Killing or injuring Palestinians should be as easy as ordering pizza, writes Antony Loewenstein in his book, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. He was referring to an app designed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in 2020. The app allows a commander in the field to send details about a target on an electronic device to troops. “The strike would be like ordering a book on Amazon or a pizza in a pizzeria using your smartphone,” says Oren Matzliach, the IDF colonel working on the project. “This kind of dehumanisation,” writes Loewenstein, “is the inevitable result of endless occupation.”
The app is only the tip of the iceberg. Israel has built a sprawling defence and surveillance industry, including advanced weapons, drones and spyware, which it uses against the Palestinians and has exported across the world in return for money and influence. Israel’s clients include both democracies and repressive regimes — from apartheid South Africa to the U.S., Myanmar’s junta to India, and from dictatorships in South America to the European Union. For Loewenstein, the occupation of Palestinian territories and Israel’s security complex co-exist — one complements the other — while the world looks away. The Palestine Laboratory is a brave attempt to tell the story of how Israel has built a network of high profile defence clients by exporting the tools of occupation across the world.
Monetising an occupation
People hold signs as they protest against U.S. military aircrafts carrying weapons, flying over Irish airspace or landing to refuel, during a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians, near Shannon Airport, in Shannon, Ireland. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Loewenstein writes that historically, Israel has had little moral qualms when it comes to exporting its weapons to other countries. From the very beginning of its existence, Israel began developing a vibrant defence sector, mainly with help from France, the U.K. and then the U.S., to “sell them to anybody who wants them.” Israel was a strong supporter of apartheid South Africa. It had close ties with Iran’s brutal monarchy, which was brought down by a popular revolution in 1979. Israel’s clients included Ceausescu’s Romania, the Duvaliers, Papa and Baby Doc’s Haiti and A. Somoza Debayle’s Nicaragua. After the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., when the world’s focus shifted to the new ‘war on terror’, Israel became a lot more appealing for other countries. “The ability to monetise the occupation was turbocharged after the September 11 attacks,” writes Loewenstein.
Several private enterprises, with support from Israel’s defence and intelligence establishment, sprung up during this time. They were specialised in crowd management techniques, urban security, drone warfare and mass surveillance — Loewenstein calls it “the privatisation of occupation”. AnyVision, for example, is an Israeli startup that secretly monitors Palestinians across the West Bank with a range of cameras. “Artificial Intelligence merges with biometrics and facial recognition at dozens of Israeli checkpoints throughout the West Bank,” he writes. AnyVision is a global company that operates in over 40 countries. NSO, makers of the Pegasus spyware, is another example. NSO is registered as a private company but Pegasus has emerged as Israel’s most powerful cyber weapon in recent years. The company has sold the weapon, which is used to hack into smartphones, to dozens of countries — both democracies and dictatorships — which used the product to illegally spy on political opponents, activists, journalists and others. Today, Israeli drones are used for surveillance in many parts of the world, including the U.S., the European Union and India.
Role of the U.S.
Loewenstein, a Jewish intellectual and journalist, argues that this is not a sustainable model, but agrees that Israel, a friend of the West, “can kill and maim with impunity”. Raja Shehadeh, the Palestinian human rights lawyer and activist, would agree with him. “It should be noted that Israel’s ability to continue waging wars is highly contingent on the support of the U.S.,” Shehadeh writes in his latest book, What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?. If The Palestine Laboratory, written before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, was all about how Israel was exporting the tech of occupation, What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?, a short book of 113 pages, is a no-nonsense take on how Israel (and Palestine) reached where it stands today.
A young boy holds a weapon as he stands next to a Hamas fighter in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. | Photo Credit: AP
“Israelis should have known that violence would erupt when people are bereft of hope... I had anticipated that the rising tensions would eventually lead to a major conflict. However, I hadn’t expected it to be much different from previous wars. How wrong I was,” writes Shehadeh, referring to the October 7 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed by Hamas, and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, when about 47,000 people were killed by the Israeli military in 15 months. Why is Israel doing this? “The very high human and material cost of the war in Gaza proves that what Israel fears from Palestine is Palestine’s very existence,” writes Shehadeh.
Will ceasefire hold?
There has been a ceasefire in Gaza since January 19. In its first phase, the truce saw Hamas releasing hostages and Israel freeing Palestine security prisoners. But the ceasefire has run into trouble after the first phase as Israel refused to pull back troops from Gaza. The focus of Israel, and the U.S., do not seem to be on bringing the war to an end, but rather forcibly expelling the 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza. U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled a proposal “to transfer Palestinians” out of Gaza and then redevelop the enclave as the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’. For Israel, Mr. Trump’s proposal is music to its ears.
Freed Palestinian prisoners in Gaza Strip hold weapons after their release from an Israeli prison. | Photo Credit: AP
Loewenstein foresaw this scenario. “The worst case scenario, long feared but never realised, is ethnic cleansing against occupied Palestinians or population transfer, forcible expulsion under the guise of national security. A catastrophic war... could trigger an overwhelming argument within Israel that Palestinians... are undermining the state’s integrity,” he wrote in the book. With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announcing the setting up of a government agency to carry out the Trump plan of displacing Palestinians from Gaza, Loewenstein’s words are turning out to be prophetic.
The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World; Antony Loewenstein, Pan Macmillan India, ₹699.
What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?; Raja Shehadeh, Hachette India, ₹299.
stanly.johny@thehindu.co.in
Published - March 14, 2025 09:01 am IST
