While the World is grappling with the issue of who finances the US-Israeli-supported humanitarian aid initiative spearheaded by the obscure Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Dutch investigative team at “Follow the Money” has released a damning report revealing the illegal lobbying efforts carried out by the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF) at the European Parliament. This report highlights IDSF’s relentless attempts to sway the EU’s stance on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, all in a frantic bid to avert EU sanctions against Israel.
The Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF) is a group of over 35,000 reserve officers and operatives from all branches of the Israeli security forces dedicated to guiding the narrative of Israel’s national security, which lacks any official accreditation to lobby Members of the European Parliament, and a brief search shows that this dubious organisation is not even listed in the EU’s Transparency Register despite the enhanced measures implemented following the “QatarGates Corruption Scandal” within the European Parliament.
The investigative report from ‘Follow the Money‘ which we are featuring today, suggests that Members of the European Parliament have consented to engage with representatives of the IDSF, whose operations are primarily funded by the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), a murky US-based Non-Governmental Organisation established by the fervent Zionist advocate, Hadassah Marcus. and whose operations are associated with Israeli settlement initiatives in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). CFI enables the American Jewish community to contribute tax-deductible donations to the Israeli settlements in Palestine. In spite of its transparency obligations, in 2023, IDSF reported a budget of €50,000, while it is believed that this organisation received approximately €2 million from the Central Fund of Israel (CFI) during that year.
Among the various requests emanating from IDSF, and now echoed by MEPs, is the suppression of any financing operation in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA). ‘Follow the Money’ has the story…
Naël Dillenbourg reports for Follow The Money…
Exposed: The opaque lobby of high-ranking Israeli officers in Brussels
A group of high-ranking Israeli military personnel gained access to the European Parliament without accreditation. Known as the IDSF, the group is infamous for its extreme line on Gaza.
It is November 2024, and Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli military officer, is enjoying a coffee near the European Parliament in Brussels.
Along with a team of fellow high-ranking officers and a former director for the West Bank’s Israeli settlements, the ex-brigadier general is preparing to host a morning conference with members of the European People’s Party, the parliament’s largest group.
Avivi is the founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), an organisation of more than 35,000 retired or reserve personnel from all branches of the country’s security apparatus.
Since shortly after October 7, he has been heading lobbying efforts to prevent EU sanctions against Israel and influence the bloc’s approach to the bloodshed in Gaza. Avivi and his group have also lobbied against support for South Africa’s case in The Hague and against a ceasefire. But they didn’t do so using the official channels.
Members of the IDSF hosted a conference in the Parliament and were allowed access to the building for around a year without proper lobbying accreditations, an investigation by Follow the Money found, instead relying on MEP visitor passes to enter the building. This is despite the code of conduct for MEPs stating: “Members should only meet interest representatives that are entered in the transparency register.”
In addition, several Members of the European Parliament who met with the group failed to disclose these meetings, despite new transparency rules introduced in the wake of the 2022 Qatargate scandal.
Shortly after these meetings, several members of the European Parliament made statements in line with the IDSF’s views on sanctions, violence in Gaza, and a potential ceasefire.
‘Many friends’ in EU
In the past, the IDSF showed little interest in the European Capital. The lobbying group is led by former high-ranking military officers, known for their hawkish stance. Their members have a direct line to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It staunchly opposes the existence of a Palestinian state and advocates for the colonisation of the West Bank.
The EU, meanwhile, has officially expressed a “long-standing commitment to the vision” of an independent Palestine, and opposes settler colonies.
But Avivi, who as recently as 2022 dismissed the European Union as “anti-Semitic and non-Zionist”, has changed strategy since October 7, declaring he found “many friends” in the EU.
After the conference, in an online video, Avivi said: “I think we found out we have many friends here in the European Union…”
“The list of Avivi’s newfound ‘friends’ who did not declare meetings with the group includes two current high-ranking officials”
The group has made the trip to Brussels on multiple occasions since 2023, according to their online activity, preaching Israel’s interests to European representatives.
In total, at least 19 members of the European Parliament have agreed to meet with representatives of the IDSF, whose activities are financed through an opaque funding organisation linked to the Israeli settlement projects. These settlements are Israeli communities built in the occupied Palestinian territories, considered illegal under international law.
Many of those representatives sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee, which works on the EU’s foreign and security policy.
Seven MEPs did not register those meetings through official channels, Follow the Money found by comparing publicly available images of the events with official declarations.
The list of Avivi’s new-found “friends” who did not declare some or any of their meetings with the group includes two current high-ranking officials: Former MEP and now European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius, and one of the vice-presidents of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno.
A spokesperson of Kubulius declined to comment.
Social Democrat Pina Picierno said that the meeting with Amir Avivi took place under her “responsibilities as Vice-President” of the European Parliament, but also declined to comment on her failure to declare it.
American dollars for Israeli influence
IDSF is mostly funded through the Central Fund of Israel, a US NGO that “operates out of the offices of a textile company…in the Manhattan garment district”, according to Israeli Newspaper Haaretz. The organisation has been criticised in the US for its tax-exempt status to help fund the Israeli settlement project in the occupied territories.
Even after registering in the European Parliament’s transparency system in November 2024, after a year of lobbying, the IDSF failed to declare the true extent of its funding. On the register, the organisation said it had a budget of €50,000 for 2023. But through the Central Fund of Israel alone, IDSF obtained about 2 million euros that year.
Questioned about the issue, IDSF said they choose to only declare their European budget, but rules state “their total budget” must be disclosed.
Unlisted event
Questioned about their goals in the European Parliament, IDSF told Follow the Money they were there to “educate decision-makers around the world about Israel’s key national security threats, which are also the same threats that Europe and the free world face”.
Nonetheless, the group did not comply with the current procedures of the European Parliament to tackle such threats.
While unlisted in the transparency register, IDSF co-hosted an event inside the Parliament last November. (The one-hour conference covered “topics of mutual security interest”, according to an invitation email obtained by Follow the Money)
Lobby groups must go through a registration process to ensure transparency when co-hosting events inside the European Parliament, according to the European Parliament’s rules. But publicly available documents show that the IDSF was only listed on the register a week after the event – and a year after their lobbying efforts began.
CHART: IDSF Revenue per year (Source: GuideStar – Israel Ministry of Justice):
Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský, a member of the European People’s Party (EPP), hosted the IDSF conference. “At the time of the meeting, the registration was still pending”, he said when contacted by Follow the Money for comment. A spokesperson IDSF insisted it was listed in time for the event, despite not being confirmed in the transparency register at that point.
Receptive audience
The advocacy seemingly found fruitful grounds in Brussels. Maurice Hirsch, one of the IDSF’s high-ranking officers and former director of Military prosecution for the West Bank, said he used the platform to lobby against EU funding for gender equality projects in the Palestinian Authority.
(Note: The court is responsible for prosecuting Palestinians, including children, for participation in protests and traffic violations, among other crimes, according to Israeli NGO B’tselem. The court has been criticised by the UN and Israeli NGOs for not providing fair trials. It has a 95 percent conviction rate, according to Military Court Watch.)
In the hours following the conference, Zdechovský wrote to the European Commission raising the exact same concerns, using questionable statements provided by Maurice Hirsch.
Note: These numbers argued that for Gender Equality projects in the West Bank and Gaza, “44% of the money has been given directly to the Palestinian Authority”. Zdechovský then argued: “no one knows who is using the EU money or what for”. However, Follow The Money found no supporting evidence for these numbers, calculating the percentage to be 12.5% using official figures. Contacted, Maurice Hirsch said he calculated the numbers from two different European aid datasets. These datasets largely overlapped, inflating the total. Asked about his methodology, Tomáš Zdechovský said he verified the numbers using “multiple mutually independent sources” but did not reveal what these were.
The IDSF also argued, on their blog, for an end to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, claiming “UNRWA’s mission is to perpetuate the conflict, not to resolve it”. They suggested disbanding UNRWA for another Agency, which they claim would strongly limit access to the Palestinian refugee status.
Questioned the issues: Susan M. Akram, Clinical Professor and Director at the International Human Rights Clinic told Follow the Money, that the Palestinian refugee status and their right of return is independent of UNRWA’s status: “Termination of UNRWA’s services has no impact on these rights, although the ability of the UN to implement these rights will be more difficult in the absence of UNRWA”
Dutch MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen echoed this idea of disbanding UNRWA for another agency to the Parliament less than a week after his meeting with IDSF, which he officially declared. Ruissen did not respond to Follow the Money’s request for comment.
IMAGE: Left to right: Elie Pierpz (IDSF), European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno (S&D) and Amir Avivi (IDSF). (Source: X)
IMAGE: IDSF Members, with Amir Avivi (centre-right), Parliament members Tomáš Zdechovský (centre-left) and Bert-Jan Ruissen (far-right) at the conference they hosted inside the parliament. (Source: X)
IDSF, meanwhile, publicly expressed gratitude after at least five MEPs, with whom they met, pushed a joint motion to sanction the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), with which Israel is in conflict. Rasa Juknevičienė, who did declare her meetings, was one of the MEPs personally thanked by IDSF. She said she met Amir Avivi “once or twice” in person to discuss “geopolitical issues” especially “Iran and Russia’s possible influence [in the region]”.
She denied any links between her support for the motion and the organisation’s advocacy. Her office said that meetings were handled by the Brussels-based B&K lobbying agency.
Note: In a response to Follow the Money, B&K confirmed that IDSF was a client and said the visits to the European Parliament had been organised according to “standard procedure”. It added: “B&K Agency is proud to work with Israel’s Defense & Security Forum as their mission aligns with our core values of peace, sovereignty, and freedom.”
IDSF also thanked the Israeli embassy to the EU for its support in their lobbying efforts on several occasions. The group shared a photo featuring Israeli Ambassador Haim Regev, stating he participated in a meeting ahead of a conference co-organised by IDSF in the European Parliament. However, when approached for comment, the IDSF said “it would be completely inaccurate to describe it as a preparatory meeting”.
The Israeli embassy did not respond to a request for comment on any ties to the IDSF.
‘Severe lack of enforcement’
Advocacy efforts by groups from outside Europe have been a sensitive issue ever since the Qatargate scandal broke.
The European People’s Party, in particular, has publicly taken a firm stance against opaque foreign lobbying. “The presence of foreign agents in the European Parliament and other institutions poses significant risks to our security and credibility,” the group said last year in response to concerns over Russian influence.
The EPP did not respond, however, to Follow the Money’s requests for comment on potential IDSF influence on its members. Marc Botenga, also a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, accused the Parliament of double standards.
‘This case highlights once again the severe lack of enforcement of existing transparency rules’
He said that, following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “everything [with Russia] was suspended” whereas high-ranking Israeli officers had been given a place “at the table” even after the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
“I don’t see how this can be justified,” he said.
Raphael Kergueno, Senior Policy Officer at the NGO Transparency International EU, also condemned the undeclared meetings and the hosting of conferences while the IDSF was unlisted.
“This case highlights once again the severe lack of enforcement of existing transparency rules by the European Parliament,” he said.
“We have seen time and time again that this can be conducive to under-the-radar lobbying and undue influence. It is up to MEPs to protect an institution that cannot afford another ethics scandal.”
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