Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni listens to debate, after she reported on her government’s actions and is expected to speak on the latest developments in Iran, at the lower house of Parliament in Rome, Italy, April 9, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli

Italian authorities have ordered Rome’s main international airport to replace an Israeli-led consortium developing its counter-drone protection system with an Italian defense company, marking one of the latest moves by European governments to exclude Israeli firms through anti-Israel procurement policies amid the war in Gaza.

Italy’s Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, ruled this week that Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), the company that manages Rome’s Fiumicino International Airport, must replace an Israeli consortium with the Italian electronic warfare firm ELT to supply the airport’s counter-drone defense system.

By awarding the contract to an Italian defense company instead, local authorities will effectively remove two Israeli defense companies — Altintech and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems — from a critical airport security initiative in the country, ending a prominent Israeli defense role at one of Europe’s major aviation hubs.

According to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, the court’s ruling followed the Defense Ministry’s assessment that the radar system installed at Rome Fiumicino Airport qualifies as military equipment. 

Government officials argued that the classification was justified by the system’s technical capabilities, its status under international arms regulations, and its inclusion in the national military equipment registry.

The court reportedly found that the required permits to import and operate the military-grade equipment had not been obtained.

The latest ruling overturns a May 2024 decision by the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio that had upheld the contract awarded to the Israeli consortium, allowing it to proceed with the airport’s counter-drone defense project.

Now, the airport operator has been given 60 days to complete a new contract with Italian defense company ELT and proceed with replacing the Israeli consortium.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, a number of European governments have introduced measures targeting Israel over its military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, ranging from efforts to limit defense cooperation and restrict procurement involving Israeli companies to broader moves affecting the country’s international standing.

Western governments have suspended or restricted arms exports to Israel, imposed sanctions on some Israeli government officials, advanced trade restrictions targeting Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, and reconsidered defense and research partnerships as part of wider efforts to boycott, isolate, and increase diplomatic and economic pressure on the Jewish state.

In one of the latest examples of such policies, Ireland’s anti-Israel procurement rules led the government to exclude an Israeli-made advanced vision system from its new €53 million state aircraft, despite the technology being standard equipment on the jet.

The French-made Dassault Falcon 6X is ordinarily equipped with FalconEye, an advanced combined-vision system developed with Israeli defense company Elbit Systems. Mounted on the aircraft’s nose, the technology uses cameras, infrared sensors, and synthetic imagery to give pilots a clearer view of runways, terrain, and potential obstacles in darkness and poor weather.

However, Irish procurement officials ordered the aircraft without FalconEye because acquiring the system would have required the government to enter into a direct written agreement with Elbit, according to an investigation published by The Journal.