The idea of Anthony Loewenstein's book is that Israel is using the Palestinians and their land as a testing ground for demonstrating the effectiveness of its weapons and military techniques (French).
The book "The Palestinian Laboratory", by Australian-German journalist Anthony Loewenstein, sparked widespread controversy, especially with the beginning of the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation. The Spanish press, which was interested in the scene in Gaza, celebrated the publication of the Spanish translation of the book last February, and last week, the newspaper El Confidential published a lengthy interview with the writer, who was characterized by boldness and succeeded in extracting confessions from Loewenstein, most notably that Israel uses Gaza as a “shop window.” ", to showcase the effectiveness of its military and intelligence products, and to seal them with the “Tried in Gaza” certificate, in order to guarantee the largest number of customers!!
The book “The Palestinian Laboratory: How does Israel export occupation technology to the world?” undoubtedly derives its value from its content, but the identity of its author gave it added value. Anthony Loewenstein is the author of articles in newspapers, most notably the New York Times and The Guardian. This book is considered his first, and he published it in the middle of last year, but it witnessed greater momentum with the events of last October, with some refuting the writer’s view that he presented in the book, and others confirming it.
Typical upbringing
On a personal level, Lowenstein defines himself as a German-Australian writer, raised in a typical Australian Jewish home, very attached to his past. The pillars of the prevailing family culture are that Israel is the refuge for Jews, and the only country that guarantees avoiding the horror that his family and the rest of the Jews experienced in Germany. Therefore, supporting Israel represented the family’s sacred slogan.
However, the writer corrects that as he grew older, and through what he experienced in his younger years in Jerusalem, he began to notice brutal Israeli anti-Palestinian racism, not only in Israel and Australia, but in all Jewish communities in the West, which made him realize the extent of “ The fallacy between what is rumored and reality, as he put it.
As for the idea of the book, it is based on the fact that Israel’s choice of the Palestinians and their land as a testing ground and demonstration of the effectiveness of its weapons and war techniques did not happen overnight. Rather, the idea is rooted in how Israel transformed the Jewish state from an object of existential threat in the past, into a social and economic model worthy of export. By reducing the conflict on the ground to a continuous and massive marketing display of military technology products and the arts of population control.
This is what the writer summarized in the title with the phrase “exporting occupation technology,” on the basis that it is the title of the success of the Israeli army’s weapons brand and strategies.
Subjugation and humiliation
The writer mentions that, apart from the issue of weapons, in its war against the Palestinians, Israel relies on a set of intelligence tools, equally important as the issue of weapons, which is controlling the movements of all Palestinians, preserving their identity details, and preventing any displacement in the absence of a “convincing” explanation.
Despite citing security reasons for carrying out daily surveillance operations, most of the time it is done to humiliate them, control them, and remind them of the reality of the occupation, according to him. He added that Israel collects all kinds of information and data from the Palestinians and then blackmails them and recruits them as spies, taking advantage of some of them’s need for medical treatment, or to visit a family member.
What sparked controversy regarding the book, after the launch of Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” is that readers and critics were divided into two groups: The first considered that the writer was deceived by the “lie” of the invincible army, on the basis of accepting the victory of Hamas, “which has no capabilities,” over this army and its arsenals. Of weapons and intelligence capabilities. As for the second, the writer is right in everything he mentioned, that Israel found in the Gaza Strip the appropriate arena to test the effectiveness of its weapons products on the ground, in live shows and on the air, and that the doubling of sales numbers for its weapons, to an unprecedented level, is the clearest evidence of that. .
Unjust policies
In this context, the writer mentions that he was surprised one day, while attending an arms exhibition in Paris, that Israel was showing video clips of some products, including real use on humans, and it was clear from the spatial and cultural context that they were Palestinian, but the exhibition management did not stop them. that. The writer - in pain - likened that incident to what is happening now, in the eyes of governments and international organizations, which have not succeeded in stopping the demolition and mass killings! He said that Israeli arms companies were "definitely impressed" by these "offers."
When the interviewer asked about the conflict between the writer’s identity as a Jew and his recognition of these ideas, Lowenstein answered that after the Holocaust, many Jews used that suffering to turn it into a weapon in the service of the occupation, to continue the policy of apartheid against the Palestinians, but he “as a Jew,” along with others, want to change that. .
Therefore, he used his writings more than 20 years ago to denounce unjust Israeli policies. He added that he lived for several years in the West Bank and Gaza and was certain that the view of Jewish communities in various parts of the world on the issue of Palestine represents, in short, “the ultimate moral collapse, as they are skilled at defending what is indefensible.” He added that his criticism of the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians classifies him in the category of closeness. Terrorists, according to the classifications of the Anti-Defamation League in the United States, as one of the organizations that monitor all criticism of Israel, and are proficient in labeling it with anti-Semitic voices. He said that neither his religion nor his origins protect him from these charges.
Distorted democracy
That is why he does not believe in slogans such as “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East,” as Loewenstein considers it a democracy for Jews only. For him, if you are a Palestinian in Gaza or the West Bank, you are living in a dictatorship. And if you are a Palestinian in Israel even though you can vote, you are a second-class citizen. This is a distorted democratic model, and unfortunately it has been imitated by countries such as India, Hungary and a number of countries ruled by the global far right.
Regarding the interviewer’s observation that the arms trade in the world is, in the end, a legitimate activity as long as it is legal, the writer said: The problem with Israel, unlike the other leaders in the arms industry, is that it is the tenth largest arms supplier in the world, and wants to present itself as a moral beacon to the world, while in reality its foreign policy is based on teaching others how to oppress their “minorities,” and promoting mechanisms to ensure By doing so.
Anthony Lowenstein's book, with his thoughts as a Jew denouncing Israel's crimes, is a testimony of added value in the list of voices and pens coming from within Israel and the Jewish community, which will remain a thorn in the side of successive racist Israeli governments.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.