462 reviews for:

The Palestine Laboratory: how Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world

Antony Loewenstein

4.4 AVERAGE

shane_the_reading_rat's review against another edition

2.5

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important information, lots of research done, but wow this book needed more editing. the chapters all felt like they ended abruptly, and none of them felt very cohesive with the others. there were also some sentences and paragraphs that just left me having to reread them over and over again, then having to move on while still not understanding what the author was trying to say (example: i should’ve made a note of this sentence to be able to quote it fully in this review, but essentially what it was saying was that in the wake of 9/11, Facebook/Twitter/other social medias deleted at least thousands of Palestinians’ social media posts. i checked this, and FB and Twitter were started in 2004 and 2006, respectively. how would they have been deleting posts before they existed???? all i can guess is that by “in the wake of 9/11”, Loewenstein meant “in the many years afterwards”, which is very much not how it read to me. it read as meaning “the months after”). glad i didn’t DNF this (nearly did), but it was a slog to read despite how important the info in it is.

jackiesnow's review against another edition

4.0

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Had to read this book in fits and starts because I couldn't see the words through the red sometimes. The thesis of the book is stated succinctly here: "Israel’s mission from the beginning was to be a beacon in a century that suffered catastrophically from the perils of ethno-nationalism. Today Israel provides inspiration, ideologically and with military and intelligence equipment, to further its missionary zeal to find and create like-minded countries. None will be the same as Israel, but its model of jingoism and unashamed pride in preferencing Jews above all else, is like an easily transportable flatpack that can be adapted to a multitude of countries and scenarios."

tofu99's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark informative medium-paced

eggy_98's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark informative medium-paced

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It lays out how and why the isreali govt gets away with the atrocities they continue to commit on a daily basis. It’s military, surveillance, and tech dominance that is then packaged, sold, and replicated around the world by other ambitious ethno-state powers who will of course then be silent or offer support to genocidal policies. A tough listen/read but important and eye-opening.

nthnhlls's review against another edition

5.0

informative reflective tense medium-paced

dan_hill's review against another edition

4.25

dark informative sad medium-paced

junishot's review against another edition

2.5

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This is extremely well-researched but not particularly well-written. Sometimes it reads like a school report, which really dimmed my interest. Constantly referring to Israel as “the Jewish state” is sus to me, even if it is a (again, poorly written) attempt to not constantly use the same term over and over - that rule does not really apply to proper nouns, imo.

vomaleki's review against another edition

5.0

dark informative medium-paced

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Excellent book. Terrifying ideologies of ethno-nationalism, occupation, and profit seeking all converging. 

srjennings's review against another edition

4.5

challenging informative medium-paced

stevendidis's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced