How Israel's occupation has gone truly global
What happens when Jewish theocracy comes to town?
With Israel tumbling headfirst towards full-blown theocracy, the country’s religious settlers have successfully kidnapped the state with far too little local or international resistance since 1967, it’s unsurprising that there’s heightened interest in the “only democracy in the Middle East”.
Since the global release of my new book, The Palestine Laboratory, in May, I’ve been overwhelmed with interest from across the world. I’m not complaining at all but pleasantly surprised that audiences and media outlets in multiple continents want to engage with the issues within the text.
From Israeli spyware ending up on the phones of activists in Mexico to Israeli drones being used by the EU to “monitor” refugees struggling and often drowning in the Mediterranean, the public is recognising how the Israeli occupation is being exported, and the danger it poses.
Since my first major piece of coverage, on MSNBC prime-time TV in late May, the concept of “battle-testing” weapons in a war zone, currently happening in real-time in Ukraine, has been a key theme of my conversations. In short, how does Israel’s endless occupation of Palestine impact all of us when we’re increasingly living in a world of mass surveillance without consent?
I was interviewed by the popular US TV show, Democracy Now!, which was a unique opportunity to speak for nearly 20 minutes on the book’s themes:
There was a strong book review in The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age at a time when so many books are never reviewed in the mainstream media anymore:
In a complete surprise, it was announced that my book was on the long-list of the 2023 Moore Prize for human rights writing (based in the UK but a global award):
I discovered that my book was placed right next to the new Benjamin Netanyahu autobiography in the Waterstones bookstore in Piccadilly, London, which caused mild heart palpitations:
One of the best podcasts around, Tech Won’t Save Us, questioning the Silicon Valley overlords who shape our world, interviewed me about my book and the dangers of exporting repression:
The BBC World Service spoke to me about the book and especially the role of Israeli drones used by the EU over the Mediterranean.
Global broadcaster TRT World made this wonderful 3-minute trailer of sorts about my book. I had no involvement with its production but it cleverly explains what I’ve investigated:
I was excited to recently visit New Zealand on a book tour.
It was 4 cities in 5 days across the entire country, speaking at public events, mainstream and independent media, government politicians and the country’s foreign affairs establishment. I cherished time with the country’s finest investigative journalist, Nicky Hager.
The response was fantastic in a nation that increasingly embraces Palestine (despite being one of the junior members of the US-led, Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance).
I was interviewed on one of the country’s leading interview shows, the first Maori radio station and the biggest current affairs magazine.
I was regularly reminded of the strong Maori support for Palestinian rights due to solidarity with another colonised people.
A moving moment was visiting the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, one of the two Muslim centres where 51 Muslims were murdered by an extremist Australian in March 2019. I wanted to pay my respects:
Melbourne was also recently visited and warmly embraced the book.
I’m speaking on 24 August in Sydney, 5 September in Melbourne and 12 September in Adelaide. More dates and locations to come, both in Australia and globally.
There’s been so much media interest and engagement so here’s a recent list:
An interview with US magazine Jacobin;
My book opens with a real-life story of Israel’s involvement in the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile from 1973. A Chilean outlet discussed this;
Jewish Voice for Labour positively reviews the book, as does the UK’s Morning Star newspaper;
Australia’s ABC Radio National’s Drive program interviewed me, as did Melbourne’s 3RRR radio;
The always-interesting Coda Story, a regular investigator into surveillance, spoke to me;
Interview on Australia’s 2SER’s Fourth Estate weekly radio show with a particular focus on media coverage of the Middle East;
The UK-based The New Arab reviews the book;
My comments to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper after a local council announced that it would fly the Palestinian flag in November;
Interview on Californian radio station KPFA’s Against the Grain program;
Book review by writer Joseph Dana in Arab News that rightly frames Israel’s anti-Palestinian policies as being (partly) due to its arms industry;
I spoke at an online event organised by the Jewish Network for Palestine and Convivencia Alliance, two UK-based groups with global reach. It was in conversation with writer and film-maker Haim Bresheeth, author of An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Defense Force Made a Nation (Haim also endorsed my book).
My interview with the Australian satirical magazine, The Shot, though there weren’t too many jokes. A conversation with Jo Dyer and Grace Tame:
In non-book related work, there’s still a healthy publication schedule at the outlet that I co-founded and co-edit, Declassified Australia (where we’ll soon be launching a slick new website).
There’s a two-part series by expert defence writer, Michelle Fahy, on a a very fishy frigate program by the Australian government.
And the remarkable story behind the Wikileaks-released Collateral Murder video by the ex-Reuters bureau chief in Iraq, Dean Yates.
A lot of other fascinating stories are in the works.
We’re an independent media site so need public $ and support to thrive.
My friend Paddy Manning has written the first, unauthorised biography of Lachlan Murdoch, The Successor. I interviewed him about it along with the Murdoch empire at the recent Newcastle Writer’s Festival:
Israel recently attacked the Jenin refugee camp in West Bank and I was interviewed about it for global broadcaster TRT World:
The Western media has been saturated with coverage of Israel’s so-called “judicial reforms” but I told TRT World that they’re (largely) a distraction from the main issue: the endless occupation of Palestine:
Thanks for reading another long newsletter. You can find my entire work archive and details about my 20-year journalism career at my website.
As an independent journalist, I need your support to continue this work so please consider buying my new book from your local bookstore or online.
Take care.
Antony