‘There is a grim irony in the possibility that they may be wearing Israeli-made bulletproof vests while they attack peaceful protesters’
EUROPEAN states have perfected the art of speaking from both sides of their mouths. While they have been voicing concerns about the plight of Palestinians, who have endured relentless Israeli bombings for nearly three years, multiple European countries have been signing profitable contracts with the genocidal state during the genocide.
European public institutions have signed a total of 194 deals worth €2.7 billion ($3.1 billion) with Israeli companies between January 2022 and July 2025, according to data compiled by Statewatch.
In the 21 months before October 2023, European institutions signed 82 contracts with Israeli firms worth just over €1.2 billion. In the 21 months since the start of the genocide — while Gaza was being reduced to rubble, while the death toll climbed into the tens of thousands, while the Israelis were shredding infants, while they were filling their dungeons with innocent Palestinians and raping them with impunity — that number rose to 112 contracts worth almost €1.6 billion.
Yet these figures do not tell the full story. “[T]he value of many contracts — in particular with German institutions — has been kept secret,” Statewatch reported. “Others have a listed value of just €1 or even €0.01, amounts that seem too low to be genuine, though this is impossible to verify without further investigation.”
The Top Ten European Buyers
Rhetoric Versus Reality
Spain, which has been among the most vocal public critics of Israel, signed 14 agreements with the Israelis worth €227 million ($257 million) between January 2022 and July 2025, the period covered by the data set. The bulk of that figure — €207 million ($235 million) — comes from a single contract signed in April 2024 (seven months into the genocide) between Spain’s Defence Ministry and Rafael for “aerial combat systems.”
Other contracts signed by Spanish institutions with Israeli firms include:
- a March 2022 contract worth €140,000 between Source Vagabond Systems and the Guardia Civil for bullet-proof vests;
- a June 2022 agreement worth almost €5 million between Emtan-Karmiel and the Guardia Civil for the supply of rifles;
- an October 2022 agreement worth almost €7.8 million between IMI Systems and the military for 120mm shells for Leopard tanks;
- an April 2024 contract between A V X Technologies and authorities in the Basque country for software to automatically detect tax fraud; and
- two contracts worth almost €300,000 between the Polytechnic University of Madrid and Heqapl for quantum computing equipment, signed in August 2024.
Belgium announced its recognition of the Palestinian state in September 2025. However, it has also made deals with the Israelis during the genocide.
“In April 2024, University Hospital Leuven signed a €1.2 million contract for genome sequencing software with GNX Data Systems,” the report states. “ORES, a major gas and electricity supplier in the Belgian region of Wallonia, holds a contract worth more than €3.7 million with the information technology company SysAid Technologies.”
Germany has been among the most vocal supporters of the Israeli genocide. It is a rare state whose words and actions are in sync. The data set includes 37 contracts between German institutions and Israeli companies for military equipment, cybersecurity software, laboratory tools and medical equipment, amongst other things.
However, because the value of Germany’s deals has not been disclosed, it is hard to determine the actual figures.
Top Ten Contract Categories
Israeli Equipment for European Police
The report highlights that the German police, like their Spanish counterparts, have purchased bulletproof vests from Israel’s Marom Dolphin, as part of a joint November 2024 contract with the German company Messer Waffenhandel und Sicherheitsgesellschaft.
While the brutality of the Spanish authorities was on full display when the Basque police’s batons rained down on flotilla activists in Bilbao in May, the German police have been among the most violent in the world in cracking down on pro-Palestine protests.
“There is a grim irony in the possibility that they may be wearing Israeli-made bulletproof vests while they attack peaceful protesters,” the report notes.
While people across Europe have overwhelmingly opposed the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians and demanded that their governments force the genocidaires to stop the carnage, their protests have had little effect. Their tax money continues to fund mass annihilation that has spread far beyond Gaza and threatens to engulf even more of the region. — Palestine Will Be Free
