The AJC Transatlantic Institute (TAI) works to strengthen EU ties with Israel and advocates for a strategic partnership between them based on shared democratic values, interests, and history.
Over the more than 40 years since Israel signed its first bilateral trade agreement with the EU, the bloc has become Israel’s largest trading partner. The EU, in turn, benefits greatly from Israeli expertise in fields ranging from counterterrorism to high-tech and innovation.
TAI strives to correct the common European misconception that Israeli settlements are the primary obstacles to a negotiated two-state solution or that Israel by itself can bring about peace. Through public conferences, diplomatic outreach, and traditional as well as social media, TAI puts forward an evidence-based analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict and an accurate picture of Israeli politics and society.
TAI engages with EU officials and diplomats as well as members of the European Parliament, which has a significant say in the bloc’s foreign policy.
AJC Project Interchange
Twice a year, TAI brings leading officials of EU institutions and member states to Israel, where they experience the reality of the Jewish state, beyond the headlines. Through Project Interchange, an educational institute of AJC, participants learn about Israel’s challenges and accomplishments by meeting with key political and civil society leaders. LEARN MORE
Combating Anti-Israel Bias
Within the European institutions, TAI works for the passage of legislative measures that treat Israel fairly.
TAI successfully advocated for the EU to resume its Association Council in 2022. The Association Council at which EU foreign ministers discuss the EU-Israel relationship with their Israeli counterpart, had been paused for over ten years. However, TAI persistently urged the EU’s Member States to reconvene it, citing the advantages for the EU and Israel to cooperate in fields like trade, innovation, research, and energy.
TAI has also effectively urged the EU to condition funding to the Palestinian Authority on reforms in its textbooks, which feature antisemitism, the glorification of terrorism, and incitement to hate. As the largest donor to the PA and a long-term supporter of the two-state-solution, the EU has a vested interest in ensuring that Palestinian children are not taught to hate. However, for years the problem was not addressed by the EU. TAI persistently organized events on the issue and discussed it with diplomats and officials from all twenty-seven EU Member States. In July 2024, the EU and the PA finally signed a letter of intent in which the PA agreed to reform its school materials.
In the aftermath of Hamas’October 7, 2023, massacre, TAI’s advocacy has been crucial in making the EU realize the true horrors of Hamas’ atrocities by bringing hostage families to Brussels and organizing events on Hamas’ use of sexual violence against Israelis for which the EU has since then imposed direct sanctions against Hamas.
Blacklisting Hezbollah
TAI has long called on the EU to blacklist the terrorist organization Hezbollah, as the Arab League, Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States have already done. Following a concerted campaign by AJC and TAI, the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council partially adopted this policy by listing Hezbollah’s “military wing” as a terrorist organization. While AJC (and even Hezbollah itself) reject the artificial separation into so-called political and military wings, listing at least part of the organization was a promising first blow against the terror group.
Blacklisting the IRGC
TAI has long called on the EU to adopt a stronger stance against the Islamic Republic of Iran, advocating for the EU to follow in the footsteps of the United States and add the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its terror list. While EU foreign ministers need to make the ultimate decision on this matter, the European Parliament has echoed TAI’s demand and in numerous resolutions called on the Council of the EU to follow through with such a terror listing. It has also called for a full terror listing of Hezbollah, as the EU currently only designates Hezbollah’s “military wing” as a terror list. For over a decade, TAI has argued that such a distinction between “military” and “political wings” of Hezbollah is purely fictional and urged the EU to abandon it.
