- by Peter Farmer
- The Guardian
- Issue #2133
Readers of this paper, or even just people who follow the news, could be forgiven for thinking that they know everything that is possible to know about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and its mistreatment of, and murderous attacks on Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. It’s a topic that has rightly taken up a lot of space.
You might think you know everything, but if you haven’t seen The Palestine Laboratory, now streaming on Al Jazeera, and available on YouTube, you don’t know the half of it.
As in his book of the same title, (reviewed in the Guardian #2057, 19 June 2023), Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein details the extent of the surveillance Israel is practicing on the Palestinian people, but goes further to explain the implications for the rest of the world. As the title suggests, The Palestinian Laboratory argues persuasively that Israel uses Palestine as a testing ground for technology, both military and surveillance related, that it exports around the world.
In this very compelling documentary, Loewenstein makes the case that Israel uses exports of weapons and surveillance technology not only for income, but also to get diplomatic cover for its illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Israel is also selling an ideology, which Loewenstein sums up as “selling the idea of getting away with it.”
As in his book of the same title Loewenstein spells out in detail how Israeli techniques and ideology are sold around the world in places as far afield as Tucson Arizona, where Trump’s notorious wall has forced refugees from climate change and failed states into ever more life-threatening attempts to enter the US. In the second episode, we see a clip of Trump himself saying “If you want to find out how effective a wall is, just ask Israel.” Loewenstein also goes to Mexico, where the Israeli phone tapping system Pegasus has helped the Mexican army to crack down on human rights activists. As Loewenstein dryly notes while checking his own phone, “being Pegasused” is now a verb.
Cooperation between the US and Israel didn’t begin with Trump of course, and we learn in the show that US law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been turning to Israel for training and equipment for a long time, especially since the 911 Twin Towers attack in 2001.
Even if you’ve read the book of the same name, it’s worth watching this series. A common ploy by people who want to shoot down protest about the ongoing genocide in Palestine is to scold those of us who think mass murder is a bad thing by telling us how far away “Israel-Palestine” is. Just this week, a Nine papers journalist described the “conflict” as “a miserable little war” and mentioned again how far away it was.
He was wrong of course, and this series shows that what happens in the Palestine Laboratory definitely does not stay there. As the old song has it, “the front line is everywhere.”
