The Palestine Laboratory

by Antony Loewenstein

Israel is often seen as a producer of technology. Few people realise that almost all of that technology is produced in the pursuit of surveillance and murder of the people of Palestine.

Palestine Laboratory is a book that unveils the Israeli Defence Industrial Complex for what it is. A machine for mass murder and imprisonment of the Palestinians.

Israel is not only one of the largest producers of weapons, but also perhaps the only country that is willing to sell its weapons to any country or regime that demands it. Apart from Iran, the country has sold its weapon systems to almost everyone, including the Russians. The more despotic the regime, the more willingly Israel sells.

For America, this has been a godsend since they are able to sell weapons to dictators and “rebels” through Israel when such action would be blatantly illegal under American law.

If you leave aside Diamonds, cut and sold from Israel, their greatest exports are weapons.

Why are they so good at making weapons?

They get a lot of practice.

They use all kinds of weapons against the Palestinians, and this makes it possible for them to project their weapons as “battle tested”. This is also the reason they have some of the best surveillance technology, including drones and cameras that are used to spy on Palestinians and keep track of all of their activities.

While these are all bad, the most insidious technologies to emerge out of the surveillance state is software. When news about Pegasus broke, it was shocking for the world to find out that no device anywhere in the world was safe. The technology underlying that software was developed to monitor the Palestinians. They use the technology to identify the weaknesses of individuals living in Palestine. These individuals are then blackmailed to turn into informants.

Israel has gladly made Pegasus technology available to dictators across Africa and the Middle East. It played a role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The US does not have any control over what Israel does with its technology.

While human rights groups have been flagging these problems, little to nothing has been done about it. In fact, Israel is the only country that uses videos of actual attacks on the Palestinians as marketing material to sell its wares.

This goes a long way in explaining the reluctance to vote against Israel at UN forums. Almost all the countries sitting there are crushing some minority group using technology that Israel has sold them.

It would be an overstatement to say that I was shocked after reading this book, but my revulsion for the state of Israel went up a few notches.