Check Point POLITICAL

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

On 30 October 2023, Check Point’s corporate blog published “Evolving Cyber Dynamics Amidst the Israel-Hamas Conflict,” adopting “Iron Swords” - the IDF’s official operation name - as its framing term and describing cyber threat activity targeting Israel’s allies, without reference to Palestinian civilian casualties or humanitarian conditions in Gaza ¹. No Check Point corporate statement referencing Palestinian civilian casualties, humanitarian conditions in Gaza, or a call for humanitarian pause was identified in the sources reviewed ^{1, 2}. By contrast, on the Russia-Ukraine war Check Point has a documented, publicly tracked posture: the Leave-Russia.org monitor lists the company under “Reducing Activities” status with a formal statement dated 12 December 2023, while noting the company continues to maintain a Moscow office and sell indirectly through resellers, with 2024 import volumes into Russia reportedly exceeding $3 million even as regional revenue declined more than 20% ³. CEO Nadav Zafrir, in the role since December 2024, has no identified public statement addressing the Gaza conflict, the 19 July 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion, or ICC arrest-warrant processes ^{4, 5, 6}. Check Point’s SEC 20-F risk-factor disclosures frame Israeli hostilities and regional instability as a generic financial/operational risk - potential disruption to operations and employee reserve-duty absences - rather than as marketing language about “unique geopolitical partnerships,” and separately name increased boycott-activist efforts against Israeli goods as a disclosed business risk ^{7, 8}. An earlier post, “The Iron Swords War – Cyber Perspectives from the First 10 Days of the War in Israel” (18 October 2023), likewise adopts the operation name, opens by stating that “On October 7th, at 6:37 AM, Hamas invaded Israel,” catalogues DDoS and hack-and-leak activity by hacktivist groups against Israeli targets including the Jerusalem Post website and Ono Academic College, identifies Iranian government-backed groups as entering the conflict, and makes no reference to Palestinian civilian casualties, humanitarian conditions in Gaza, or Israeli offensive military operations ⁹. On the Q3 2023 earnings call (30 October 2023) CEO Gil Shwed described the events as Israel having “gone through a very terrible terror attack three weeks ago” ¹⁰. By contrast, Check Point’s February 2023 post “The Russian-Ukrainian War, One Year Later” uses the phrase “the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” calls the war “the bloodiest military conflict in Europe in decades,” attributes “disruptive cyberattacks carried out by Russian-affiliated threat actors against Ukraine,” and describes attacks “intended to cause general damage and disrupt civilian daily life and morale” - attribution of offensive action and acknowledgement of civilian harm that has no counterpart in the Gaza-conflict material reviewed ^{11, 1, 9}.

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

No evidence was identified of Check Point maintaining branches, authorized resellers, distributors, or service contracts within the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Golan Heights settlements; neither the OHCHR settlement-business database nor the Who Profits database lists Check Point Software Technologies as having direct operational presence in occupied territory ^{12, 13}. A search-result entry for “One Software Technologies” in the Who Profits database was confirmed to be an unrelated company and is not attributable to Check Point ¹⁴. Check Point is not named in the OHCHR UN Database of Business Enterprises maintained pursuant to HRC resolutions 31/36 and 53/25 (most recent update as of approximately September 2025, listing 158 companies) ^{12, 13, 15}. Review of the Albanese special rapporteur report A/HRC/59/23, “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” (2 July 2025), did not surface a confirmed direct, named mention of Check Point Software Technologies in the sections searched ¹⁶. On civil-society scrutiny, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK) maintains a company profile on Check Point Software Tech that raises its Israeli military/intelligence ties as grounds for scrutiny ¹⁷, and Corporate Watch published an investigative profile, “Ex-Israeli military spooks profiting from the cyber-security industry,” documenting the Unit 8200 backgrounds of Check Point’s founders and directors ¹⁸. No primary-source BDS Movement listing naming Check Point as an official boycott target was identified. Separately, Turkish parliamentary scrutiny - a form of foreign-legislative rather than UN/NGO attention - saw CHP and Gelecek Party lawmakers (15 January 2025 and 5 March 2025) raise concerns about Check Point’s Israeli military-intelligence-linked leadership and its historical use within Turkish government/military institutions, with Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler stating on 27 November 2024 that Turkish military units had stopped using Check Point firewall solutions as of June 2016 ². LGPS Divest, a campaign targeting local government pension schemes in England, also lists Check Point, stating that “Like other parts of Israel’s hi-tech sector, Check Point profits from the incubator provided by the Israeli state repression of Palestinians” ¹⁹. Notwithstanding the military’s stated 2016 discontinuation, the same Turkish reporting records that “in December 2019 Turkey’s Ministry of Treasury and Finance had awarded a public tender for Check Point software licenses to Trio Entegrasyon Bilişim Teknolojileri Ticaret AŞ,” the company’s local distributor ².

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

No public evidence identified of HR actions, disciplinary measures, or lawsuits involving Check Point employees over pro-Palestinian speech, symbols, or union activity, across general news, labor-focused outlets, and Check Point-specific search queries. No public evidence identified of algorithmic-moderation or editorial-content controversies tied to Check Point, consistent with its status as a cybersecurity/enterprise software vendor rather than a consumer content or social platform. No public evidence identified of product-labeling or sourcing controversies tied to settlement-origin goods, reflecting that Check Point is a software company without a physical consumer retail supply chain of the relevant kind.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Check Point’s founding narrative is frequently tied by trade press to founder Gil Shwed’s service in IDF Unit 8200 and to Israel’s “Startup Nation” origin story, with Shwed described as “a pioneer of the Startup Nation” whose “story is the story of Israeli high-tech” ^{4, 20}. Shwed received the 2018 Israel Prize - Israel’s top state honor - in the category of Technology and Innovation, the first-ever laureate in that field, awarded by the Israeli state ^{21, 22}. Search-derived synthesis indicates Check Point as a founding anchor tenant of CyberSpark, the national cybersecurity campus in Beer-Sheva, a joint venture of the Israeli National Cyber Bureau (Prime Minister’s Office), Beer Sheva Municipality, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and industry, publicly launched around 2014 with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s involvement and co-located with the IDF’s C4I Directorate; this claim was not independently confirmed against a single primary source and should be treated as requiring further verification. Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, a government body, published an item describing Check Point’s implementation of Israel’s Cyber Defense Methodology into its products ²³. Check Point is identified as a sponsor/participant at Cybertech Global Tel Aviv, an international cybersecurity conference co-organized with the Israel Export Institute, a government-backed trade-promotion body; Check Point VP of Products Dorit Dor has spoken at the conference, which has also featured Prime Minister Netanyahu as a keynote speaker ^{24, 25}. At Cybertech Global Tel Aviv 2024, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Israel National Cyber Directorate Director General Gaby Portnoy both delivered addresses ²⁶. Check Point’s own press release on the Israel Prize described cybersecurity as “a field that is strongly intertwined with the state of Israel and Israeli society,” and stated that the prize money “will be donated to charity”; no recipient charities were named ²¹. Check Point is a member of the Israeli Cyber Companies Consortium (IC3), established in 2016 by Israel Aerospace Industries - a wholly state-owned defence manufacturer - and other companies under the auspices of Israel’s Ministry of Economy, with the stated aim of “offering the most advanced cyber-defense capabilities to national governments around the world” and “large-scale, end-to-end cyber security solutions to nations worldwide” ²⁷. In March 2017 the IAI-led consortium was reported to have won a contract worth “tens of millions of dollars” to build a national cyber defence centre for an unnamed Latin American country, with Check Point named as the member supplying “threat prevention solutions and real time actionable intelligence” ²⁸. In November 2018 Check Point was named a member of a further consortium formed with Israel’s Economy and Industry Ministry to “offer comprehensive, end-to-end cybersecurity solutions for the commercial aviation industry: airports, airlines and aircraft” ²⁹. In 2008 Check Point established an information-security research institute at Tel Aviv University with a set-up investment “estimated at about $1 million,” governed by “a joint board, with representatives and financing from both the vendor and the university,” with most funding directed to “research grants for students and doctoral candidates, as well as the establishment of research labs” ³⁰. In March 2025 Check Point and developer Israel Canada were reported as winning a Tel Aviv municipal tender for the Kremenetski site in Bitsaron, Check Point contributing NIS 500 million for office space and Israel Canada NIS 300 million for residential land ³¹; Check Point subsequently described the new campus as roughly doubling the capacity of its current headquarters, with Gil Shwed stating that the move “reflects Check Point’s long-term commitment to growth and to reinforcing its leadership in cybersecurity, from Israel” ³². In the United States, Check Point announced FedRAMP authorization of its Infinity Platform for Government at Moderate Impact Level on 25 September 2025 ³³ and GovRAMP authorization on 30 April 2026, extending certification to state, local and tribal agencies ³⁴; its products are resold to US government buyers through Carahsoft’s government contract vehicles ³⁵. Check Point is a partner organization of the World Economic Forum ³⁶.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

No evidence identified of a Check Point corporate PAC, FEC filings, or OpenSecrets-tracked lobbying expenditure, and no evidence identified of Check Point corporate lobbying activity specific to anti-BDS or Israel-related trade legislation in the United States. No evidence identified of Check Point corporate membership, sponsorship, or leadership role in Christians for Israel, AIPAC, or CUFI as a corporate entity. No public evidence identified of Check Point corporate donations to FIDF, JNF/KKL, Lev Echad, or other named military-welfare or settlement-linked organizations, based on review of FIDF and JNF/KKL donor materials and direct Check Point-affiliated search queries. On crisis asset mobilization, CEO Gil Shwed stated on the Q3 2023 earnings call (30 October 2023) that approximately 5% of Check Point’s global headcount received IDF reserve call-up notices in the three weeks following 7 October 2023, and that the company “continue[d] to operate as planned uninterrupted” ¹⁰. No stated corporate policy on supplementing reservist pay above the statutory National Insurance Institute minimum was identified. One primary-source LD-2 filing on the US Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database (filed 9 April 2008, covering Q1 2008) records The Madison Group LLC as registrant lobbying for Check Point Software Technologies Inc. at a fee of $30,000; the sole listed issue was “foreign ownership of US cybersecurity company,” the entities lobbied were the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Department of Defense and White House Office, and the declared foreign-entity interests were Gil Schwed [sic] (14.7%) and Marius Nacht (9.1%) ³⁷. No LDA filings for Check Point covering later periods were located in this review. At board level, Lead Independent Director Yoav Chelouche was co-chairman of Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI) in 2012–2015 ³⁸; IATI is an umbrella body for Israel’s high-tech and life-sciences industries that “represents the high-tech industries of the political and professional echelons of government ministries and Knesset committees” and works to “investigate, initiate, develop and support policies and actions that will advance the high-tech and life sciences industry in Israel” ³⁹. No Check Point corporate relationship with the Israeli-American Council - whose lobbying arm is described as “lobbying for anti-BDS laws to force government contractors to promise not to boycott Israel” - was identified ⁴⁰.

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Check Point was founded in 1993 in Ramat Gan, Israel, by Gil Shwed, Marius Nacht, and Shlomo Kramer; Shwed is reported to have conceived the company’s core stateful-inspection firewall technology during his IDF Unit 8200 service ^{4, 20}. No golden-share structure or Israeli-government ownership stake was identified at the company’s 1996 IPO or in its current ownership structure; major holders are institutional investors, including Vanguard and BlackRock, alongside founder Gil Shwed ^{7, 8}. No public evidence identified that Check Point’s corporate charter explicitly ties its primary mission to state geopolitical goals - the company’s stated mission, per its own filings, is commercial cybersecurity products and services ^{7, 8}.

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Gil Shwed, co-founder and Executive Chairman following the Zafrir CEO transition, served in IDF Unit 8200 and is the 2018 Israel Prize laureate in the Technology/Innovation category ^{21, 22}; he chairs the Yeholot Association, a nonprofit addressing dropout rates in marginalized Israeli communities, and serves on Tel Aviv University’s board of trustees overseeing its Youth University program, though neither role is military-welfare or settlement-linked. Dorit Dor, VP of Products/CTO, is reported to have served as a cyber-espionage officer in the IDF and won the Israel Defense Prize in 1993 ². Nadav Zafrir, CEO and board member since December 2024, served 25 years in the IDF including as Commander of Unit 8200 from 2009 to 2013, where he established the IDF’s Cyber Command, retiring as a Brigadier General ^{41, 42, 4, 5, 6}; he co-founded the venture-creation group Team8 in 2014 with Liran Grinberg and Israel Grimberg, a former Head of the Cyber Division at Unit 8200, and remains Co-Founder/Managing Partner at Team8 while sitting on Check Point’s board ^{4, 5}. No statement by Zafrir on the Gaza conflict, the ICJ Advisory Opinion, or ICC processes was identified ^{4, 5, 6}. Board of directors records tied to a Turkish subsidiary filing, characterized within Nordic Monitor reporting, name Israeli-national directors Miryam Steinltz, Josef Itzkovitz, Saar Joskovitch, and Sharon Schusheim, alongside US national Philip Levine; this listing may not be identical to the parent company’s global board and requires verification against the parent 20-F or proxy filing ^{2, 43}. Dor was enlisted to Unit 8200 in 1987, reached the rank of major as a section head, and won the Israel National Defense Award in 1993 at the age of 25 ⁴⁴. Co-founder Marius Nacht “spent eight years in the Israeli Air Force, and was a graduate of the ‘Talpiot Program’,” described in that reporting as the IDF’s most elite programme ⁴⁵; he later founded the 8400 Health Network and co-founded the Israeli life-sciences fund aMoon ⁴⁶. Yoav Chelouche is managing partner of Aviv Venture Capital and has served on the boards of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and Tower Semiconductor ³⁸. Nir Barkat - a co-founder of BRM Group, which “paid $400,000 for a 50 percent share of Check Point” in 1993, and Check Point’s first chairperson ⁴⁷ - has served as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry since his appointment in December 2022; a July 2023 Shomrim investigation reported that seven months into his tenure he had neither divested his holdings nor signed a conflict-of-interest arrangement with the attorney general, and that his blind trust was administered by his brother Eli, although “the rules do not permit ministers to use first-degree relatives as trust-holders” ⁴⁸. No public evidence identified of personal donations by Shwed, Dor, or Zafrir to FIDF, JNF/KKL, or other named settlement or military-welfare organizations.