For almost two years, Israelis have been fighting a very traumatic and existential war on many fronts, including agonizing efforts to free the remaining hostages and to rebuild the thousands of lives shattered by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian attacks. In parallel, the European Union – which claims to promote the principles of democracy and morality – has chosen to funnel millions of euros to Israeli political NGOs that are active in campaigns that demonize Israel’s self-defense and its legitimacy as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
Newly disclosed details published by the EU show that in 2024, the European Commission authorized payment of €13.1 million to Israeli NGOs, of which 7.2 million went to groups that have long histories of accusing the Jewish state of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “genocide.” The EU-funded activities of these NGOs directly promote the global lobbying and lawfare at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, as well as other venues, calling for sanctions, arrest warrants, and arms embargoes in order to deprive the IDF of necessary weapons.
Recipients of EU grants
One EU grantee is the Sabeel, an NGO based in Jerusalem that defines itself as an “ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians” that “encourages Christians from around the world to work for justice and to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
Sabeel often uses antisemitic theological imagery and also accuses Israel of genocide. In a January 2025 statement, founder Naim Ateek wrote that “God will ultimately defeat the evil schemes of Zionism.” (A revised version was posted in March without this language.)
The EU has awarded this group one million euros for a project with the declared objective of “preserv[ing] from further erosion and possibly revers[ing] the negative public perception of the prospect for peace and a two-state solution.” It is hard to imagine a group less appropriate for this ostensible task.
Highly politicized NGO recipients of the EU taxpayer largesse, labeled as support for human rights, peace building, democracy, and civil society, also include Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Combatants for Peace, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I). Among these NGOs, politically motivated accusations of apartheid, war crimes, and similar tropes are standard fare.
In 2024, €500,000 was allocated to PHR-I and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel for a project defending Palestinian “detainees.” Among other accusations, PHR-I declared, “The Israeli government and other entities have been exploiting reports of sexual violence [that took place on October 7] in a manipulative and cynical manner.”
In total, half of the EU grants to Israeli political NGOs are ostensibly directed toward activities to “preserve” a two-state framework, ignoring the failure of these groups to influence Israeli society. The EU also funds projects for Breaking the Silence allocated to educating Israeli youth. Previous campaigns have been based on slogans blaming Israel for blocking peace.
In contrast, in 2024, not one euro was allocated toward advocating on behalf of the families of hostages held in Gaza or toward the rights of those raped and murdered on October 7. If any external government were to provide millions to NGOs in attempts to influence and manipulate public debate and political process in European societies, the result would be a massive outcry and legislative action to block such blatant interference.
NGO funding and internal EU politics
The grants to Israeli NGOs were approved under the tenure of Josep Borrell (a Spanish socialist), the EU’s foreign policy head from 2019 to November 2024, who is well known for overt hostility toward Israel and who has also been accused of antisemitism.
The details of the grants were quietly published in June 2025, as Iranian missiles exploded destructively in Israeli cities, and in parallel to leaks from the EU’s foreign ministry (known as the European External Action Service – EEAS) that sought to “guide” officials into suspending Israel’s trade agreement based on false claims regarding actions in Gaza. This effort received support from many of the same EU-funded NGOs.
To be sure, the European embrace of the Israeli anti-government NGO network preceded Borrell’s tenure. For 15 years and more, these same groups received most of their funding from European governments and the EU. From the EU alone, B’Tselem’s share was NIS 3.8 million between 2014 and 2023, while Breaking the Silence collected NIS 5 million.
Clearly, the atrocities of October 7 and the events that followed did not lead either the NGO network nor its European allies to reconsider their positions and agendas. Indeed, despite, or perhaps because of, the eight-front war (in which demonization is the eighth front), the EU more than doubled its funding to these politicized groups compared to 2023.
Recently, under the leadership of Kaja Kallas (Borrell’s replacement), Brussels has made efforts to repair its broken relationship with Jerusalem. The systematic condescension and efforts to punish Israel by suspending the Association Agreement have been replaced by civil and substantive engagement, including cooperating in providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
In parallel, Kallas, other leaders of the European Commission, and members of the European Parliament should urgently review the funding provided to NGOs that work directly against and seek to sabotage this long overdue rapprochement.
Any grants to NGOs that were made under false pretenses or in violation of legal requirements should be suspended, and a new approach without the political manipulation needs to be implemented for all future funding. These actions will go a long way toward improving the relationship and opening the door to wider cooperation.
Vincent Chebat is a senior researcher at NGO Monitor, and Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg is president of NGO Monitor.