Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/articles/book-reviews/11276-europes-alliance-with-israel-aiding-the-occupation

Of particular interest to this reviewer was his criticism of the role of EU quangos in the management of the two sides’ business relations. The status of scientific research funding is a particularly alarming case in point. As Cronin states: the EU is the largest non-Israeli contributor to scientific R&D in Israel (p.86). So important is that contribution that a quango with the title of The Israel-Europe R&D Directorate (ISERD) was set up to manage it. Despite assertions that the research is into purely civilian projects, such a distinction is almost impossible to maintain in a country where militarization encroaches into almost every part of the economy.

Indeed, that the European Commission considers ‘security’ technologies to fall within the remit of civilian projects indicates the inadequacy of their oversight. A paper authored by the Commission in 2009 even goes so far as to state that funding so called ‘dual-use’ technologies, that is those that could have both civilian and defence applications, would be ‘desirable’ (p.89).Cronin points out that such a statement cannot but be read in the context of Israel’s massive arms industry, which includes EU countries as some of its major clients. He also cites the case of Israel Aerospace Industries, a company receiving funding through the EU’s Clean Sky Project. While the project itself aims at developing aircraft that produce lower greenhouse gas emissions, the fact remains that the EU is directly funding a company that provides services to the Israeli Defence Forces, including the upgrading of systems in fighter jets used throughout the occupied territories (p.93).