The Palestine Laboratory – EP 1 - Weapons - Al Jazeera 2025.

Uncovering how Israel profits from surveillance technologies using occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground.

Israel punches way above its weight when it comes to arms sales. The 97th country by population, it is the ninth largest arms dealer in the world with a $13bn military-industrial complex.

“Plenty of countries sell weapons,” says award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein, “but what makes Israel’s industry unique is the mix of weapons, surveillance technology and architectural techniques that combine to create a comprehensive system for controlling ‘difficult’ populations and are based on years of experience in Palestine.

In this two-part series, Loewenstein goes on a journey to investigate how these weapons and surveillance technologies are used to control and repress Palestinians in Palestine before being sold all over the world.

Antony Loewenstein is a Jewish, Australian journalist and author who for more than 20 years has written unflinchingly about Israel and its relationship with the Palestinians, even though it has often put him at odds with many in the Jewish diaspora and Israel.

In Episode 1, Loewenstein returns to Israel to investigate how cutting-edge military and surveillance technology is being used on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, before being marketed to international clients as “field-proven” and “battle-tested”.

Hearing from Palestinians and Israelis, he uncovers how a pipeline of personnel and research from the Israeli army feeds into semi-private arms companies which form a crucial part of Israel’s exports to the world. He also investigates the Israeli army’s use of targeting systems that utilise artificial intelligence during the Gaza war after October 7, 2023.

https://www.aljazeera.com/