Arkia POLITICAL

Target: Arkia Israeli Airlines Ltd.; controlling Nakash/Jordache principals are included under the audit’s principal-attribution rule. Research date: 30 September 2026. Scope note: This audit records corporate/principal political conduct and crisis mobilization without converting ordinary Israeli incorporation, commercial aviation or owner-group assets into political advocacy by themselves.

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

• In October 2023 Arkia announced added emergency flights in response to requests from Israelis seeking to return to Israel after the Hamas attack and outbreak of war.¹ By 2025 reporting described Arkia, El Al and Israir as having operated rescue flights that also returned soldiers and citizens called for reserve duty.²
• In August 2024 controlling owner Avi Nakash publicly defended Arkia’s wartime pricing/operations and emphasized that Israeli airlines remained operating when foreign carriers withdrew.³ This is a public owner statement about Arkia’s wartime role; it is not evidence of an Arkia position on specific military operations.
• In February 2022 Arkia announced paid rescue flights from Ukraine for Israelis amid invasion fears, coordinated with Foreign Ministry warnings.⁴ In the reviewed public source set, no comparable Arkia statement addressing Palestinian civilian harm was identified. This is a bounded comparative-public-posture finding, not evidence about the company’s private views or motives.
• Current ownership reporting identifies the Nakash/Jordache interests as controlling roughly 70% of Arkia, with employees around 22%.^{5, 6, 7}

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

• In 2022 Arkia operated the first reported Ramon Airport pilot flight carrying a group of West Bank Palestinian civilians to Cyprus under a special access framework.^{8, 9} The reviewed sources do not establish an Arkia office, branch, hotel, airport facility or ticket outlet inside an Israeli settlement.
• The repository’s curated UN/NGO library was searched locally for Arkia, Nakash and Jordache names; no match was returned. No public evidence identified in the reviewed set for Arkia being listed in the local OHCHR/NGO materials or for an organized Arkia-specific settlement boycott campaign. This is a bounded source check, not universal proof of absence.
• [pre-2020] Historical reporting on the Nakash acquisition identifies Arkia routes to IAF bases and Uvda alongside civilian routes.¹⁰ That history is relevant to state/military integration but does not establish settlement operations.

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

• No public evidence identified in the reviewed sources for Arkia disciplining staff for pro-Palestinian speech, suppressing a shareholder resolution concerning Israel/Palestine, operating a content-moderation platform, or applying settlement-origin retail labeling rules.
• Arkia is an airline/service company, and the reviewed enterprise-technology sources concern ordinary passenger/operational systems and ERP.^{11, 12} No platform-editorial function comparable to a social network was identified.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

• Arkia’s current public regulator/airport profile is that of an Israeli airline operating through Ben Gurion/Ramon infrastructure.^{13, 14} Current public procurement includes a 2026 Israel Tax Authority ticket-purchase engagement and a 2025–2027 Israel Airports Authority employee-flight engagement.^{15, 16} These are state/customer ties, not by themselves lobbying or donations.
• [pre-2020] Arkia civilian aircraft have also been recipients of state-backed anti-missile protection programs involving Israeli defense suppliers.^{17, 18} This security heritage concerns civil-aircraft protection.
• [pre-2020] A 2021 IDEX episode reported planned Arkia transport of employees from Israeli defense companies and Defense Ministry involvement in permit requests.¹⁹ The report does not establish that Arkia sponsored the defense exhibition.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

• Crisis asset mobilization: Arkia used its airline capacity for emergency/repatriation flying after 7 October 2023, including the return of reservists documented in later reporting.^{2, 1} The reviewed sources do not establish that those flights were free, donated by Arkia, or purchased wholesale by the military, so the conduct is recorded as physical/logistical mobilization without an unsupported financing claim.
• State-facing commercial activity: the current Tax Authority and Airports Authority engagements are paid service relationships.^{15, 16} no public evidence identified for Arkia corporate PAC/lobbying expenditure directed at anti-BDS legislation or settlement policy.
• Principal military-welfare context [pre-2020]: Ralph/Raphael Nakash, one of the controlling brothers, attended a 2018 Duvdevan Foundation fundraiser that reportedly raised more than $250,000 for the IDF Duvdevan unit.²⁰ The article does not state how much, if anything, Nakash personally donated, so the event total is not attributed to him.

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

• Arkia is privately controlled rather than state-owned in the reviewed sources. Current reporting attributes about 70% to the Nakash/Jordache interests and about 22% to employees.⁵ The wider Nakash/Jordache group has substantial Israeli holdings, including hospitality, real estate and Eilat Port-related interests.^{6, 7}
• [pre-2020] The Nakash brothers acquired control of Arkia in 2005/2006.¹⁰ Jordache describes itself as a private conglomerate rather than a state entity.²¹
• No public evidence identified for a state golden share or charter provision making Arkia’s primary corporate purpose political advocacy. Its documented primary activity is commercial aviation/tourism.^{13, 14}

Executive & Leadership Footprint

• Current ownership is concentrated in the Nakash brothers/Jordache interests.^{5, 6} Their family foundation is a US private foundation whose officers include Joseph Nakash (president), Avi Nakash (vice-president) and Ralph Nakash (secretary/treasurer).²² The filing summary reviewed does not identify a Duvdevan grant, and it groups much grantmaking under broad religious-charity descriptions; no specific military grant amount is inferred.
• [pre-2020] Ralph/Raphael Nakash’s documented attendance at the 2018 Duvdevan fundraiser is a principal-level political/military-welfare association.²⁰ The evidence supports attendance; it does not support assigning the fundraiser’s aggregate proceeds to him personally.
• Avi Nakash’s 2024 wartime interview is a current public principal statement tied directly to Arkia’s conduct.³ no public evidence identified in the reviewed sources for post-19 July 2024 or post-November 2024 settlement sponsorship, a personal JNF/FIDF donation by the controlling brothers, or an anti-BDS board role.
• The 2020 Arkia financing episode shows the owners injecting capital into the airline alongside state-guaranteed bank borrowing.²³ It is business financing, not a political donation.