The Palestine Laboratory

The Palestine Laboratory is a riveting and meticulously researched exposé by bestselling journalist Antony Loewenstein that delves into the shadowy world of Israel's occupation-enforcing technologies and their global dissemination. In this groundbreaking book, Loewenstein unravels the complex interplay between Israel's long-standing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and its emergence as a global leader in the development and export of sophisticated surveillance systems and military weaponry.

For over five decades, the Israeli state's experience in controlling the Palestinian population has not only fortified its control over occupied territories but has also transformed these areas into testing grounds for its burgeoning defence industry. This experience has allowed Israel to perfect technologies of control, including cutting-edge spyware, unmanned drones, and state-of-the-art weaponry, which have subsequently been marketed and sold to regimes across the globe.

Loewenstein's The Palestine Laboratory meticulously documents how these technologies, initially honed on Palestinians, now fuel some of the world's most repressive regimes and conflicts. From the notorious Pegasus spyware, used to infiltrate the devices of individuals like Jeff Bezos and assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi, to arms sold to Myanmar's military, responsible for the mass atrocities against the Rohingya people, the implications of Israel's technological exports have been both far-reaching and devastating.

The book also highlights other alarming uses of these technologies, such as the European Union's deployment of Israeli drones to patrol the Mediterranean Sea, ultimately abandoning countless refugees to their fate. Through a global investigation supported by secret documents, revealing interviews, and on-the-ground reporting, Loewenstein unveils a chilling narrative of how Israel has crafted the ultimate surveillance and defence apparatuses that cater to both autocracies and democracies.

Noam Chomsky poignantly observes that The Palestine Laboratory is a "sad and sordid record of how 'the light unto the nations' became the purveyor of the means of violence and brutal repression from Guatemala to Myanmar and wherever else the opportunity arose."

Meanwhile, Ilan Pappe, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and Ten Myths About Israel, underscores the book's significance, stating, "This is a must-read on a hidden and shocking aspect of the Israeli colonisation of the Palestinians. This book shows clearly that this kind of export is now Israel's most significant contribution to the global violation of human rights."

Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, praises the work as "a triumph of investigative journalism. It exposes the ruthlessness with which Israel exploits the experience gained from the illegal occupation to export all kinds of military hardware as well as the technology of surveillance, espionage, cyber warfare, phone-hacking, and house demolition. It also shines a torch on the dark side of Israel's support for despots around the world. Altogether, a profoundly depressing audit on a country that used to boast of being 'a light unto the nations.'"

The Palestine Laboratory is a profound and unsettling read that challenges readers to confront the ethical implications of the international arms and surveillance trade, while offering an unflinching look at the dark side of technological advancement and the export of occupation-era tactics beyond Israel's borders.