06-main-dossier.md

title: “BDS-1000 Dossier: Costco Wholesale Corporation” entity: “Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST)” brs_score: 141 tier: “E (Minimal)” compiled: 2026-07-02

Key Findings

• Economic: Costco’s own Kirkland Signature private label sources two OTC drug products from Perrigo’s Yeruham (Negev, Israel) manufacturing site, and Costco resells Mehadrin- and Hadiklaim-brand Medjool dates documented with packing operations in occupied Jordan Valley settlements.¹²³⁴
• Political: Costco has issued no corporate statement on the Gaza conflict or the Israel-Palestine situation and has not responded to consumer petitions or protests calling for removal of Israeli-sourced products, consistent with its stated policy of taking no position on social or political issues.⁵⁶
• Settlements: Historically resold product lines with settlement-manufacturing origins - Keter (Barkan/Oranit, closed ~2016), SodaStream (Mishor Adumim, relocated to the Negev by 2019), and Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics (discontinued February 2010 after a boycott campaign) - have all been closed, relocated, or discontinued.^789101112
• Not found: No military or digital nexus was identified - Costco has no defence-procurement, IDF/MOD, or Israeli-cybersecurity-vendor relationship of any kind, operates no facility in Israel, and does not appear in the UN OHCHR settlement-business database.¹³

Target Profile

Key Facts:

• Costco operates roughly 924 warehouses across 14 countries as of early 2026; Israel is not among them.¹⁷
• Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly invited Costco to enter the Israeli retail market in February 2023; no public Costco response or market entry has followed through mid-2026.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰
• Costco is not listed in the UN OHCHR database of business enterprises involved in Israeli settlement-related activities (A/HRC/60/19, September 2025 update).¹³
• Costco’s FY2024 Form 10-K subsidiary list (Exhibit 21.1) records entities in 14 countries of operation; no Israeli subsidiary is recorded.²¹

Executive Summary

Costco Wholesale Corporation is a US-headquartered membership warehouse-club retailer with no operational, corporate, or governance presence in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, or the Golan Heights. It operates no warehouses, offices, or fulfilment sites in Israel, holds no franchise or joint-venture agreement with an Israeli retail entity, and - despite a direct 2023 invitation from Israel’s Finance Minister to enter the market - has not done so.^18192017 Across four independently audited domains, Costco’s documented Israel/Palestine nexus is narrow, entirely indirect, and concentrated in ordinary consumer-goods procurement rather than in any institutional, governmental, or defence-linked relationship.

The strongest documented vector is economic and runs through supply chain and sourcing decisions. Costco’s own Kirkland Signature private label places two over-the-counter drug SKUs (minoxidil and diclofenac gel) with Perrigo’s Yeruham manufacturing facility in the Negev - sovereign Israeli territory, not occupied territory - making this the one clear instance of Costco’s own commercial choice touching Israeli manufacturing.¹² Separately, as a general retailer, Costco resells (rather than private-labels) Medjool dates supplied by Mehadrin and Hadiklaim, both documented by Who Profits and CJPME as operating date-packing facilities in occupied Jordan Valley settlements such as Beka’ot.³⁴²²²³ A secondary, much weaker political vector consists of Costco’s sustained public silence: no corporate statement on the Gaza conflict, no response to consumer boycott petitions or protests targeting its Israeli-sourced products, and no engagement with either pro-boycott or pro-Israel consumer campaigns.^562425262728

Substantial portions of what civil-society campaigns allege are not supported, or are affirmatively contradicted, by the evidence record. Costco has no defence, military, or dual-use procurement relationship of any kind with Israeli or any other military body; its consumer-grade DJI drone sales and third-party veteran-discount programmes do not constitute an institutional military nexus.^29303132 No Israeli-origin cybersecurity, surveillance, or AI vendor relationship was found anywhere in Costco’s confirmed technology stack, and Costco does not appear in the UN OHCHR settlement-business database.¹³ Several of the most-cited settlement-linked product lines are now historical rather than current: Keter closed its West Bank (Barkan/Oranit) manufacturing by approximately 2016, SodaStream relocated its main production from the West Bank to the Negev by 2019 and is now wholly PepsiCo-owned, Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics were discontinued at Costco in February 2010 following a boycott campaign, and Strauss Group - the Israeli 50% owner of the Sabra hummus joint venture historically stocked by Costco - fully divested its stake to PepsiCo in November 2024.^{7891011123334} Several viral claims circulating in advocacy and aggregator sources (a West Bank-origin label added to SodaStream at Costco, a 12-store Sabra-to-Cedar’s swap producing an 11% sales decline in progressive cities) could not be corroborated from any primary source and are treated in this dossier as unverified, not as established fact.

The resulting BRS score is 141 (Tier E - Minimal). This reflects a Economic score of 2.16 - the sole material driver - against a Political score of 0.49, and Military and Digital scores of 0.00 each. The pattern is that of an ordinary global consumer retailer whose sole documented nexus arises from routine, largely third-party product sourcing rather than from any institutional, political, or security relationship with Israel.

Timeline of Relevant Events

Corporate Overview

Costco Wholesale Corporation operates approximately 924 membership warehouses across 14 countries - the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Sweden, Iceland, and New Zealand.¹⁷ Israel is not among them, and Costco’s FY2024 Form 10-K subsidiary list (Exhibit 21.1) records no Israeli subsidiary.²¹ No franchise agreement, equity stake, or formal partnership with an Israeli retail entity has been identified; the Israeli warehouse-club chains sometimes compared to Costco - Osher Ad and Bingo - are independently Israeli-owned with no corporate connection to Costco Wholesale Corporation.⁴⁰

Costco’s Kirkland Signature private-label sourcing includes a manufacturing relationship with Perrigo, which operates a facility at Yeruham in the Negev (sovereign Israeli territory) that produces Kirkland Signature minoxidil and diclofenac gel products; this Israeli site is one part of a broader, long-standing Kirkland–Perrigo manufacturing relationship spanning multiple over-the-counter categories.¹²

Beyond its own private label, Costco resells a number of third-party brands with documented Israeli or settlement-linked production histories: Mehadrin and Hadiklaim Medjool dates (current, with packing operations in occupied Jordan Valley settlements), SodaStream (formerly West Bank-manufactured, now Negev-based and PepsiCo-owned), Keter resin storage products (formerly manufactured at the Barkan and Oranit settlements, closed by ~2016), and, historically, Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics (discontinued 2010) and Sabra hummus (Strauss Group’s Israeli equity fully divested to PepsiCo in November 2024).^{347891011123334}

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

Costco does not appear in any Israeli Ministry of Defence contractor registry, SIBAT listing, or US defence-procurement database. Its retail platform sells consumer-grade DJI drone models (e.g., DJI Mini 4K/4 Pro bundles) as ordinary consumer electronics.²⁹³⁰ Costco also offers discounted memberships to US military personnel and veterans through third-party consumer discount programmes (GOVX, WeSalute).³¹³² A November 2025 tariff lawsuit (Costco Wholesale Corporation v. United States et al., US Court of International Trade) concerns import-duty refunds under IEEPA and has no connection to arms-export enforcement.³⁷³⁸³⁹

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The IDF is known to independently acquire and modify commercially available consumer drones, but no institutional supply relationship between Costco and any Israeli or US military body has been identified; the consumer-drone sale pathway implicates any general electronics retailer and is not Costco-specific. Veteran discount programmes are individual consumer benefits, not government or Department of Defense contracts. Civil-society scrutiny of Costco (CJPME, Canadian BDS Coalition) is directed entirely at food and consumer-goods sourcing, not at a military nexus; no report, investigation, or regulatory action alleging Costco military complicity was identified.⁴¹²⁴³⁶

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Costco (retailer, no institutional link) - DJI (product line resold, no supply relationship with Costco or Israeli military bodies) - GOVX / WeSalute (third-party consumer discount platforms) - no Israeli or US defence prime, ministry, or procurement body identified in connection with Costco.

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

No confirmed licensing, subscription, or integration relationship was identified between Costco and any Israeli-origin cybersecurity, surveillance, or enterprise-software vendor across Costco’s documented technology stack (SAP, UKG, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Splunk, Google Cloud, and Costco’s “Costco Velocity” retail media network). Costco has no data centres, R&D facilities, or engineering offices in Israel, and its FY2024 subsidiary filing records no Israeli entity.²¹ Costco is not listed in the UN OHCHR settlement-business database.¹³

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The audit specifically checked for and did not find Costco relationships with Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, Verint, NICE, Claroty, Trigo, BriefCam, AnyVision/Oosto, or Trax. An activist claim that Costco uses Tel Aviv-based Wix for promotional microsites could not be verified and is contradicted by independent technology-detection data. Costco’s cloud vendor, Google, operates a Tel Aviv region and separately serves Israeli government ministries, but no evidence was found that Costco’s own member or transaction data is processed in Google’s Israeli infrastructure specifically - an unconfirmed, indirect exposure pathway rather than a documented nexus. No Costco participation in Project Nimbus (the Israeli government’s Google/Amazon cloud contract) was identified.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

No Israeli-origin vendor confirmed in Costco’s technology stack. Google Cloud (US-headquartered global vendor; unconfirmed whether Costco data touches its Israeli region). Costco FY2024 Form 10-K, Exhibit 21.1 subsidiary list - no Israeli entity recorded.²¹

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

Costco’s own commercial sourcing places two Kirkland Signature OTC drug products with Perrigo’s Yeruham (Negev) manufacturing facility - a decision within Costco’s direct control, though sited in sovereign rather than occupied Israeli territory.¹² As a general retailer, Costco resells Medjool dates supplied by Mehadrin and Hadiklaim, both documented with packing operations in occupied Jordan Valley settlements (e.g., Beka’ot); Costco has also seasonally sourced Israeli clementines.³⁴²²²³ Costco has historically resold SodaStream (formerly West Bank-manufactured, later relocated), Keter storage products (formerly settlement-manufactured, closed ~2016), Ahava cosmetics (discontinued 2010), and Sabra hummus (Strauss Group’s Israeli 50% stake divested to PepsiCo in November 2024).^{7891011123334}

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Costco operates zero warehouses in Israel and declined (via non-response) Israel’s 2023 invitation to enter the market.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰ No Israeli sovereign wealth fund or Israeli institutional investor holds a material Costco position beyond ordinary global index exposure, and no Israeli co-founder, board director, or structural corporate tie has been identified.¹⁴⁴² Three of the most-cited settlement-linked product lines are now historical: Ahava was discontinued in 2010, Keter’s West Bank facilities closed by ~2016, and SodaStream relocated to the Negev by 2019; under the audits’ temporal rule, these are mitigated rather than live exposures. Strauss Group’s Israeli equity in Sabra ended entirely in November 2024. The remaining live exposure - Mehadrin/Hadiklaim dates and Perrigo’s Yeruham manufacturing - is real and current but represents a small, undisclosed fraction of Costco’s total global procurement; no US regulatory mislabelling action against Costco has been identified despite CBP’s rule that West Bank settlement goods must be labelled “West Bank” rather than “Israel.”[^ ] No public evidence identified of enforcement action against Costco specifically on this point.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Perrigo (Kirkland Signature manufacturer; Yeruham, Negev, Israel)¹² - Mehadrin (Medjool dates; Jordan Valley settlement packing operations; named Costco distribution partner)³²³ - Hadiklaim (Medjool dates; documented in the OHCHR settlement-business database)⁴¹³ - Keter (formerly Barkan/Oranit settlements; closed ~2016)⁷ - SodaStream (PepsiCo-owned; relocated from West Bank to Negev by 2019)⁸⁹¹⁰ - Ahava (Mitzpe Shalem settlement manufacturer; discontinued at Costco 2010)¹¹¹² - Strauss Group (former 50% Sabra owner; fully divested November 2024)³³³⁴.

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

Costco has issued no corporate statement on the Gaza conflict, the October 2023 attacks, or the Israel-Palestine situation broadly, consistent with a stated policy of taking no position on social or political issues and not engaging in partisan politics.⁵⁶ Costco has not publicly responded to consumer petitions, protests, or boycott campaigns calling for removal of Israeli-sourced products from its shelves.²⁴²⁵²⁸ Costco’s federal lobbying and political-spending record shows no activity touching Israel-related legislation, and company policy formally bars use of corporate funds for political contributions or PAC spending.^43444546

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Costco’s silence is genuinely bidirectional: pro-Israel consumer groups have separately urged shoppers to patronize Costco precisely because it continues to stock Israeli-origin products, and Costco has not engaged with that camp either.²⁶²⁷ Several viral claims - that Costco added “West Bank” origin labels to SodaStream, tested a 12-store Sabra-to-Cedar’s swap, or saw an 11% hummus sales drop in progressive cities - appear only in aggregator or advocacy sources without primary corroboration and are treated as unverified. The characterisation of Costco as a “Tier 2 BDS target” likewise traces only to secondary aggregator sites, not to a primary BDS Movement document.²⁶ Late co-founder Jeffrey Brotman’s support for Jewish communal and philanthropic organisations was a personal act by a now-deceased individual, not a corporate act of Costco, and no current executive or director has been identified with Israel-advocacy or Israeli government-linked affiliations.¹⁵¹⁶ Costco has no franchise, joint-venture, or equity relationship with any Israeli retail entity.⁴⁰

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Canadian BDS Coalition (third-party boycott campaign)²⁴³⁶²⁵ - CJPME / CODEPINK (third-party advocacy fact sheets)⁴⁷⁴⁸ - Change.org petitioners (third-party consumer petition)²⁸ - Jeffrey Brotman (deceased co-founder; personal philanthropy, not a corporate act)¹⁵ - Ron Vachris (current CEO; no documented Israel-related activity identified)¹⁶.

BDS-1000 Score (V4)

• V_MAX: 2.16 Sum_OTHERS: 0.49
• BRS Score: 141 Tier: E (Minimal)

The score is driven entirely by Economic (V_MAX = 2.16), reflecting Costco’s own private-label manufacturing decision (Perrigo/Yeruham) and its resale of settlement-linked Israeli agricultural products (Mehadrin/Hadiklaim dates) - activity types with moderate impact and magnitude but only moderate directness, since most of the exposure runs through third-party suppliers rather than Costco’s own operations. Political contributes a small secondary amount (0.49) from documented corporate silence and non-responsiveness to boycott campaigns. Military and Digital both score zero: no defence-procurement, dual-use, surveillance, or Israeli-technology-vendor relationship of any kind was found in either domain. The result - BRS 141, Tier E (Minimal) - places Costco at the low end of the scored universe: a documented but narrow, largely supplier-mediated, non-institutional nexus. The method is scale-free (Impact × Magnitude/Proximity per domain, domains combined via V_MAX plus a discounted sum of the others), evidence-only, and reflects human-vetted final scores that are not altered by this dossier.

Methodology Note

• All claims in this dossier are evidence-only, traced to the four domain audits (Military, Digital, Economic, Political) compiled 2026-06-21 through 2026-06-29; no claim beyond those audits’ findings is included.
• Scoring is scale-free: Impact (I) reflects the type of activity, Magnitude (M) reflects its scale, and Proximity (P) reflects how direct Costco’s own conduct is versus third-party/supplier mediation.
• A temporal mitigation rule applies: divested, closed, or relocated operations (Ahava 2010, Keter ~2016, SodaStream 2019, Strauss/Sabra November 2024) are treated as historical and mitigating rather than current live exposures.
• Entity attribution follows a no-transitive-guilt standard: liability is not imputed to Costco for the independent conduct of suppliers, resold third-party brands, or unrelated Israeli-named entities (e.g., Matrix IT) with no documented Costco connection.
• Settlement-linked supplier activity (e.g., Mehadrin/Hadiklaim dates) is dual-counted across Economic and Political where both an economic transaction and a political-exposure/reputational dimension are documented.
• Where audit checks found nothing, this dossier states “No public evidence identified” rather than inferring absence of a relationship from silence, and carries forward the audits’ own unverified/unresolved caveats without hardening them into fact.

End Notes