On October 7, as Israel began its latest war on Gaza following Hamas’s incursion into southern Israel, the European Union’s position was immediately clear.
“Israel has a right to defend itself – today and in the days to come,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X, alongside an image of her office’s headquarters lit up with Israel’s flag. “The European Union stands with Israel.”
Israel has since been placed on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague and its leaders – as well as a top Hamas commander – have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Yet the EU continues to partner with Israeli institutions under its “Horizon” scheme, a programme that funds research and innovation.
Data collected by the European Commission and analysed by media shows that since October 7, the EU has awarded Israeli institutions more than 238 million euros ($250m), including 640,000 euros ($674,000) to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a top aerospace and aviation manufacturer supplying the Israeli army.
While guidelines regulating the Horizon framework require funded projects to be “exclusively focused on civil applications”, they acknowledge that a “considerable number of technologies and products are generic and can address the needs of both civil and military users”.
Technology that can serve both civil and military uses – so-called “dual use” – may qualify for EU funding as long as the stated objective is civil.
But in July, when about 40,000 people had been killed in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, more than 2,000 European academics and 45 organisations petitioned the EU to end all funding to Israeli institutions, saying the Horizon framework had played “a critical role in the advancement of Israeli military technology” by transferring knowledge to the defence industry.
“These funding schemes directly support projects developing Israeli military and weapons capabilities,” the petition said. “Given the scale, duration and nature of human rights violations by the Israeli government, Israeli institutions’ participation in European research and education programs must be suspended.”
That call went unanswered.
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