Brussels( Brussels Morning) – EU Commission under scrutiny for funding Israeli drone technology used in Gaza conflict, raising ethical concerns and accountability questions.
The European Union has assisted in funding drone technology utilised by Israel in its devastating war against Gaza, two observers have asserted. Statewatch and Informationsstelle Militarisierung found in an examination that Xtend – a drone manufacturer backing the Israeli Defence Force – acquired research and development funding from the EU’s Horizon Europe fund.
“Other Israeli military companies and organisations received millions of euros for drone development in recent years, despite a presumed prohibition on EU funding for military and defence projects,” they said. Xtend acquired €50,000 from Horizon Europe, a multi-billion research and innovation fund, to deliver a study on optimising its Skylord Xtender drone system and discovering “strategic partners for the production and commercialisation of the technology,” Statewatch and IMI wrote in a statement.
The firm then signed contracts with the US Department of Defence in 2021, which concerned Israel’s military, according to the monitors. Following Hamas’ 7 October invasion of southern Israel, Xtend has “redirected significance to supporting the IDF 100%,” CEO Aviv Shapira told CTECH.
On its website, which features feedback from Israeli brigades in Gaza, Xtend says it authorises “soldiers to perform accurate manoeuvres in complex combat scenarios.” “Human rights bodies have called on the EU to discontinue its association agreement with Israel due to the catastrophic effects of the latter’s aggression on Gaza: huge civilian deaths, mass displacement and the razing of infrastructure,” stated Statewatch director Chris Jones.
“This report indicates that the EU also needs to take a long, hard look at the institutions it provides with research and development budget. “Public money should be utilised for the public good, not to support organisations that profit from war and destruction,” he said.
EU treaties restrict financing “expenditure stemming from operations having military or defence implications.” The Statewatch-IMI report conveyed several other EU-funded schemes through which millions of euros in public money was provided to Israeli companies and institutions, including the country’s Ministry of Defence. Israel’s Ministry of Defence has been implicated in at least two EU-backed drone research tasks in recent years – ResponDrone and UnderSec – acquiring a total of €200,000 for its outcome, the monitors elaborate.
They convey that ResponDrone, which started in May 2019, accepted almost €8 million in EU funding for its actions to develop an unmanned aerial system to sustain emergency assistance and search and rescue operations. Meanwhile, UnderSec has been awarded €6 million in funding from Brussels to develop systems “featuring multimodal sensors and robotic assets” that can be used in drone technology. Both projects have “clear potential military applications,” the report claimed. This is not the first time EU grants for Israeli military and defence projects have been challenged.
In the Past MEPs have Criticized EU Funding
In February, Member of the European Parliament Clare Daly raised worries that Horizon Europe money- supported by European taxpayers – was being allocated to contentious Israeli-made Pegasus spyware, utilised to target journalists and politicians around the world. “From the inception, the EU’s ‘security research’ aimed at dual-use and was a contribution to the European, Turkish and Israeli arms initiative,” stated Christoph Marischka of the IMI.
“It is a logical development that the outcomes of this research are now involved various battlefields – like Gaza.”
In 2021, a bunch of 60 left and green MEPs advised the European Commission to discontinue Israel’s participation in Horizon Europe, arguing the country does not appreciate the values the EU purports to glorify in the €95.5 billion research and innovation agenda. MEPs stated at the time Israel should be banned until it ensures the rights of Palestinians. Research and innovation “cannot come at the cost of the respect for human rights and the authority of international law,” they stated.
