The EU has funnelled millions of euros' worth of funding meant for civilian research programmes to Israeli arms manufacturers and other defence firms despite a ban on the funding of military and dual-use research.

Public records show Israeli companies, central to the state’s military industry, have repeatedly participated in EU-backed research, including as part of the Horizon Europe and its predecessor Horizon 2020 programmes.

Funding data reviewed by Middle East Eye shows that between 2014 and 2025, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe allocated nearly more than $15m to projects involving Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a state-owned defence company and one of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturers.

IAI produces drones, missile systems and surveillance technology used in the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.

Since the mid-1980s, EU member states have pooled research funding in successive schemes, the most recent of which is Horizon Europe, which runs between 2021 and 2027 and has a budget of €100bn ($116bn)...

EU programmes provided $2.58m to projects involving Elbit Systems, another major Israeli defense contractor.

Elbit not only supplies weapons and surveillance equipment to the Israeli military, but recently signed a $2.3bn deal with the UAE, which is accused of funding the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, which have been accused of widespread massacres, rape and other human rights abuses.

More broadly, EU databases show that the two Horizon programmes have funded close to 2,500 projects involving Israeli partners, amounting to approximately $2.55bn in total.