Antony Loewenstein's Blog, page 5

TRT World interview on UN’s new report on genocide in Gaza

My latest interview on TRT World discussing the new UN report on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

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Clips from Germany’s Israel Obsession

Following the recent release of my new film, Germany’s Israel Obsession, here are some clips being circulated online:

 

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The Israeli empire is growing. Who will stop it?

My latest monthly column for the UK outlet, Middle East Eye:

In late 2024, a small group of radical Israeli settlers briefly crossed into Lebanon and established an outpost. The group was led by the Uri Tzafon Movement, a religious Zionist organisation that has staged events demanding the Jewish settlement of southern Lebanon.

This vision is shared by the Nachala settler movement. A video on its website presents a pioneering spirit of Jews building, developing and settling the West Bank. Backed by Daniella Weiss, the godmother of the Zionist colonisation project, Nachala also advocates Jewish settlement in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond.

“Jewish settlement is the only thing that will bring about regional stability and security for the State of Israel, along with a stable economy, national resilience, and deterrence,” a Facebook post in December 2024 declared.

“In Gaza, in Lebanon, in the entire Golan Heights, including the ‘Syrian Plateau’, and in the entire Mount Hermon,” it continued.

The post included a biblical map titled “Abraham’s Borders”, featuring Israel, all of Lebanon and most of Syria and Iraq. On its website, Nachala explains that its aim is “encouraging and helping the government to carry out an official plan of [Israeli] Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, which laid the foundations for 2 million Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]”.

Read the whole piece: The fantasy of Greater Israel is becoming a regional nightmare | Middle East Eye

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ABC Australia’s Late Night Live interview on Germany’s Israel Obsession film

My new film, Germany’s Israel Obsession, is now out.

I was interviewed about it on ABC Australia’s popular Late Night Live radio program:

In a new documentary for Al Jazeera, Jewish-Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein return to his ancestral home, Germany, to investigate how the country’s impulse never to repeat the horrendous anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust has resulted in the suppression of any criticism of Israel and its actions in Gaza.

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My latest film, Germany’s Israel Obsession, is out

My new film, Germany’s Israel Obsession, has just premiered on Al Jazeera English. It’s made with the wonderful Black Leaf Films and director Dan Davies (and yes, the film already has its own Wikipedia entry).

Here’s the official description:

The fight against anti-Semitism in Germany is empowering those with the closest ties to its fascist past.

Prominent Jewish Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein returns to his ancestral home, Germany, to investigate how the country’s impulse never to repeat the horrendous anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust has resulted in the suppression of any criticism of Israel and its actions in Gaza. With critics of Israel being sacked, cancelled, silenced, arrested and banned from Germany, one Jewish philosopher has called this a “McCarthyism” for the 21st century. We’ll see how in today’s Germany, a nation that killed most of his family but granted him citizenship in 2011, Loewenstein is told, as a Jew, what is acceptable to say about Israel. To find out why the German authorities are so committed to stifling any criticism of Israeli actions and what it means for democracy and human rights in the country, he will meet those being arrested and suffering job losses for criticising Israel, the people enforcing these laws and those on the far right claiming to support Israel. The journey will reveal the ultimate irony – how determination to fight anti-Semitism is actually being used to empower the very forces, the far right, with the closest ties to Germany’s dark fascist past.

 

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How much Israeli hasbara is ever enough?

Israel is spending huge amounts of money every year in an attempt to improve its global image. Good luck with that impossible task.

I told the Spanish newspaper, El Periódico, about the profound challenges in the face of genocide in Gaza:

HASBARÁ | Así ha funcionado la propaganda de Israel durante dos años de guerra en Gaza

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The ongoing campaign to silence Palestinian voices

The following speech was delivered by me as the keynote address to one of Australia’s leading civil rights organisations, the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, at its annual dinner on 28 August 2025.

It’s published by the great new independent news website, Deepcut News:

Here’s an extract:

Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine if at least 60,000 Jews had been murdered in the last two years. The perpetrator was a self-described democracy with full Western backing. Armed to the teeth by Washington, London and Canberra. And, every day, we’d see the photos and videos of this genocidal state killing, maiming and starving the Jewish population.

It’s almost impossible to conceive of this scenario after the Holocaust, where I lost most of my family in the Nazi concentration camps. Instead, there would be calls for Western military intervention to stop this crazy state from slaughtering innocent Jewish men, women and children. The [United Nations] so-called ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine would be enacted.

I speak to you as an Australian, German and Jew. I don’t deny or ignore the reality of antisemitism – vile acts against individuals simply because they’re Jewish. And it’s a growing problem in our societies. As is Islamophobia, hatred against First Nations peoples and refugees.

But antisemitism has been dangerously weaponised in the service of the most extreme, Israeli supremacist agenda. And far too many people who should know better have fallen right into this linguistic and political trap set by the most belligerent members of the Jewish establishment and their media and political allies.

Read the whole speech: Antisemitism has been weaponised by the Israeli supremacist agenda

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Germany’s Israel Obsession film trailer

The film trailer for my new documentary film, Germany’s Israel Obsession, made with the UK production company, Black Leaf Films, and co-creator Dan Davies.

This one-hour film is about Germany’s psychotic relationship with Israel, profound anti-Palestinian racism, fetishized Jews, historical amnesia and the surging global far-right.

It will premier on 11 September 2025 on Al Jazeera English.

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Demanding action on Palestine outside 10 Downing Street

At a recent speech outside 10 Downing Street in London, the residence of the Prime Minister Keir Starmer, journalist Sangita Myska gave a powerful speech about the rights of journalists to stay alive in Gaza and how far too many Western media outlets treat these brave souls with contempt.

Myska kindly quoted some of my words:

 

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TRT World interview on Netanyahu’s goal of Greater Israel in the Middle East

My interview on TRT World detailing Israel’s aim of massively expanding its current borders.

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