Antony Loewenstein

Antony Loewenstein (born 1974) is a freelance investigative journalist, author, and film-maker based in Sydney. He describes himself as a Jewish atheist, and is known for his criticism of the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli Government. His grandparents had escaped the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, but Loewenstein decided to take up German citizenship as an adult.

Antony Loewenstein
Born	1974 (age 50–51)
Occupation	Journalist Author
Citizenship	Australia Germany
Genre	Non-fiction
Subject	Politics Israel–Palestine War on Drugs

His 2023 book, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World, won and was shortlisted for several global literary awards.

Early life and education

Antony Loewenstein was born in Australia in 1974. His father's parents left had left Germany and Austria just before World War II, but many members of their family had been killed in the Holocaust.^[1]

Loewenstein became a German citizen, while maintaining Australian citizenship, as an adult in 2011, "as a way to rightfully re-claim our birthright", to honour his family that came from Germany, and to be allowed to work in European Union countries. However, he said in 2013 that he feels neither Australian nor German, describing himself as a "non-practising Jewish atheist currently based in Sydney".^[1]

Career

Loewenstein has written for a number of publications, including The Guardian,^[2] and Sydney Morning Herald.^[3]

Loewenstein contributed a chapter to Not Happy, John (2004) which highlighted the growing disenchantment with Australian prime minister John Howard. His 2006 book, My Israel Question, was a best-seller and short-listed for a 2007 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award. The book was criticised in a review in Australian Jewish News.^[4]

He is the co-editor with Ahmed Moor of the 2012 book After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine which includes essays by Omar Barghouti, John Mearsheimer, Ilan Pappé, Sara Roy, and Jonathan Cook, among others.^[5]

With South African film-maker Naashon Zalk, Loewenstein was co-director of a 2019 Al Jazeera English documentary on abuse of the opioid drug tramadol in Nigeria, West Africa's Opioid Crisis.^{[citation needed]} He appears in the 2019 documentary, This Is Not A Movie, about The Independent's Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk.^{[citation needed]} His 2019 book, Pills, Powder and Smoke, is on the global 'war on drugs'.

Loewenstein co-founded Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV).^[6][7]

He won the 2019 Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize, one of Australia's leading peace awards, for his work on Israel/Palestine.^{[citation needed]}

In 2021, he co-founded Declassified Australia with fellow journalist Peter Cronau. The news website critically reports on Australia's relations with the world.^[8] He and UK film-maker Dan Davies co-directed the Al Jazeera documentary Under the Cover of Covid.^[9][10]

In 2023, he published The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports The Technology Of Occupation Around The World, in the UK, US, and Australia, with multiple, translated editions. It was a long-list finalist in the 2023 Moore Prize For Human Rights Writing, and a best-selling book across the world.^[11][12][13] In November 2023 Loewenstein was awarded, in partnership with Banki Haddock Fiora, the Walkley Book Award for Longform Journalism for the book.^[14] The book won the People's Choice award^[15] and was also shortlisted for the 2024 Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction^[16] and the Nonfiction Book Award at the 2024 Queensland Literary Awards.^[17]

In 2024, he released a podcast series, The Palestine Laboratory, with the US outlet, Drop Site News.^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

Author

• My Israel Question: Reframing The Israel/Palestine Conflict. Melbourne University Publishing. 1 September 2009. ISBN 978-0-522-85945-4.
• Profits of Doom: How vulture capitalism is swallowing the world. Melbourne University Publishing. 1 August 2014. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-522-86723-7.
• The Blogging Revolution. Jaico Publishing House. 2012. ISBN 978-81-8495-286-5.
• Profits of Doom. Melbourne University Publishing. 6 May 2024. ISBN 9780522866827.
• Disaster Capitalism: Making a killing out of catastrophe. London New York Verso Books. 2015. ISBN 978-1-78478-116-3.
• Pills, Powder, and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs. Scribe. 2019. ISBN 9781925713367.
• The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world. Scribe. 2023. ISBN 9781922310408.

Contributor

• Kingston, Margo. Not Happy, John defending Australia's democracy. Paperback, 240 pages. Penguin Books, (2004) ISBN 0-14-300258-9.
• Antony Loewenstein; Jane Caro; Rachel Woodlock; Simon Smart (1 July 2013). For God's Sake. Pan Macmillan Australia. ISBN 978-1-74328-913-6.

Editor

• Antony Loewenstein, Ahmed Moor, eds. After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine, Saqi, (2012), ISBN 9780863568398
• Jeff Sparrow; Antony Loewenstein, eds. (2012). Left Turn: Political Essays for the New Left. Melbourne Univ. Publishing. pp. 5–. ISBN 978-0-522-86143-3.