My interview on Al Jazeera English about Palestinians from Gaza being exploited by a shady disaster capitalism friendly outfit and ending up in South Africa.
Showing all posts tagged Indonesia
Interview with BBC Indonesia on Palestine and Jakarta’s desire to embrace Israel
Following the recent release of the Indonesian edition of my book, The Palestine Laboratory, here’s my extended interview with BBC Indonesia about Gaza, Palestine and Indonesia’s increasing closeness with Israel: Pendudukan Palestina dan hubungan pemerintah Indonesia dengan Israel – BBC News Indonesia
The Palestine Laboratory out in Bahasa Indonesian
I’m excited my global best-selling book, The Palestine Laboratory, is now out in a Bahasa Indonesian edition, published by the great local publisher, Marjin Kiri. I’m glad the world’s biggest Muslim country can now consume my work:
Hearing critical Jewish voices in Indonesia
Indonesia is the world’s biggest Muslim country and strongly pro-Palestine. However, very few critical Jewish voices are heard there so during my various visits I often speak about the long history of Jewish dissent over Israel/Palestine (this featured in a Jakarta Post article in late 2023). Today the same columnist, Julia Suryakusuma, has written a…
Talking Israel/Palestine post 7 October in Bali, Indonesia
I was recently a guest at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, Indonesia. One of my sessions, to a packed house, was discussing Israel/Palestine post 7 October. Here’s the official description: Hear from Middle East experts Michael Vatikiotis and Antony Loewenstein as they shed light on a relentless and deadly conflict that has…
The Jakarta Post on the Palestine lab
In late October, a columnist for The Jakarta Post newspaper in Indonesia, Julia Suryakusuma, wrote a column about my new book, The Palestine Laboratory, while I was in Ubud, Bali for the writer’s festival. In the world’s biggest Muslim country, the book has wide resonance including around Indonesia’s use of Israeli surveillance equipment (detailed in…
CNBC Indonesia examines the Palestine lab
I was recently in Bali, Indonesia for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival speaking on a range of issues from AI to Palestine and authoritarianism to Chinese literature. Just before I arrived, this story appeared in CNBC Indonesia by Arrijal Rachman on Israel’s occupation of Palestine and my book, The Palestine Laboratory. Read the whole…
Ubud Writer’s Festival event on Pills, Powder and Smoke
I was invited to this year’s Ubud Writer’s Festival in Bali, Indonesia, one of the best literary festivals in the world. I attended twice more than a decade ago (and had extraordinary experiences in the Muslim-majority province, Aceh). This year, now run online, is a session about my drug war book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, in conversation with…
Why Western leaders love dictatorships
My weekly Guardian column: Western-friendly dictators can die in peace, knowing they’ll be lauded as soon as they stop breathing. So it was for Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew, who recently passed away at the age of 91. Tributes poured in from across the globe. Barack Obama called him “visionary” while Australian prime minister…