Fact check: Was Bardella right to claim EU indirectly funded Hamas?

The leader of France’s far-right National Rally and MEP Jordan Bardella claimed before the Strasbourg plenary on Monday that “European public funds” were “indirectly fuelling the Hamas terrorist movement”.

Responding to Bardella’s comments in the chamber, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said: “If you have the slightest proof that European funds have been reaching Hamas, I as vice-president of the European Commission demand that you share them. And if you don’t, that you retract your words.”

“Doing politics shouldn’t be about insulting and slandering,” Borrell added.

Bardella has cited the EU’s funding to the Islamic University of Gaza — which was co-founded by Hamas’ founder Ahmed Yassin — to back up his statement, while his National Rally party has launched a petition in his support. 

Euronews asked Bardella and his team to share hard evidence to back up his claim, but they have not yet received a response.

The European Commission did respond to our request for further information regarding the mechanisms they have in place to ensure EU funding to the Palestinian territories is not leaked to militant groups, and this article will be updated with any further information provided by the executive.

Euronews’ fact-checking team breaks down what we do know about the EU’s funding to the Palestinian territories and the safeguards in place to avoid diversion to Hamas and other groups designated terrorist organisations by the 27-country bloc.

‘No contact’ policy

When Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006 and went on to take control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Western nations — including the EU — boycotted the Hamas-led government until it agreed to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

The European Union has since been the biggest donor of critical aid to Palestinians in Gaza — as well as the occupied West Bank — propping up the local economy and preventing its people from plunging further into poverty.

But the EU has done this while maintaining a strict policy of “no contact” with Hamas, refusing to engage with the militant group and channelling aid to Gaza through United Nations (UN) agencies and other organisations it considers outside Hamas’ orbit to side-step the government.

In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ 7 October attacks on Israel, the EU launched an urgent review of its development aid to the Palestinian territories to ensure no money was inadvertently reaching militant groups designated as terrorist organisations by the bloc, such as Hamas.

That review — announced hastily after the EU’s neighbourhood commissioner Olivér Várhelyi unilaterally declared the suspension of all payments to Palestine, drawing international backlash — ruled out any leakage of EU funds to such groups.

“Our analysis has not at this stage identified a breach of contractual obligations and therefore we will continue implementing our ongoing portfolio of EU assistance to Palestine,” a senior EU official told reporters when the review was concluded last November.

Need for stricter safeguards identified

But despite the review finding no inadvertent financing of terrorism, the European Commission suspended two EU-funded projects in the Palestinian territories worth a combined €8 million following “serious” allegations that civil society groups were using funds to incite hatred.

Last November, EU officials said the Commission would consider imposing additional controls, including a new anti-incitement clause in contracts with both Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups.

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This would involve monitoring the public communication, including social media posts, of groups receiving EU funding for hate speech or incitement of violence. Third-party financing, where the recipient of EU funds subcontracts other groups or individuals, would also be subject to stricter controls.

The EU executive has not yet confirmed to Euronews whether it has adopted these stricter safeguards or whether any projects have been affected.

‘Reputational risks’

A communication on last year’s review also suggests that one educational project under the EU’s flagship Erasmus+ programme in the Palestinian territories involved “possible reputational risks” and would be further scrutinised. 

Euronews has asked the Commission for more information on that scrutiny process, but has so far not received the information.

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Bardella says that between 2014 and 2021, the EU gave some €1.7 million in funding to the Islamic University of Gaza, which was razed to the ground by Israeli airstrikes four days after the 7 October attacks.

According to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), the Islamic University was an “important Hamas operational, political and military centre in Gaza”.

Responding to a parliamentary question submitted by another EU lawmaker belonging to the National Rally last October, the EU’s education chief, Iliana Ivanova, said that the Islamic University received Erasmus+ funding as part of a 2019 call for proposals.

Ivanova added that a project awarded in 2020 had been suspended after the university refused to sign a clause stipulating that it ensure “no subcontractors, natural persons, including participants to workshops and/or trainings and recipients of financial support to third parties” were listed as terrorists in the EU.

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Allegations against UNRWA

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which receives EU funding, has consistently been accused of neutrality breaches.

After Israel alleged in January this year that UNRWA staff had been involved in the Hamas-led 7 October attacks, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna to lead an independent review group into the allegations.

Colonna’s report, published in April, found that although the agency has put in place robust mechanisms to ensure compliance with neutrality, breaches persist.

Her findings helped restore essential foreign funding after many EU member states suspended their funding programmes in response to Israel’s allegations.

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The UN fired nine staff members in August after its internal watchdog found that they may have been involved in the 7 October attacks.