to say anything, because of such economical dependency that single choke point disables any opposition. Only free nations, free to act politically in international arena, are those that can do something. Otherwise they are just members of the herd staying within their own pens and obeying commands from the outside.

And at the end one remark on topic on which I do not agree with. I do not agree with author when it comes to accepting never ending waves of immigration through illegal channels and routes. I understand what these people are going through but I also can guarantee that together with true victims of war and destruction. lots of economic migration also comes in, people who would never be allowed to leave war areas, males between 20 and 50 years old and weirdly all carrying sufficient batteries and communication devices (mobile phones) with which some very complex financial operations are executed and movements coordinated as they go through various countries on their travel to whatever is their destination. I dont say they have dark intentions (although crime is ever present) but these people are not migrating because they are under pressure, they are looking for better places to live and thrive (like everyone wants to). I understand that people want to go to better places, for economical reasons we would all like to go to Sweden or Canada and be accepted the moment we touch ground. But no sane country will ever allow this and this is not nationalism but mere survivalism. At the time when economy is not at all good, all needs of the locals are not taken care of, and abysmally uncapable politicians are looking for excuses to go to war to make their populace busy with their misery, import of large number of people from unknown places is nothing but huge destabilizing act. It is popular to say that governments are then guilty for negative opinions about migrants, but reasons are multiple. From inability or in some cases unwillingness to respect the host accepting migrants (all again triggered by very messy mass camps where they are placed which is not what migrants usually expect so resentment builds and explodes in public areas) to conflict between locals and migrants on economic issues and because of ever present getthoization, forming of isolated and closed migrant societies. All of this was always present with immigration, and always will be, but it is unfair to only critique host nations, especially in a very tense economic situation (Greece for example defaulted so many times I dont think it would be allowed to play Monopoly) that lasts almost 20 years (+ conflicts, wars, terrorism etc etc). To expect that one state is capable to solve it is ridiculous. To expect that union like EU created solutions, where most exposed border countries will carry the burden [while the rest are protected with buffers of these border states], will work is even more ridiculous.

Interesting book but wont be able to make Westerners see themselves endangered by the tools and systems author describes, so I question if desired effect is achieved. Fom the perspective of military industrial complex and that old saying of never-let-the-good crisis-go-to-waste it is solid 4 stars. show less

Late Night Live22Oct24
Nations are MUTE.

El sector de defensa de Israel utiliza los territorios palestinos ocupados como campo de pruebas de armamento y tecnología de vigilancia que luego exporta por todo el mundo. Durante más de cincuenta años, la ocupación de Cisjordania y Gaza ha proporcionado al Estado israelí una experiencia inestimable en el control de una población no deseada, que le ha permitido perfeccionar cada vez más la arquitectura del control y exportar sus conocimientos «probados en combate». El periodista Antony Loewenstein expone este asunto, en gran medida oculto, en una investigación global a partir de documentos secretos, entrevistas y reportajes sobre el terreno. En su libro revela cómo Palestina se ha convertido en el laboratorio perfecto para show more la industria militar y tecnológica israelí: vigilancia, encarcelamiento indefinido y brutalidad; así como las herramientas de alta tecnología que impulsan la «nación startup», desde el software Pegasus que hackeó los teléfonos de Jeff Bezos y Jamal Khashoggi, las armas vendidas al ejército de Birmania que ha asesinado a miles de rohinyás y los drones utilizados por la Unión Europea para vigilar a los refugiados en el Mediterráneo. Israel se ha convertido en líder mundial en tecnología de espionaje y material de defensa que alimenta los conflictos más brutales del planeta. show less