World Jewish Congress, headed by billionaire Ron Lauder, and European Jewish Congress, headed by oligarch billionaire Moshe Kantor, are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the EU
By David Cronin, Reposted from The Electronic Intifada, June 11, 2026
The pro-Israel lobby is benefiting from a European Union fund set up to advance the cause of equality.
A declaration made by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) shows that it received EU grants worth more than $650,000 in 2025 and at least $160,000 so far this year.
The grants were allocated under Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV), a program with the stated aim of promoting the fight against racism and xenophobia.
If an anti-racism program is to be taken seriously, its participants should, as a bare minimum, have a track record of opposing racism. Far from having such a record, the World Jewish Congress always sides with Israel, a state practicing apartheid, according to all credible human rights organizations.
The consensus among human rights groups that Israel commits apartheid was reached before the current genocidal war on Gaza began.
The WJC has denied that a genocide is occurring.
Almost a third of all people in Gaza known to have been killed by Israel since October 2023 were children.
Nobody can seriously believe that such a high proportion of child deaths is accidental – not when senior figures in the Israeli government such as Bezalel Smotrich, its finance minister, have voiced a desire to see Gaza “totally destroyed.”
Smotrich made his “totally destroyed” wish in May 2025. During the same month, the WJC claimed that accusing Israel of deliberately killing children amounted to “blood libel” against Jews.
Brazil’s Jewish community @coniboficial has criticized President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for sharing antisemitic comments.
Speaking in Moscow, President Lula told the media that there is a genocide in Gaza and that Israel is deliberately killing children and women “under the… pic.twitter.com/8niYPdIbD7
— World Jewish Congress (@WorldJewishCong) May 14, 2025
The WJC has continued to obfuscate since then.
Ron Lauder, the WJC’s president, struck a belligerent tone when addressing a recent Jerusalem Post conference. He recommended that Israel should use its “excellent intelligence services” – including the notorious spying and assassination agency Mossad – to “hit back twice as hard” when the state faces “lies.”
The “lies” he had in mind are verifiable facts.
Lauder complained about “fake” photographs of starving children in Gaza published by the mainstream press and on social media websites. There was nothing “fake” about those photos or the hunger and pain they illustrated.
Making genocide worse
The European Jewish Congress – a WJC affiliate – is another pro-Israel group financed by the EU.
In 2024, it received a grant worth more than $230,000 under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program.
The sum is significant. It suggests that the EU is a key donor to the European Jewish Congress (EJC).
The EJC’s total declared expenditure on lobbying the Brussels institutions was under $350,000 in 2024.
The $230,000 grant was for a project – ostensibly aimed at building the “resilience of Jewish communities against anti-Semitic attacks” – which kicked off in June that year.
Earlier in 2024, the EJC tried to dismiss the voluminous evidence that Israel was committing genocide as an “outrageous and baseless allegation.”
“Accusing Israel of genocide is a complete distortion of victims and perpetrators.”
Thank you, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, for strongly rejecting the outrageous and baseless accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/EFgUaOe1jo
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) January 11, 2024
The EJC has a selective approach towards crimes against humanity.
In December 2022, it affirmed a commitment to “ensure a world where genocide never happens again.”
On 9 December we mark the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.
We remember the victims & renew our commitment to ensure a world where genocide never happens again. pic.twitter.com/XAriglkf9j
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) December 9, 2022
Genocide started happening again less than a year later.
Not content with denying that genocide, the EJC has pushed for its consequences to be even more extreme.
The group has urged that UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, be deprived of funds.
Such calls would be reprehensible at any time. When issued amid a genocide, they are clearly intended to ensure that people who are barely surviving can no longer avail of the food and medicine which UNRWA provides.
Like similar pro-Israel groups, the EJC is a big fan of Katharina von Schnurbein, nominally the European Union’s coordinator for combating anti-Semitism.
This week, von Schnurbein featured prominently at an annual seminar organized jointly by the EU and Israel. The tacit purpose of the gathering was to weaponize anti-Semitism so that Israel can be shielded from accountability.
Today, we held the 16th annual EU-Israel High Level Seminar to combat antisemitism and foster Jewish life.
It is a good opportunity to discuss current threats, challenges & opportunities to counter antisemitism and foster Jewish life.Antisemitism has no place in Europe. pic.twitter.com/JL1Z8hHGnv
— Magnus Brunner (@magnusbrunner) June 8, 2026
The EJC contends that speech opposing Zionism is a hate crime.
Zionism is the ideology underpinning the colonization of Palestine – a colonization process that has morphed into the current genocide. Zionism has been invoked to expel Palestinians from their homes in the 1940s, capture more Palestinian land in the 1960s, and wage a war of extermination against Palestinians in the 2020s.
If the EJC has its way, telling the truth about Israel and Zionism would become a punishable offense in many countries.
Zionism is inherently racist. Why are its adherents eligible for funds that are supposed to be used for fighting racism?
David Cronin is a reporter for The Electronic Intifada.
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