In December 2022, talks on a long-stalled pact between Europol and Israeli authorities were put on hold.

Diplomatic contacts pointed to rifts among EU governments and worries that Benjamin Netanyahu's new alliance with the far-right Religious Zionist party might weaken the rule that EU-Israel ties must avoid even indirect endorsement of occupation policies.

Leaked papers and internal records allowed the UK-based NGO Statewatch, working with EUobserver, ND and Apache, to piece together events and shed fresh light on tensions between the European Commission and EU capitals.

Late in 2022, the Council's legal team urged the commission, the EU executive handling the talks, to make major changes to the draft text.

Even with those warnings, the commission's migration and home affairs unit kept meeting Israeli diplomats about the deal until at least January 2026.

While details of those contacts stay unclear, experts consulted during this probe cautioned that the pact could heighten risks of state-backed rights abuses for both Palestinians and Israelis.

In mid-July, 27 MEPs called on the commission to explain the meetings, the talks' progress, and the human rights dangers tied to the agreement.

Jerusalem HQ legal concerns

Links between Europol, which fights serious cross-border crime in EU countries, and Israel go back nearly to the agency's start.

In 2005, the council named Israel a key Europol partner.

Early talks faced hurdles, such as doubts over Israel's data protection rules and the Israeli National Police base in East Jerusalem, viewed internationally as occupied territory.

In 2018, the sides reached a working arrangement, Europol's first with a non-EU nation.

That deal set a cooperation framework but barred personal data swaps. To allow such exchanges, the commission received a 2018 mandate for fresh talks.

Unlike the earlier arrangement, the new text would form an international treaty under global law, bringing tighter rules and stronger checks.

At least in theory.

Commission and Israeli talks wrapped up in September 2022 with a draft accord.

Yet EU capitals, worried by its terms, paused the approval process, which needed council and European Parliament backing, and asked the council legal service to check compliance with EU and international law.

Leaked legal opinion

A leaked legal view from the council's legal advisory unit, dated 29 November 2022, marked EU Restricted and reviewed by EUobserver, found that the commission had inserted clauses breaching EU and international law and had not kept the council updated during talks.

The legal service urged full removal of clauses allowing a territorial scope exception.

A footnote noted that, if approved as written, it would mark the first EU-Israel international pact applying to territories occupied by Israel in 1967.

Security exceptions

A 22 September 2022 draft seen by EUobserver stated that personal data sent to Israel could not be used in areas under Israeli administration after 5 June 1967, ruling out the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Gaza Strip.

Still, the text added a broad exception letting the Israeli National Police, Shin Bet and other bodies use Europol-sourced personal data in occupied areas to stop imminent threats to life or to prevent, probe or prosecute crimes.

The legal service questioned the clarity of these rules and whether Europol's powers would involve too much discretion under the treaties.

It also warned that extending the pact to occupied zones would place it under separate legal systems, those of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Syria in the Golan Heights, annexed by Israel in 1981.

Such a setup would clash with the Palestinian right to self-determination under international law, UN resolutions, EU court rulings and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the legal service said.

In October 2022 internal meetings, the commission defended the exception by citing Israel's duty under international humanitarian law to restore public order in areas it controls.

The council legal service dismissed the claim, noting that the duty does not permit other states or bodies to help in ways that breach other international principles.

UN special rapporteur Ben Saul said the exception seemed to violate the duty of European states not to recognise situations stemming from breaches of core international norms.

Israeli lawyer Eitan Diamond, head of Diakonia's Jerusalem office, said the legal service's view gained support from the International Court of Justice's July 2024 advisory opinion, which called for Israel to end its unlawful presence in occupied Palestinian territory rapidly and for states and organisations to avoid actions that sustain it.

Treaty breach behind closed doors

The exception broke from the EU's long-standing stance that its Israel accords must not cover territories occupied since the 1967 war.

The council legal service also found that the commission had gone beyond its council mandate and breached several EU law provisions.

The opinion states that the commission failed to follow the council's negotiating mandate, breaching treaty rules and its duty of sincere cooperation.

Over the first four years of talks from 2018 to 2022, the commission never consulted the council's working party or informed it of the proposed exception.

When asked about the talks' status, the council said the 2018 negotiating mandate remains unchanged.

Despite the legal objections, the mandate stayed the same and no sign emerged that the commission had updated its 2022 draft.

The commission declined to give details.

Commission staff held at least seven meetings with Israeli diplomats on the proposed deal between 2023 and 28 January 2026, including one with then-foreign minister Eli Cohen in April 2023.

The Israeli embassy to the EU, foreign ministry and national police did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Europol said it was invited to join talks only in a passive observer role.

Asked if the draft would allow personal data shared via Europol to be used in occupied territories, the agency said it could not answer.

Host - but don't visit

Europol added that it did not visit the Israeli National Police headquarters in East Jerusalem during the draft talks.

Documents obtained by Statewatch via transparency requests show Europol hosted Israeli delegations, including National Police representatives, at least five times between August 2024 and March 2026.

The sessions, involving multiple agency departments, were arranged by Israel's liaison officer at Europol and ended with a March 2026 visit by Israel's ambassador to the agency's headquarters.

French Green MEP Mounir Satouri said the situation amounted to a double scandal due to serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and the extreme secrecy shielding the deal from parliamentary review.

Talks must stop at once, he added, because the commission has disgraced itself by pursuing them.

Data on race, ethnicity, genetics, biometrics

Beyond the council legal service findings, institutions and experts warned that the pact, if approved, could create major human rights risks for Palestinians under occupation and for Israeli citizens.

Central to these concerns is the transfer and further processing of sensitive personal data, including details on racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health data or data on a person's sex life or sexual orientation, as set out in the proposed text obtained by Statewatch.

Israeli lawyer Diamond noted that, apart from territorial issues, other serious concerns should prompt the EU to halt the talks and ban certain data exchanges.

These include Israel's administrative detention system, which holds about 3,300 Palestinians without detailed charges, and the use of extrajudicial killings by Israeli forces.

Diamond said there are serious grounds to fear that Palestinian prisoners face regular ill-treatment and torture in Israeli detention.

If the agreement is signed, he warned, the EU could risk aiding arbitrary liberty deprivations and systematic ill-treatment under harsh detention conditions.

He added that information shared under the pact might serve as intelligence to target and kill Palestinians.

Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani from Gaza, who was held in administrative detention in the 1980s and fled Gaza in 2024, said he would be deeply worried if such a deal is adopted.

Sourani's group, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, faced US sanctions in 2025 over its role in cases against Israel at the International Criminal Court.