Drone manufacturer Rafael | Israeli arms company faces loss of EU funding

The European Commission has launched an ethics review after the Israeli state-owned defense company Rafael published a controversial promotional video on the platform X. The sequence, published on July 7, shows the company's small kamikaze drone killing an unarmed man on a street in the northern Gaza Strip. Following fierce social media protests, Rafael deleted the video featuring the Spike Firefly, but it was downloaded and shared by users.

The online magazine "EU Observer" reported on the incident. In 2023, Rafael received a total of €442,750 in EU funding for a project on "underwater security" with purely "civilian applications." The funding came from the Horizon Europe research framework program.

A spokesperson for the EU Commission confirmed to the magazine that the case had been referred to the Horizon Europe program's independent ethics advisor. She will now assess whether Rafael violated the terms of the grant agreement, which oblige recipients to comply with "all applicable legal obligations under EU, international, and national law" and to uphold "fundamental EU values."

"If indications of non-compliance arise within the scope of the measure, all appropriate steps will be taken, including the possibility of recovering all or part of the approved funding from the recipient," the Commission representative explained. The same project also provided €100,000 to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and €299,000 to Tel Aviv University.

Rafael is a prime contractor for the Israeli Ministry of Defense and is internationally known as the manufacturer of the "Iron Dome" missile defense system. Rafael's military equipment is also being used in the Gaza War. Since Israel's invasion of the Palestinian coastal strip in October 2023, Rafael recorded a 27 percent increase in sales last year.

The EU Commission declined to disclose whether other Israeli defense companies received Horizon Europe funding. A June investigation by the EU Observer had already shown that another Israeli drone manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries, had received millions of euros from the European Defense Fund. Furthermore, the EU border agency Frontex had leased two large drones from this manufacturer .

Five Italian members of the Left and Green parties in the European Parliament have written to the Commission asking it to consider whether Rafael should be excluded from future EU-funded research activities.

According to the EU Observer, seven academics from British and Italian universities also voiced criticism the week before last. According to the report, Rafael's drone systems were also used in an Israeli attack in April 2024 that killed seven employees of the US aid organization World Central Kitchen – even though their convoy had been previously announced and was clearly identifiable. According to the academics, funding a partner directly involved in war crimes could have "serious accountability consequences" for the EU Commission.