$250 Million: EU Spikes Israeli Research Funding

 The European Union has provided over $250 million in research funding to Israeli institutions since 7 October, 2024, despite mounting criticism over Israel’s genocide in Gaza, reported Al Jazeera. Some of these funds have gone to organizations linked to Israel’s military industry.

On the day Israel launched its assault on Gaza, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen voiced strong support for Israel. “Israel has a right to defend itself,” she said in a statement, reiterating the EU’s alignment with Israel.

Since then, Israel has faced genocide accusations at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and indictments against its leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Yet, the EU continues to fund Israeli institutions under its Horizon research and innovation programme.

Funding Military-Linked Organizations

Data analyzed by Al Jazeera shows that the EU awarded Israeli institutions over €238 million ($250 million) in research grants since the Gaza genocide began. Among the recipients was Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a defense manufacturer, which received €640,000 ($674,000).

Though Horizon guidelines require funded projects to be exclusively for civil purposes, many technologies developed with EU support have dual-use applications—both civil and military.

More than 2,000 European academics and 45 organizations petitioned the EU to suspend funding to Israeli institutions, accusing the Horizon programme of advancing Israel’s military technologies.

“These funding schemes directly support Israeli military capabilities,” the petition stated. It highlighted the role of EU-backed research in Israel’s actions in Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.

Dual-Use Technologies in Focus

Many Horizon projects in Israel focus on dual-use technologies. For instance, IAI developed drone mapping tools with EU funds for “emergency response.” Critics argue such tools can easily serve military purposes.

Elbit Systems, another defense company, received over €10 million ($11.2 million) under earlier Horizon frameworks. The company has strong ties to Israel’s Ministry of Defence.

A large portion of Horizon funds goes to Israeli universities. Scholars like Maya Wind argue these institutions are deeply embedded in Israel’s military industry.

“Israeli universities are pillars of the military-industrial complex,” Wind said. Institutions like the Technion and Weizmann Institute have spearheaded defense technology development for decades according to the Quds News Network.

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Gaza Kids

The United Nations reports that Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita globally, following over a year of Israel’s war on the enclave.

“Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world — many losing limbs and undergoing surgeries without even anaesthesia,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks delivered by his deputy at a Cairo conference focused on accelerating humanitarian aid to Gaza.

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Israel Kills Journalist Maisara Salah in Cold Blood

Maisara Salah, a journalist with the Quds News Network, was killed by Israeli forces in northern Gaza while he was covering an attack on a school.

Hours after his passing from an Israeli military attack in northern Gaza, the journalist’s grandmother also from grief over the loss of her grandson.

In a statement the Quds News Network it is with profound sadness and sorrow, mourns the loss of its deeply committed colleague who died after wounds by gunfire of the Israeli occupation forces. It added Maisara was targeted, Friday, on the ongoing war on Gaza, in which the occupation continues to destroy buildings, massacres people and families while uprooting trees on a mass scale.

The journalist was injured and succumbed to his wounds the following day Saturday, near the Awani Al-Harthani School after a violent Israeli airstrike targeted the school, which was sheltering hundreds of displaced people. These individuals were trapped for the past two months, hungry and desperate due to the continuous military aggression.

Despite the relentless efforts of the medical staff at the Kamal Adwan Hospital to save his life, the Israeli occupation refused to allow his transfer to hospitals in Gaza City for necessary treatment on Saturday, 30 November, 2024. After strenuous attempts to transfer him to the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital and/or Shifa Hospital, the occupation stopped the ambulance and detained Maisara for eight hours. They allowed him to pass thereafter but it was too late and died as a result.

In a written statement the editors of the Quds News Network stated they hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the martyrdom of Maisara Salah, who they said was killed twice—once by the direct injury and again by the obstruction of his medical treatment.

The network calls on human rights and international organizations to launch an immediate and thorough investigation into the ongoing war crimes committed by the occupation against Palestinian journalists, which have so far led to the martyrdom of more than 190 journalists, in a blatant violation of all international laws and norms. He is journalist number 192 to have been killed by Israeli gunfire.

His comment on Facebook on the situation in North Gaza stated: “We are besieged from all directions—south, north, west, and east. Between us and the Israeli tanks, there are less than 400 meters.

There is no way to flee or reach Gaza.” For over 52 days, the Israeli army has been besieging North Gaza, cutting off food, water, and media services, while shutting down hospitals and civil defense operations.

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Israel’s Military Humiliation

Israel is at an all-time low despite its high tech weapons and military support from many countries in the world on top of which is the United States which stands accused of facilitating the ongoing genocide against Gaza and Lebanon.

Ahmad Mansour writes on X makes the point clearly:

“Israel is living in a historical state of unprecedented military, political and security humiliation. It is under the blows of the resistance in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, it is in a state of great military and psychological defeat despite all its capabilities.

Globally, it has become an outcast according to international law, and its leaders are criminals wanted by international justice. Security-wise, its Iron Dome is helpless in the face of Hezbollah’s missiles that are pounding Tel Aviv and its military bases.

Its soldiers are psychologically and physically broken, with suicide or the desire to take one’s life is spreading among the ranks of the Israeli army.

It is a historic turning point for the “Zionist project”, in which all the countries that support it stand helpless in the face of the resistance that is fighting it with primitive weapons compared to its top-of-the-art weaponry that have appeared in history.”

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Gaza Genocide

This is a daily Briefing by the Ministry of Health in Gaza on day 411 of the Israeli Genocide:

The Israeli occupation committed seven massacres against families in the Gaza Strip over the previous 48 hours, resulting in 120 documented fatalities and 205 people injured.

The documented Palestinian death toll has now reached 44,176 individuals killed and 104,473 others injured since October 7, 2023.

Many victims are still unaccounted for, either buried under the rubble or scattered on the streets, and rescue and civil defense teams are unable to reach them.

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