Moderated by Leila Seurat, CAREP Paris
Abstract
This panel examines the complex and multifaceted entanglements between the European Union, its member states and Israel. The discussion explores the specific practices that contribute to the perpetuation of the occupation, bringing to light different networks of actors. It will first examine the place of pro-Israeli pressure groups within the EU institutions, and their role in shaping the decisions of the Parliament and the Commission. The analysis will then focus on circuits linked to the arms and surveillance technology trade, as well as the presence of European companies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Speakers
- Benedetta Voltolini, Kings College London : Lobbying and EU foreign policy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- Shir Hever, Alliance of Justice between Israelis and Palestinians : Israel and the European Union in the global arms and security industry.
- Clara Denis Woelffel, UQàM (Montreal) / CERMOM : Commercial relations between French and Israeli companies in the West Bank : between economic interests and colonial complicity.
Benedetta Voltolini
Benedetta Voltolini is Senior Lecturer in European Foreign Policy at King's College London. Her research interests include lobbying, framing and memory in foreign policy, with a particular focus on EU foreign policy towards the Middle East and North Africa. Her work has been published in theJournal of European Public Policy, the Journal of European Integration, Mediterranean Politics and Geopolitics, among others. She is also the author of Lobbying in EU foreign policy-making: The case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2016).
Shir Hever
Shir Hever is a specialist in occupation, apartheid and the arms industry in Israel. He holds a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin and is a member of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace. His latest book, The Privatization of Israeli Security, was published in 2017.
Clara Denis Woelffel
Clara Denis Woelffel is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her thesis focuses on the evolution of the French position on its diplomatic and economic relations with Israel and Palestine. Her research was carried out in France, in association with CERMOM (INALCO, Paris), and in Palestine (Ramallah/Jerusalem), thanks to Birzeit University and IFPO in Jerusalem.
Leila Seurat
Leila Seurat is a researcher at the Centre arabe de recherches et d'études politiques de Paris (CAREP Paris). She defended her doctorate at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris in 2014 under the supervision of Bertrand Badie. Her book, Le Hamas et le monde (CNRS, 2015) is based on her thesis. It has been published in an updated version in English by I.B Tauris (2022). She is also the author, with Jihane Sfeir, of Écrits politiques arabes (CNRS, 2022) and recently contributed to Gaza, une guerre coloniale (2025).
