My new book, The Palestine Laboratory, is out (and US prime-time TV debut)
The time for critical voices against Israeli extremism has never been more urgent
Dear friends,
So this just happened, my US TV prime-time debut talking about my new book, The Palestine Laboratory. It was a 10-minute segment last week on MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan program. After his extraordinary 4-minute introduction, we spoke about the Israeli arms industry, ethno-nationalism and my book:
It was a unique opportunity to speak about Palestine on mainstream TV and the clips of the segment went viral on social media.
My book is just out in hardback in the UK and US, via Verso Books, and it’s already generating a huge amount of interest. As an freelance journalist, I’d ask you to support the book by buying a copy (or 10, Christmas is coming!) to back independent reporting and thought. That’s the primary way that this work can continue. And please share details about the book on social media.
It’s out in paperback on 30 May in Australia and New Zealand (via Scribe) and you can pre-order your copy here.
The book is endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim, Gideon Levy, Eyal Weizman and others.
The Palestine Laboratory will be released in Turkish, Italian and South Korean language editions in the coming 12-18 months with more translations to come.
The book has already received a positive review and analysis in leading Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, and an edited extract in Dawn, a organisation committed to democracy and human rights in the Middle East (founded by murdered Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi), where I discuss politicide against the Palestinians. Dawn also published the extract in Arabic.
I’ve been interviewed on the Unauthorised Disclosure podcast in the US and Britain’s Novara Media about Palestine as a “showroom”.
I’ll be launching the book in Sydney on 8 June at Gleebooks, alongside Greens Deputy Leader Dr Mehreen Faruqi, 27 June at Eltham Bookshop in Melbourne with broadcaster Serpil Senelmis and 28 June at Readings in Melbourne with writer Jeff Sparrow.
There’s a lot more media, interviews, events (in Australia and internationally) and reviews to come so stay tuned.
The other big news is the publication of my 3000-word essay in the Good Weekend magazine, a weekly publication that appears in the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age newspapers. The readership is over 1 million people.
The story is about Jewish identity, my own personal story and family, grim realities in Israel/Palestine, anti-Zionism, being attacked for criticising Israel and a whole lot more.
This is what the 3-page spread looks like in print:
Here’s a PDF of the story.
The response to the article has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve received so many messages from people in Australia and around the world expressing support, solidarity and anger with the situation in Palestine. I sense that the public mood is shifting on the Middle East as more people become aware of the Israeli government’s extremism and the never-ending occupation of Palestine.
There was also a photo shoot for the story by the wonderful photographer, Wolter Peeters.
After the story was published, the Melbourne Age published a number of letters in response and the Good Weekend did likewise.
Australia’s major pro-Israel lobby was furious, however, and another critic published a one-page response in The Australian Jewish News :)
In other recent work:
My book review in The Saturday Paper of Cobalt Red, a remarkable work on the destructive mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s a critical mineral that’s vital for virtually all electronic devices and electric cars.
Declassified Australia continues to produce timely reporting and analysis. The news site that I co-founded and co-edit with reporter Peter Cronau has an active and growing Twitter account and regularly published stories. We’re currently working on a number of major investigations around Australia’s foreign policy and the arms industry.
I was recently interviewed on Sky News Australia, representing Declassified Australia, about the growing and concerning US presence in Papua New Guinea:
For more details about my work, please see my website.
Thanks for reading and please consider buying a copy of my book, The Palestine Laboratory.