On October 25, 2025, during a presentation at the terror-linked “Gaza Tribunal” in Istanbul, the US representative for the Hezbollah-linked Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), Jacob “Jake” Romm, stated, “recently…we have begun working closely with Europol to assist with war crimes investigations across the European Union” (emphasis added).

Romm has repeatedly praised terrorist organizations, including Hamas. (see below)

In response to an NGO Monitor inquiry, Europol stated that it “is maintaining and exploring cooperation with a number of stakeholders, including civil society organisations that collect and document alleged war crimes around the world,” adding that “Europol has also been in contact with the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF)” (emphasis added). (Europol response on file with NGO Monitor)

On November 18, HRF provided additional details, stating that “On 22 October 2025, Europol invited the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) to speak at its annual meeting in The Hague.”

It added that “Delegations from several European countries attended the sessions and expressed strong interest in our work and in exploring cooperation. Multiple bilateral meetings took place with national war-crimes units and other law-enforcement representatives, during which mutual cooperation was discussed—particularly in relation to sharing HRF evidence on Israeli war criminals who visit these countries or who hold their nationality.”

HRF’s delegation included “our Head of Litigation, Natacha Bracq; Operational Director, Karim Hassoun; Board Member, Haroon Raza; and led by our General Director, Dyab Abou Jahjah.”

Background: Europol Investigations of Hezbollah

The cooperation between HRF and Europol is especially alarming considering Europol’s awareness of the threat Hezbollah poses to the EU and its citizens:

  • Europol’s 2025 Terrorism Situation and Trend (TESAT) Report cites Hezbollah’s role in “spreading propaganda in support of the so-called Al-Aqsa Flood,” adding that “this propaganda … has the potential to fuel increased hatred towards Israel, promote anti-Semitism and incite [violence].”
  • Europol’s 2024 TESAT Report which states that “As the most important proxy in the Iranian affiliated network in the Middle East, the Lebanese Shia organisation [Hezbollah] appears to be recruiting proxy operatives from vulnerable segments of society and from within the organised crime milieu to pursue political objectives through violent attacks against Iran’s enemies around the world, including on EU soil” (emphasis added).
  • Europol’s 2022 TESAT Report which notes that Hezbollah “has been using the EU as a base for fundraising, recruitment and criminal activities from which they obtain significant profits. The network of collaborators built by Hezbollah in the EU is suspected of managing the transportation and distribution of illegal drugs into the EU, dealing with firearms trafficking and running professional money laundering operations that include the provision of money laundering services for other criminal organisations” (emphases added).

HRF Lawfare

Launched in September 2024, the Belgium-registered, anonymously funded organization initiates legal proceedings against IDF veterans and other Israelis traveling around the world, including in Greece, Ecuador, Belgium, UAE, Brazil, Argentina, Sri Lanka, France, Netherlands, Cyprus, Thailand, and the UK. (For more information, see NGO Monitor’s “Hind Rajab Foundation”)

On October 8, 2024, HRF announced that it filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against 1,000 Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers alleging “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza, Palestine.” Since then, HRF has filed numerous other complaints to the ICC, including in partnership with the terror-linked Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which has since been sanctioned by the US Department of State on the grounds of being “directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”

(For more information, see NGO Monitor’s “Terror Supporting Hind Rajab Foundation Submits ICC Complaint Targeting 1000 IDF Soldiers”)

HRF does not include any financial data, donor information, or sources of funding on its website, reflecting a complete lack of transparency and accountability. HRF utilizes Stripe’s services to process donations.

HRF’s Terror Ties

  • According to information provided by Israeli security officials and cited in the Jerusalem Post in February 2025, Abou-Jahjah is linked, by family and business ties, to several actors designated as part of Hezbollah’s vast terror funding network. According to the Jerusalem Post, Abou-Jahjah is also included in the US government’s “No Fly” list.
  • On September 25, 2024, Jahjah stated that “in 2009, as director of the International Union of Parliamentarians for Palestine, I organized visits for Hezbollah’s political leadership to several European countries, including the UK…We met with various prominent figures in the UK, including an important Conservative MP representing the Shadow Foreign Secretary at the time, William Hague.”
    • According to its website, the International Union of Parliamentarians for Palestine (IUPFP) was “constituted on the margin of the International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Uprising (Intifada), which was held in Tehran between 12-15/5/2001.”
  • On October 7, 2023, following the brutal Hamas attack, Jahjah posted: “These Palestinian resistance fighters entering these settlements are all refugees whose parents were ethnically cleansed from these villages in 1948/1967. Anyone neglecting this fact is not seriously engaging in a conversation but is spreading Israeli propaganda, whether willfully or not.”
  • In November 2001, Jahjah described the 9/11 attacks as “sweet revenge.”
  • In 2005, Jahjah defended former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for calling for Israel to be wiped off the map, writing that “his position on this matter is the only possible moral one.”
  • In 2017, Jahjah who then served as a columnist for Belgian outlet De Standaard, was fired after he praised a terror attack  that killed four Israelis, saying that “liberation of Palestine by any means necessary needs to take place.”

HRF Chair’s Antisemitism, Homophobia, and Hate

Jake Romm’s Support for Terrorist Organizations and Extreme Statements

  • On March 27, 2025, Romm tweeted “Hamas is the only group meaningfully working to return the hostages. If you wear the dumb yellow ribbon you should also pop on the green headband for consistency, because they’re your only allies in that fight.”
  • On March 7, 2025, Romm tweeted “Ansar Allah [the Houthis’ formal name] is the only group in the world that is treating the Genocide Convention and the principle of the Responsibility to Protect with sufficient respect that they are a designated ‘terror’ group by the US should tell you something about the structure of international law.”
  • On April 7, 2025,  Romm tweeted “If Israelis want the hostages returned they should turn their weapons on the IDF or at the very least turn them over to the resistance. Both of these things would do infinitely more for the hostages than “protesting Netanyahu” (emphasis added).
  • In July 2024, Romm stated that “Zionism is an antisemitism,” and that “The Zionist has the atrocity they have always longed for, one which would give concrete form to their persecution fantasies and let loose their desire for murder.”