When a delegation of Labour Party advisers flew to Israel last year, it was meant to be an opportunity to improve dialogue and understanding in the Middle East.
The trip was planned and paid for by a little-known organisation called the European Leadership Network (ELNET), which claims to be “independent” and “impartial”. But one adviser told openDemocracy that its real purpose quickly became apparent.
“It was marketed as a bringing together of minds from different sides,” he said. “But there was a clear and obvious agenda to make sure people had a pro-Israel stance going into government.”
The advisers were taken to see the Iron Dome defence system, briefed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), and introduced to a series of Israeli politicians and diplomats. According to one of the advisers, one of the Israeli politicians told the delegation: “What the Arabs need to understand is that we’re here now and they need to get over it.”
The adviser, who spoke to openDemocracy on the condition of anonymity, added: “We were all sitting there thinking ‘what the fuck?’.”
After returning to London, some advisers began to wonder who was funding ELNET. But ELNET’s finances are a mystery; it refuses to declare its major donors, and its UK branch – headed by former Labour MP Joan Ryan – has repeatedly ignored questions from openDemocracy.
ELNET, which was founded in 2007, has branches across Europe and Israel and describes itself as “the most influential pro-Israel advocacy organisation in Europe”. It even counts the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as one of its “partners”. It has also promoted highly controversial views – including recently telling supporters that there is “no starvation in Gaza” and saying the IDF should not worry about killing innocent civilians who live near Hamas terrorists.
Despite this, ELNET has managed to secure access to the highest levels of British politics. Rishi Sunak and David Cameron have both attended its events; Sunak went to the group’s reception to mark the anniversary of the Abraham Accords less than two weeks after he became prime minister in 2022, while Cameron was interviewed as part of its online discussion about Islamist radicalisation. Labour grandee Peter Mandelson and the government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, John Woodcock, have each also joined at least one of ELNET’s online briefings about the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.
The organisation also takes delegations of MPs, peers and parliamentary staff on trips to Israel, some of which were registered with the UK’s Electoral Commission in accordance with the rules. It has boasted in meetings that these trips are so influential that they have “literally turned [politicians] around as pro-Israeli”. The group also promises to “fight” the “damaging statements by Western leaders” who criticise the IDF.
Although ELNET has remained silent about its funders, an investigation by openDemocracy can reveal that it has accepted money from American billionaires – including some who have previously supported Donald Trump and poured money into his election campaigns. They include Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, who has pledged to do “everything” he can to get Trump re-elected later this year.
Marcus was one of the largest donors in the 2020 US election, giving millions to Trump’s campaign. He has said his donations for this year’s elections will be “in line” with this, adding that he will likely continue to support Trump despite his criminal conviction. In November 2016, the billionaire also defended Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of alt-right website Breitbart News, whose appointment as Trump’s chief strategist had sparked a backlash. Marcus claimed Bannon had been “demonised” in the media and was a “passionate Zionist and supporter of Israel”.
Between 2020 and 2022, Marcus’s philanthropic foundation gave some $300,000 to ELNET’s American fundraising arm, known as Friends of ELNET. On its website, ELNET explains: “Every dollar of your contribution goes directly to funding our European efforts to broaden and deepen relationships between Israel and Europe.”
Another family foundation, chaired by billionaire homebuilder Larry Mizel, has given at least $30,000 to Friends of ELNET between 2019 and 2022. Mizel previously donated to Trump’s 2016 election campaign and served as his finance chairman in Colorado.
Other donors to Friends of ELNET have included the Lisa And Michael Leffell Foundation, which gave $50,000 in 2017 to promote “foreign policy development”. Michael Leffell is a billionaire investor who has funded Republican politicians and donated $1m to the United Democracy Project, the independent expenditure arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
According to the latest financial filings, Friends of ELNET brought in more than $7m of revenue in 2022. This was up by almost a million dollars from the year before. Speaking to supporters in December, the group’s chief development officer, Jay Haberman, described 2023 as “a year of record-breaking achievement for ELNET, largely driven by the war” and called on wealthy supporters to donate or transfer stocks to meet its $9m target.
It is unclear exactly how much of this money is earmarked for the UK. A new London office was set up in 2021 and, so far, it has only been required to publish one year of its accounts on Companies House, which are made up to 30 November 2022. This document shows it had £88,585 in members’ funds, but few further details are provided.
openDemocracy was able to identify certain donations made to Friends of ELNET only due to the US’s stricter finance rules, which require charitable foundations to declare who they have donated money to. There is no obligation for ELNET to declare other sources of income.
UK laws are also lax on political donations. Although foreign donors are banned from giving cash to MPs or political parties, funding for overseas visits can come from any source, meaning ELNET’s trips are fully within the rules.
Since the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October, ELNET has positioned itself at the centre of the PR battle over Gaza. In a series of briefings over Zoom, it has promoted controversial claims that undermine international peacekeeping efforts and defend Israeli action.
The head of ELNET’s branch in Israel, Emmanuel Navon, described the UN as “a lost cause” that has been “hijacked” by autocratic regimes. He also said: “Trying to say that the civilian population [of Gaza] has absolutely nothing to do with Hamas is factually wrong.”
Another ELNET spokesperson raised the possibility of making “humanitarian aid limited unless you liberate hostages”. And, amid widespread concern about famine in Gaza, the president of Friends of ELNET, David Siegel, recently told an audience: “There is no starvation in Gaza.”
In 2021, the organisation appointed the former head of the Israeli Defense Intelligence, Amos Yadlin, as chair of its Forum of Strategic Dialogue. Yadlin has given numerous briefings to ELNET supporters, which have included claims that international law permitted the IDF “to target Hamas and not be too much worried about who is around them”. He added: “They of course will cry that they are dying of hunger, but don’t take it too seriously.”
During one briefing, supporters and Western politicians were invited to talk directly with an IDF spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner. Labour peer Peter Mandelson, who was on the call, raised a question about humanitarian aid and afterwards concluded: “The [Israeli] government might be better off if it listened more to the IDF… If you can pass on that one.”
Since 7 October, ELNET has continued its efforts to bring international politicians to Israel. A recent briefing by the organisation states that “close to 300 parliamentarians and leaders” visited Israel in the first seven months after Israel’s attacks on Gaza began. Attendees have included a cross-party delegation from the House of Lords, including Mandelson, former Conservative leader Michael Howard and the former chair of the Vote Leave campaign, Gisela Stuart.
Six Conservative MPs have also been on ELNET trips to Israel since October 7. Andrew Percy, Lisa Cameron and Antony Higginbotham declared these to the Electoral Commission as donations, while Shaun Bailey, Tom Hunt and Matthew Offord recorded them in Parliament’s register of interests because they did not reach the value threshold for the Electoral Commission. DUP MP Jim Shannon and two members of the Welsh Senedd also attended trips, with each fully declaring these.
Last year, before the current war, a delegation of Labour Party advisers went on an ELNET trip to Israel. The parliamentary register of staff interests reveals that attendees included an adviser for shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, and shadow trade minister Gareth Thomas. Sources who went on the trip told openDemocracy they were accompanied by Luke Akehurst, a professional pro-Israel advocate who sits on Labour’s National Executive Committee and is an election candidate for the party.
Labour’s leader, Keir Starmer, has previously taken a strong stance on the risks of British politics being influenced by funding from overseas. In 2022, he promised to “protect our democracy from the flood of foreign money drowning our politics”.
Yet ELNET UK is part of an international organisation that has been directly funded by American billionaires.
One Labour staffer who went on an ELNET trip, who did not want to be named, said: “I can’t imagine people would be happy knowing that ELNET had taken money from supporters of Trump.”
The staffer claims that, shortly after they returned from the trip, a senior figure at the Israeli Embassy asked them: “Did you enjoy the trip we sent you on?” It was not clear what the embassy figure meant by this, but the staffer told openDemocracy: “My assumption was that it had been paid for by the embassy.”
According to ELNET’s Navon, parliamentary delegations directly impact the level of support that Israel gets from Western countries. In May, he told supporters online: “A few months ago the European Parliament passed a resolution with a very large majority that conditioned any ceasefire on the release – the immediate and unconditional release – of all Israeli hostages and on the defeat of Hamas.
“Now this resolution would never have been passed without the many years of work done by ELNET. All those parliamentarians that have literally turned them around as pro-Israeli, as being pro-Israel, after visiting Israel.”
ELNET UK did not respond to openDemocracy’s request for comment.
