European Parliament-Financed Event Features Hezbollah-Linked Activist Alongside EU Lawmakers
On May 27, a European Parliament-financed event will feature self-described former Hezbollah member Dyab Abou Jahjah alongside UN official Francesca Albanese and several European lawmakers
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On May 27, the European Left Alliance will host “Justice for Palestine – stop al Trattato UE-Israele” in Italy, an event organized within its broader European Citizens’ Initiative campaign calling for suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The European Left Alliance event page states that the event is “Financed by the European Parliament,” while adding that the Parliament is not responsible for the content.
Dyab Abou Jahjah, co-founder and general director of the Hind Rajab Foundation, is listed as a featured speaker. Abou Jahjah is a self-described former Hezbollah member who has claimed to have received military training from the terrorist organization. Francesca Albanese, a UN Special Rapporteur, is also scheduled to appear. Albanese’s participation is particularly notable because, on May 23, 2026, a U.S. appeals court reportedly stayed a lower-court order that had blocked enforcement of her sanctions, allowing the measures to proceed while the appeal continues.
According to the Justice for Palestine campaign website, the European Left Alliance provided €32,281 in funding across two tranches: €25,000 on January 12, 2026, and €7,281 on February 1, 2026.
Self-Described Hezbollah Member on Speaker List
Dyab Abou Jahjah is featured on the event’s speaker list as a co-founder and general director of the Hind Rajab Foundation. In a 2003 New York Times profile, Abou Jahjah was quoted describing himself as a former Hezbollah member who had received military training. He was arrested by Belgian authorities in 2002 after being accused of inciting riots in Antwerp and has repeatedly praised Hezbollah and Hamas on social media. In 2024, he wrote that he met with former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2001.
Hind Rajab Foundation’s Coordinated Lawfare Campaigns
The Hind Rajab Foundation, led by Abou Jahjah, operates as a Brussels-registered organization engaged in coordinated legal actions against Israeli citizens and soldiers globally. Since its launch in September 2024, the foundation has filed lawfare complaints against Israeli Defense Force personnel and civilians across multiple countries, including Greece, Ecuador, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the UK, and others.
On October 8, 2024, the foundation announced that it had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against 1,000 Israeli Defense Force soldiers. Since then, it has filed numerous additional ICC complaints, including in partnership with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which was added to OFAC’s SDN List in September 2025 under the ICC-related sanctions program.
In October 2025, Europol stated that it has been “in contact with the Hind Rajab Foundation” and invited the organization to present at its annual meeting in The Hague. HRF separately stated that Europol invited it to present at an October 2025 meeting in The Hague, where it said discussions included possible cooperation and evidence sharing.
Recently Re-Sanctioned UN Official as Speaker
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur, is also listed as a speaker. Albanese had been added to OFAC’s SDN List in July 2025 under the Trump administration’s ICC-related sanctions order, then removed on May 20, 2026 after a federal judge blocked enforcement of the sanctions. Reuters reported that the U.S. government described the removal as temporary while it appealed. On May 23, UN Watch reported that the D.C. Circuit stayed the lower court’s order, allowing enforcement of the sanctions while the appeal proceeds.
Speaker Appeared at Platform in Honor of Former PFLP Spokesman
Another speaker, Yousef Habash, head of the European Branch of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, has previously been featured at the Ghassan Kanafani Symposium in 2021. Kanafani, for whom the symposium is named, was a leading member and spokesman of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terror group. Kanafani served as chief propagandist and editor-in-chief of the PFLP’s Al-Hadf magazine and was a principal ideological architect of the organization.
European MPs and Former Leadership Participation
The speaker list includes current and former European Parliament figures, including Catarina Martins, Rima Hassan, Mimmo Lucano, and former European Parliament Vice President Luisa Morgantini, as well as Italian parliamentarians Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli.