“Israel has developed a world-class weapons industry with equipment conveniently tested on occupied Palestinians, then marketed as “battle-tested” … The Palestine laboratory is a signature Israeli selling point.”  (Lowenstein 2023 p.18)

In this book, Lowenstein shows how Israel uses its occupation of Palestine to test and develop military hardware for sale on the global market. In fact, this development is not even an open secret, but an active selling point of Israeli weapons manufacturers. Lowenstein recounts an occasion when the Israeli company ‘Elbit Systems’ advertised their new drone’s capability with footage of air strikes in Gaza and the West Bank. Upon further investigation, the drone strike shown by Elbit had killed innocent Palestinians including children (ibid p.22).

However, it is not only military hardware which Israel exports. There is also a large industry of surveillance, and digital extraction software. Since at least 2005, Lowenstein has witnessed a massive uptick in the usage of facial recognition and biometric scans in Israeli occupied Palestine (ibid p.91). This software tracks every move of Palestinians. However, increasingly this software is not state owned or made. Since the 1990s much of Israel’s security apparatus has been privatised.

One private company highlighted by Lowenstein is Cellebrite. Cellebrite advertises itself as an “industry leading digital intelligence platform (Cellebrite 2023).” In reality this means that Cellebrite sell software which can hack into and track smartphones. This software has been sold the world over to both Israel’s allies and enemies. Lowenstein reports over 140 countries have purchased Cellebrite products. This includes countries with official embargoes of Israeli products like Pakistan, which has used Cellebrite software since at least 2012 (Middle East Eye 2023). This also includes countries in SEA including Singapore, which quietly signed a five year 14-million-dollar contract with Cellebrite in early 2023 (ibid).

The indiscriminate sale of surveillance software has meant that Israel not only upholds apartheid in occupied Palestine, but also diminishes democracy abroad. With the Committee to Protect Journalists stating that such software is an “existential threat to press freedom (CJP 2022).” Lowenstein argues that this global destabilisation is in fact good for business. He points to the boom in Israeli surveillance software industry since 9/11 (ibid p.85). Israel had long positioned itself as both an expert in surveillance, and an ideally situated ally in the war on terror. However, Lowenstein argues that since 2001 Israeli companies have been able to cash in on state paranoia world-wide.

This all-leads Lowenstein to conclude that ““Israel’s Palestine laboratory thrives on global disruption and violence.” (ibid p.291). He predicts that as global conditions worsen with increased instability through war and climate change, companies like Cellebrite will be the main beneficiary. As a result, perpetually repressing Palestinians is not a bane which costs the Israeli state, but a boon, as a laboratory for Israel’s most important industry.

References

Cellebrite (2023) https://cellebrite.com/en/home/

Middle East Eye (2023) https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pakistan-israel-spyware-phone-hacking-report

Cellebrite (2023) https://cellebrite.com/en/leading-singapore-law-enforcement-agency-awards-cellebrite-with-14-million-agreement-for-cellebrites-advanced-extraction-solution/

CJP (2022) https://cpj.org/2022/12/forensic-tools-open-new-front-for-using-phone-data-to-prosecute-journalists/