War criminal Gadi Eisenkot nabs $1 million in EU funding

Gadi Eisenkot (left) was part of Israel’s war cabinet from October 2023 to June last year. (US Department of State)

The European Union has approved a grant worth almost $1 million to a firm headed by Gadi Eisenkot, one of the Israeli politicians who has overseen the Gaza genocide.

Storage Drop, as Eisenkot’s firm is called, is taking part in Hydrocool, an EU-funded project ostensibly designed to reduce the environmental impact of air conditioning.

Eisenkot is unconvincing as a champion of ecological sustainability.

From October 2023 to June last year, he was part of the war cabinet which managed a genocide in Gaza. The war cabinet authorized tactics that involved routine massacres and the obliteration of civilian infrastructure.

Giving Eisenkot’s firm a role in a supposedly climate friendly project like Hydrocool doesn’t offset the responsibility he and his war cabinet colleagues bear for wrecking the water and sewage treatment network in Gaza.

Although he is depicted as a “moderate” by some media outlets, Eisenkot has a history of advocating extreme violence.

He was among a coterie of military commanders, who devised the so-called “Dahiyeh doctrine,” which refers to the Beirut suburb where Israel caused massive devastation during its 2006 attack on Lebanon.

In October 2008, Eisenkot issued a warning to every area in which Israel encountered resistance.

“What happened in the Dahiyeh quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on,” he said.

“We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.”

The plan he summarized was implemented soon afterwards – when Israel launched a major offensive against Gaza in December 2008. In keeping with the Dahiyeh doctrine, Israel has subsequently visited “great damage and destruction” against Palestinian and Lebanese villages, towns and cities on a number of occasions.

Eisenkot’s Storage Drop is the biggest recipient of EU funding under the Hydrocool project, which runs until 2027.

It is, of course, inexcusable that Brussels officials should rubber-stamp a grant to a firm led by a man directly culpable for Gaza’s devastation. By doing so, the EU is negating its declared support for the International Court of Justice, which in January 2024 deemed the case South Africa has brought against Israel plausible.

South Africa contends that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention. A cornerstone of international law drawn up following the Holocaust, that convention places an onus on governments and governmental bodies around the world not to abet crimes against humanity.

I contacted the European Commission – the EU’s executive – asking why it has approved funding to a firm involving a key participant in a genocidal war.

The European Commission did not answer that question. A spokesperson just replied that Horizon Europe – the EU’s scientific research program – “does not fund projects with a military character.”

“Several mechanisms are in place to prevent that EU funds are misused for activities in breach of international law,” the spokesperson added.

No matter how many such mechanisms might be in place, the Brussels bureaucracy has demonstrably aided a firm led by Gadi Eisenkot, a strategist of genocide.

The European Union kept on exploring the possibility of deeper relations with Israel while that state committed a genocide. A readout from discussions held last year praised the “excellent performance” of Israeli companies and institutions in Horizon Europe, the EU’s scientific research program.

Breaking a pledge

Those discussions took place during a period when students in many countries were resorting to direct action against the Gaza genocide.

Ireland’s University of Galway responded to student protests with a pledge that its dealings with Israeli counterparts would be reviewed.

Despite that commitment, the University of Galway is coordinating a new EU-funded project on “integrating seawater treatment and green hydrogen production.” It will be leading a consortium that also includes the Technion, Israel’s institute of technology.

The Technion works with Israel’s arms industry on developing new machines for attacking Palestinians. As Maya Wind notes in her book Towers of Ivory and Steel, the Technion has gone “so far as to explicitly offer courses on arms and security marketing and export.”

Its close links to Israel’s top weapons maker Elbit System was recognized in the recent past when Bezalel Machlis, the firm’s CEO, was awarded the title “guardian of the Technion.”

During the Gaza genocide, Israel has used artificial intelligence (AI) to select targets for attacks in which large numbers of civilians have been been killed.

Reports on such a sinister application of robotics do not seem to have prompted much soul-searching in Brussels. The EU has allocated $1.5 million to a new AI research project run by the Technion.

As well as benefiting from research cooperation, Israel has long been active in the Enterprise Europe Network, a support scheme for small and medium-sized companies.

The network is essentially a corporate dating agency. Playing Cupid, the European Union helps firms in their quest for marketing partners.

A search of the network’s database shows that it is assisting an unnamed Israeli company which offers “military-grade surveillance technology.”

The Israeli firm is, according to the network, hoping its products could be installed in energy projects and prisons abroad.

As Antony Loewenstein documents in his book and film The Palestine Laboratory, Israel is adept at finding export opportunities for weapons and spying equipment tested in the context of an occupation.

The occupation is illegal. But that doesn’t prevent Israel from trying to turn it into a business opportunity – with more than a little help from the European Union.