Journalist Antony Loewenstein investigates one of the most controversial aspects of Israel’s military and technology industries: the use of the occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weapons, surveillance systems and new methods of population control.

Travelling through Israel and Palestine, Loewenstein examines how military experience, intelligence units and private technology companies have helped build a powerful export industry around systems marketed internationally as “battle-tested” and “field-proven”.

The documentary hears from both Palestinians and Israelis while examining surveillance technology in the West Bank, the war in Gaza, the role of Israel’s Unit 8200 in the technology sector and the growing use of artificial intelligence in military targeting.

Why you’ve GOTTA.WATCH it

Modern warfare is increasingly about more than tanks, aircraft and missiles. Surveillance, artificial intelligence, facial recognition and vast quantities of data are becoming weapons in their own right.

The first part of The Palestine Laboratory asks an uncomfortable question: what happens when a decades-long conflict also becomes a proving ground for technologies that can later be sold around the world?

Whatever your view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is a provocative investigation into the rapidly expanding intersection of war, technology, surveillance and business.