In a move likely to prove controversial the European Union is likely to approve significant funding for Israeli arms manufacturers. Camouflaged as scientific research awards one of the recipients will be Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). It is said the grants will have less to do with advancing mankind and more to stopping progress towards peace.
According to Israeli business publication Globes the latest batch of grants being nodded through by the EU will total €17 million; this in addition to the €290 million awarded since 2007.
Slaughtered by ‘Information Technology’
A total of €53 billion ($64.5 billion) has been allocated by the EU for the period 2007 – 2013. The European Commission confirms that the IAI is one of 34 Israeli ‘partners’ set to benefit from 26 EU-funded projects involving what is euphemistically known as ‘information technology.’
Human rights and anti-war activists are aware that IAI manufactures drones such as the Heron. These unmanned aircraft were used by Israel in the calamitous three week war in the Gaza strip in late 2008/09; a one-sided conflict which killed an estimated 1,400 civilians. Tens of thousands more were injured and lost their jobs and homes.
The Heron is said to have been responsible for the deaths of 87 civilians of Gaza during the conflict. They are also widely used in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq by the ‘coalition partners in the war on terror’ and have been blamed for countless civilian deaths.
Notorious Checkpoint
Other Israeli industries set to benefit will be Afcon, suppliers of metal detectors used at Israeli Defence Force military checkpoints in the occupied territories. One of these is the notorious Erez crossing point between southern Israel and Gaza. The same company was awarded a contract for installing a security system in a light rail project connecting Israeli settlements; built in defiance of international law.
Chris Davies, British Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is furious at how the EU Commission pays only lip service to Israel’s snubbing of international law, said to be increasing the risk of a Middle East conflagration. He says that behind the fine words expressing indignation at Israel’s actions it is ‘business as usual.’
In late 2008 a move to allow Israel greater access and investment in EU activities was suspended as a direct consequence of Israel’s invasion of its neighbour state.
Utterly Unacceptable
Chris Davies says “Approving EU finance for Israel Aerospace Industries should be regarded as utterly unacceptable, incoherent and outrageously naïve. He adds that there seems to be no communication between different sets of EU representatives on relationships with the state of Israel. “Where is the joined up thinking?”
The MEP’s use of the term naïve is thought to be a reference to the European Commission’s claim that the funding is for ‘scientific research cooperation’ and is ‘civilian in nature.’ The Israeli government conversely boasts of the ‘umbilical’ connection between the country’s thriving technology sector and its military research, manufacturing and application infrastructure.
European Cities at Risk
Other likely Israeli beneficiaries of EU taxpayers’ largesse make no secret of the use to which EU grants are put. The Israeli subsidiary of SAP provides specialist equipment for the Israeli armed forces. Marcel Shaton, head of the Israel-Europe Research and Development Directorate (ISERD) based in Tel Aviv is blunt: “All research supports the arms industries. None-military technology is used for military purposes all over the world.”
Less sanguine is Ms. Yasmin Khan, the War on Want charity’s specialist on international trade in weapons of local and mass destruction. She says that the EU is complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestine through its support for Israel’s military industry.
Others have expressed concern that the European Union’s unedifying double dealing over the vexed issue of Israeli expansionism, aggression and defiance of international values, could put European centres of population and infrastructure under risk from retaliatory attack.
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