The Israeli war on Gaza prompted a large number of critics and writers around the world to distance themselves from the positions of governments, including these The German-Australian writer, Anthony Lowenstein (1974), who devoted his writings more than 20 years ago to denouncing the unjust Israeli policies against the Palestinians, He was published in The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, The Washington Post, The Nation, Haaretz, The Huffington Post, and others.
Lowenstein is the author of Pills, Powder, and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs and Disaster Capitalism: Making Murder Out of Disaster, is co-editor of Turn Left and After Zionism, and is co-director of the Al Jazeera English film about the drug. Opiate tramadol. Lowenstein resided in East Jerusalem between 2016 and 2020.
He won the 2023 Walkley Book Prize, the Australian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, for his latest investigative work, “The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports Occupation Technologies to the World,” which was published in its English edition by the British publishing house “Verso Books” (2023), and its Arabic edition was published by the Arab House of Sciences. Publishers (2024), and Lowenstein says in his book that he lived for several years in the West Bank and Gaza and became certain that the view of Jewish communities in various parts of the world on the Palestinian issue represents, in short, “the ultimate moral collapse, as they are skilled at defending what is indefensible.”
Investigative journalist Anthony Lowenstein confirms in his interview with Al Jazeera Net that “Israel is an apartheid state.” He adds: “This is not only my opinion, it is also the opinion of Amnesty International,” and explains: “What is happening in Gaza is a horrific mass slaughter. As a Jew, I feel ashamed and disgusted by what Israel is doing. Israel is not only trying to destroy Hamas, it is trying to destroy Gaza.” And the Palestinians in Gaza.”
“It is important for people in the Arab and Muslim world to realize that not all Jews support Israel,” he explains. Lowenstein also discussed “the tendency of social media companies, whether Facebook, Google, or TikTok, to try to censor or further restrict access to Palestinian content.” “So, to the dialogue.
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You and your family come from a Jewish and Zionist cultural background, but you have been alerted to Israeli settlement behavior from its inception until now. What made you sympathize with the Palestinians and their cause?
When I was growing up in the Australian Jewish community in the 1970s, it was very common to demonize Palestinians and Arabs in general as threats and terrorists. But the older I get, the more annoying I find this. I was angry at this unconditional racism against Palestinians in the Jewish community. I had never been to Israel or Palestine at the time, but as I got older, I began to read and learn more. In fact, I had never met a Palestinian until I was in my twenties.
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Many Jews used the “Jewish Holocaust”, turning that suffering into a weapon in the service of the occupation, to continue the policy of apartheid against the Palestinians. Did Israel succeed in exploiting the Holocaust? To cover up the colonization of Palestine and to cover up its practice against the civilian population for 75 years?
Yes, in some ways. It is always important to remember that the Holocaust was an extremely horrific event that took the lives of 6 million Jews, including many of my family members. But what has happened in recent decades is that many Israelis and Jews around the world have tried to use the Holocaust to silence critics of Israel, as if to say, “How dare you criticize us after what we have been through?” and accusing the critics of anti-Semitism.
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You lived in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, and witnessed the Israeli police constantly harassing and insulting Palestinians. Does this mean that Israel is an apartheid state?
Yes, I see that. Israel is an apartheid state. This is not only my opinion, it is also the opinion of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and all Palestinian human rights organizations. In the occupied Palestinian territories, Jews and Arabs are treated very differently by the police and the law.
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In your opinion, as a result of what has been happening in Gaza for more than 8 months of killing and destruction. Has Israel’s image as a state of Holocaust survivors in need of protection deteriorated, gradually descending into the image of an imperialist dwarf and an agent of the West? What is your position on the current events in Gaza?
What is happening in Gaza is a horrific mass slaughter. As a Jew, I am ashamed and disgusted by what Israel is doing. Israel is not only trying to destroy Hamas, it is trying to destroy Gaza and the Palestinians in Gaza. About 70% of Gaza’s homes have been destroyed, and Palestinian infrastructure and life have been destroyed. Gaza itself has become unlivable for many Gazans, which was always the goal.
Military and diplomatic support for Israel is still ongoing from the United States, Germany, and other Western powers, and this is what gives it the green light to continue this massacre.
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Do you agree that “Digital Orientalism” is the new form of control used by Western social media companies, an approach that replicates the modern-day use of a Western lens of discrimination on the people of the Middle East and North Africa? Especially in Palestine?
I appreciate you bringing up this complex and thorny issue of digital Europeanism. She makes compelling points about how social media companies, whether Facebook, Google, or TikTok, tend to try to censor or further restrict access to Palestinian content.
This appears to have continued before October 7, 2023, and has expanded significantly since then. But in reality, I don’t think it works, and I say that because there are huge amounts of people around the world now who are seeing the reality in Gaza, seeing what the guards and journalists and citizens are doing on Instagram or TikTok, and the harsh reality of Israel’s war.
It is interesting how in the past few months some American politicians have openly said that the main reason they want to ban TikTok is because a lot of young Americans now support Palestine, as if banning TikTok will solve this problem.
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In every war, Israel shows a new type of weapon that it wants to market. Do you agree that the war on Gaza – Israel – has a “marketing goal”?
You bring up an important point about how Israel has used the occupied Palestinian territories as a laboratory for decades, developing new forms of oppression on Palestinians, and then marketing them to a global audience. What I have observed in Gaza since October 7 is that Israel is using huge numbers of new weapons, including drones, artificial intelligence, and other forms of weapons that it will likely export to other global markets.
I already see arms fairs in Europe and Asia, where Israel and Israeli companies are trying to promote these tools and technologies as “battle-tested” in Gaza. So I think that Israel hopes to gain a lot from this war.
I do not think that the reason behind its presence in Gaza is only for financial gain, but it is certainly a major factor in prolonging the war. This is why I have been against it for many years.
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She says: “The father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl (1860-1904 AD), wrote in his famous letter “The Jewish State”: “In Palestine, we will be part of the European wall against Asia, and we will act as an outpost for civilization against barbarism.” In your opinion, do Herzl’s words agree with what is happening? In Palestine today?
As I mentioned, in the early years Herzl wrote about the idea of the Jewish state as “a starting point for civilization against barbarism,” and this is indeed remarkable more than 100 years later.
Even today, Israeli leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu and many other Israeli politicians and media professionals still talk about how Israel is compared to the Arab world, civilized, and showing the world how a normal Western country can be. But in reality, this is completely incorrect because Israel, as I mentioned, is a Jewish state that gives priority to Jews over anyone else. I am afraid of right-wing countries, right-wing political groups, and extreme right-wing groups, and Israel is a model in the concept of ethnic nationalism, giving priority to one people over another.
This may apply to India, which gives priority to Hindus and tries to isolate and attack Muslims. My problem is not with Israel as a Jewish state. The problem is with any country that gives priority to one people over another, whether they are Muslims, Hindus, Jews or Christians.
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In your opinion, is Israel considered a safe place for the Jewish people if another crisis occurs to them in the future?
Certainly Palestine is going through a very difficult situation right now, as I said a few months ago. For about 80 years, Palestinians have tried to deal with the effects of the Nakba in 1948, when between 15,000 and 20,000 Palestinians were killed and about 750,000 of them were expelled. Sadly, what happened after October 7 was much worse, as between 40,000 and 50,000 Palestinians were killed and about two million Palestinians were displaced. Therefore, it is certain that the Palestinians will suffer from the repercussions of this war for decades to come.
What is also disturbing is that Israel and the Israelis live in pride and arrogance, believing that killing many people and destroying Gaza will make them safer, when the opposite is true. This war makes Israelis less safe than they were on October 7, and I fear it makes Jews around the world, including me, less safe as well.
There is no doubt that hatred of Jews is real and I am opposed to it. But I believe that Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank put many of us Jews at risk. We are unfairly associated with Israel, even though I am anti-Zionist. I am proud of my Jewish identity and am not religious at all, but rather secular and I am an Australian and German citizen. But it is important for people in the Arab and Islamic world to realize that not all Jews support Israel.
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