The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed an official complaint against the European Investment Bank for channeling over €1 billion to Israeli companies blacklisted by the UN for illegal settlement activities. This funding directly supports Israel’s ongoing land theft and apartheid regime, in clear violation of the ICJ ruling of 19 July 2024. As EU leaders review the Association Agreement with Israel this week, we demand an immediate end to this complicity and call on the EIB to align its operations with international law and basic human rights.

Read the full press release below.

Brussels, 20 June 2025 — The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has today filed an urgent and damning complaint with the European Investment Bank’s Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM), demanding an immediate end to the Bank’s blatant complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.

Despite the binding International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of 19 July 2024, which orders all States and international organisations to “prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel,” the EIB continues to funnel over €1 billion in European public funds to Israeli companies blacklisted by the United Nations for their direct role in illegal settlement expansion and apartheid policies.

This betrayal occurs as EU leaders meet today and tomorrow to review the Association Agreement with Israel — the main treaty governing the EU’s political and economic ties with a state that stands accused of grave breaches of international law, including genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

“The EIB is financing Israel’s land theft, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid — with European taxpayers’ money,” said Dyab Abou Jahjah, The Foundation’s Chairman. “This is not oversight, this is complicity. As Europe claims to champion human rights, its own bank bankrolls the bulldozers and bulldozes the law.”

EIB Money, Israeli Crimes

The Hind Rajab Foundation’s complaint exposes how four flagship EIB operations enable blacklisted actors to build and sustain the settlements that shred Palestinian lives and land:

€500 million channeled through Bank Leumi, notorious for underwriting settlement housing, industrial zones, and local councils in stolen Palestinian territory.

€250 million for the Tel Aviv Light Rail Green Line, awarded to Electra, which expands settler connectivity and cements de facto annexation.

Further “green transition” and “financial inclusion” facilities worth €250 million and €96 million, again handed to Bank Leumi, a bank that signs decades-long pledge agreements with illegal settlement municipalities.

These funds directly prop up a regime of forced evictions, land grabs, and settler violence. According to the UN, 2025 has seen a surge in attacks and mass displacement — yet the EIB continues to supply the financial oxygen that sustains the apartheid system.

A Moment of Reckoning for the EU

This complaint lands at a critical moment: the EU is right now reviewing its Association Agreement with Israel, which binds the relationship to respect for human rights and international law. The Hind Rajab Foundation warns that the EU’s credibility is at stake: it cannot pretend to uphold international law while its own financial arm empowers Israel’s colonization machine.

“Either Europe enforces the ICJ ruling and halts this complicity, or it admits its treaties and human rights talk are worthless when it comes to Palestinian lives,” said Abou Jahjah.

Demands

The Hind Rajab Foundation demands:

Immediate suspension of all EIB funding to UN-blacklisted Israeli companies and settlement-related projects.

A full independent compliance review, not the EIB’s cosmetic box-ticking, but a real audit with public disclosure.

EU leaders, in their Association Agreement review this week, must condition any further cooperation on verifiable compliance with international law, and sanction financial actors who fuel Israel’s illegal settlements. This must logically lead to a direct halt of all the effects of the association agreement.

No More Excuses — Stop Funding Apartheid

Now ​It is no longer acceptable for European leaders to preach about human rights while signing blank cheques for banks and corporations that profit from stolen land and shattered lives.Every euro that flows through the EIB into Israel’s occupation machine is a betrayal of the Palestinian people and a stain on Europe’s conscience.There is only one honest choice: Stop the money, end the complicity, and stand on the right side of history.