The Nakba, the forced expulsion of approximately 750,000 Indigenous Palestinians from their homes in 1948, marked the beginning of Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid, military occupation, and genocide that persists to this day.
Even before the Nakba, Zionist leaders had set up the core corporations and institutions which until today sustain Israel’s settler colonial project.
The BDS movement calls on people worldwide to boycott all Israeli companies unless they:
- Can show that they are not implicated in Israel’s military occupation, apartheid, or settler colonialism, and
- Publicly recognize Palestinian rights under international law, primarily the right of refugees to return and receive reparations in accordance with UNGA resolution 194.
On this Nakba anniversary, the movement calls for escalating BDS pressure particularly on these Israeli companies that predated the Nakba, were crucial pillars in establishing Israel’s settler-colonial regime, and remain complicit in its atrocity crimes today.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
Teva, "the national pharmaceutical company of Israel," as it calls itself, is complicit in Israel’s genocide, apartheid, and illegal occupation of the Palestinian people, and it profits off of health crises that harm communities across the world. While profiting from a captive Palestinian economy under illegal military occupation, it actively and openly supports Israel’s genocide and the Israeli military forces.
Teva is also responsible for selling and profiting off of drugs that are unapproved for children. It has paid fines for its share of the responsibility in the opioid overdose epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, and it has reportedly used bribery to illegally capture its market share.
Teva’s CEO decides over medical supplies while serving as a military reservist in Gaza as part of Israel’s genocide that weaponizes starvation and the complete destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system. Immediately after the start of Israel’s genocide in October 2023, Teva pledged to serve "for the benefit of Israel" and ramped up medicine production by 300%—exclusively for the Israeli war machine.
Teva’s founding corporate ancestor, Salomon, Levin & Elstein (SLE), was established in Jerusalem in 1901, while the modern Teva Pharmaceutical Industries company was formally incorporated in 1944. Its logistics subsidiary retains the original SLE name and today controls pharmaceutical distribution in the illegally occupied Palestinian territory.
Eli Hurvitz, Teva's founding CEO, served in the Zionist military during the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and fought in every major Israeli war. Former CEO Shlomo Yanai was a Major General in the Israeli military and Head of the “IDF Planning Division.” He was reportedly offered the directorship of Mossad by Benjamin Netanyahu in 2010.
The BDS movement, together with a global coalition of BDS activists in several countries, has recently launched a campaign calling for a global boycott of Teva.
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services:
ZIM, which was Israel’s largest and oldest cargo shipping company, continues to play a key role in ensuring Israel receives the necessary supplies to continue its regime of apartheid, illegal military occupation and genocide, and is able to sustain its crimes through continuous exports. ZIM has publicly declared it supports Israel’s genocide. Its ships transfer military and dual-use materiel to Israel including, reportedly, white phosphorus.
ZIM has played a key role in Israel’s settler-colonial regime from its very beginnings. It was founded in 1945 by the Jewish Agency, the Histadrut Labor Federation, and the Israel Maritime League–all major entities in the settler-colonial project. As ZIM itself recognizes, it used its early fleets to “deliver essential supplies” during the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the early years of Israel’s existence. The main task of ZIM during that period was to accelerate the colonization in the emerging state and to supply it with food, freight and military equipment.
As ZIM’s trade union put it: "Zim is not an ordinary commercial company. During wartime, Zim’s vessels served as a vital channel for supplying [military] ammunition, food, and medicine to the State of Israel."
The German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd acquired ZIM in February, 2026. Israel, however, has kept its golden share by transferring it to a dedicated Israeli container line, held by Israel’s largest private equity fund, FIM, acting to “enhance and secure the global maritime connectivity” for Israel. As such, ZIM remains a key target for the BDS movement.
Mekorot
Mekorot – Israel National Water Co. is apartheid Israel’s state-owned water company responsible for water robbery, colonization and for implementing “water apartheid” on Palestinians, including the international crime of pillage of natural resources in occupied territory, discrimination against the Palestinian people as an ethnic group and vital support for the illegal settlement enterprise.
Founded in 1937 by the Histadrut (Israel’s colonial trade union federation), the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish agency, Mekorot’s aim was to steal water from Palestinians and neighbouring countries and to reroute it to the Zionist colonies and households.
In the 1950s Mekorot built Israel’s national water network, which diverts the Jordan River from the West Bank and Jordan to serve Israeli communities. At the same time it deprives the Palestinian communities from access to water.
After enabling the theft of Palestinian natural resources and destruction of aquifers, Mekorot sells water to Palestinians, including in Gaza until 2023, at inflated prices and sustains the water apartheid. It is included in the UN Human Rights Council database of companies involved in illegal Israeli settlements. Since October 2023, Palestinians in Gaza have endured a genocide, including forced drought and starvation, with Mekorot playing a key role in the weaponization of water.
Mekorot has refused to supply water to Palestinian communities inside present-day Israel, despite an Israeli high court ruling recognizing their right to water.
In 2005, Mekorot established a business arm to begin a process of international expansion and has pushed for privatizing water globally. Soon after, BDS activists across the world started campaigns across the world to prevent and end contracts with Mekorot.
Bank Hapoalim
Bank Hapoalim B.M. was founded in 1921 by the Histradrut and the Zionist Organisation, two central institutions of the Zionist settler-colonial project in Palestine.
It operates and finances projects in illegal Israeli settlements, especially illegal settlement construction, but also farms and transport, including the so-called Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR). It finances military projects and exploits the Palestinian captive market through a coercive relationship with Palestinian banks. It also promotes tours in illegal settlements.
The Hapoalim group operates overseas and has connections with banks around the world. The BDS movement has called for divestment from Bank Hapoalim and other complicit Israeli banks.
Bank Leumi
Bank Leumi Le-Israel B.M. is an Israeli bank that provides financial services for Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory and benefits from them.
Founded in 1902 as the Anglo-Palestine Company by the first Zionist leaders, it was the financial arm of the settler-colonial project in Palestine. As the bank recognizes itself, its name, which means “national” in Hebrew, is “a reflection of the role we have played in the foundation and support of the State of Israel over the last century.” It directly financed the development of the settler-colonial project in Palestine and was Israel's central bank from 1948 to 1954.
Bank Leumi finances construction in illegal colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank and holds as collateral the company's rights to the land and the project. Besides, it has financed, with Bank Hapoalim, the Jerusalem Light Rail’s (JLR), that serves Israel’s illegal settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem. Settlements, which entail the transfer of Israeli civilians into occupied territory and the forcible displacement of Indigenous Palestinians from their land, constitute a war crime under international law.
Bank Leumi also operates through branches and ATMs in settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in the occupied Syrian Golan, and benefits from access to the Palestinian banking market as a captive market.
Boycott these companies, pressure for divestment, join BDS campaigns to exclude these genocide and apartheid enabling companies from every territory, every tender and every investment fund.