INDEX / DIRECTORY / JOHN LEWIS

John Lewis

Department Stores 90 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-07-10
BDS-1000 Score 214 /1000 D Tier D - Moderate
Military ↗ 0.00 Digital ↗ 0.01 Economic ↗ 2.93 Political ↗ 2.45

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BDS-1000 Dossier: John Lewis

Key Findings

  • Economic: John Lewis Partnership’s own factory list confirms Ardom Dates, a processing facility in Hevel Eilot, Israel, as a current supplier, and Waitrose was separately named in an October 2024 legal notice identifying settlement-linked exporters (Mehadrin, Galilee, Hadiklaim, and others) supplying dates, mangos, avocados, tahini and halva to UK supermarkets.12
  • Political: John Lewis relisted SodaStream in 2023 and continued selling it through December 2025 despite sustained Palestine Solidarity Campaign and ICJP legal pressure, becoming the only one of four retailers formally warned in November 2025 to respond - stating it “respectfully disagreed” that the sales breached the law.345
  • Digital: John Lewis’s core technology vendors (Google Cloud, Wipro, Foundever/Calabrio, Facewatch, Yoti) are US- or UK-origin; its only Israeli-linked digital engagements were a 2015–16 augmented-reality vendor (Cimagine, later acquired by Snap) and a 2019 accelerator finalist (Oriient), neither of which is shown to have continued commercially.678
  • Not found: No public evidence of any military, defence, or dual-use supply relationship, contract, or export-licensing matter connecting John Lewis to Israeli defence or security bodies - Military scored zero across impact, magnitude, and proximity.910

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameJohn Lewis (John Lewis Partnership; retail operations comprise John Lewis department stores and Waitrose & Partners supermarkets)
JurisdictionUnited Kingdom; John Lewis Partnership plc is domiciled and headquartered in the UK11
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom11
SectorGeneral merchandise/department-store retail and food/grocery retail (Waitrose)11
OwnershipEmployee-owned partnership held in trust for all Partners; no external private-equity sponsor, listed parent, or controlling beneficial owner; John Lewis International Limited (company no. 07501166) is a named subsidiary of undisclosed international scope11
Key Executives / GovernanceJason Tarry, Chairman since September 2024 (formerly 33+ years at Tesco); Nish Kankiwala, director with active Companies House appointments; Falcon Trustees LLP (corporate trustee of the JLP Defined Benefit Pension Trust, appointed February 2025), represented by Venetia Trayhurn121314
Israeli-Nexus SummaryA civilian retail-sourcing and consumer-goods relationship - settlement-region food sourcing (Ardom Dates) and a long-running SodaStream/Ahava stocking controversy - with no identified military, defence, or state-security dimension

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

John Lewis’s documented Israel/Palestine nexus is almost entirely a retail-sourcing and consumer-boycott story rather than a defence, security, or technology-supply story. Across four independent domain audits - military, digital, economic, and political - no evidence surfaced of John Lewis or the wider John Lewis Partnership (JLP) holding any contract, licence, joint venture, or supply relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defence, the IDF, Israeli intelligence or security bodies, or Israeli defence primes such as Elbit Systems, IAI, or Rafael.910 The company does not manufacture dual-use or mil-spec goods, is absent from Who Profits, OHCHR settlement-business, and Elbit-supplier investigations, and no export-licensing or sanctions action connects it to Israeli military end-users.910

The strongest documented vectors are economic and political. On the economic side, JLP’s own factory list names Ardom Dates - a date-processing facility in Hevel Eilot, Israel, owned by nine Southern Arava kibbutzim and marketed under the Hadiklaim brand - as a current supplier.1 Waitrose was separately named in an October 2024 legal notice from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), which identified Mehadrin, Galilee, Hadiklaim, and other exporters of settlement-linked dates, mangos, avocados, tahini, halva, and bakery goods as reaching UK supermarkets, Waitrose among them.2 Historically, Waitrose sold West Bank settlement-grown herbs in 2008, labelled “West Bank” rather than “Produce of Israel.”15 No confirmed direct procurement contract between John Lewis/Waitrose and the named settlement exporters was identified, and whether Ardom’s specific inputs originate within or beyond the Green Line was not product-level verified.12

On the political side, John Lewis has a fifteen-year record of reactive, campaign-driven stocking decisions rather than any declared geopolitical stance. It discontinued Ahava cosmetics around 2008 (a move it called “purely a commercial decision,” disputed by campaigners as a boycott win), withdrew SodaStream in July 2014 after two years of weekly Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) protests outside its Oxford Street flagship, then relisted SodaStream in 2023 and continued selling it through December 2025 despite renewed legal pressure.16173 In November 2025 the ICJP warned four UK retailers over SodaStream sales; John Lewis was the only one to respond, stating it “respectfully disagreed” that the sales breached consumer-protection or criminal law and that sourcing remains “under constant review” - a response ICJP and The Canary characterised as failing to address the underlying allegations.456 No corporate statement on Gaza since October 2023 was identified, in contrast to a named, emotive statement and a £100,000 matched donation the Partnership made over Ukraine.1819

What is not supported by the evidence is any military, dual-use, or state-security relationship, any Israeli data-centre or Project Nimbus link, any Israeli-origin surveillance/biometric technology within JLP’s own retail-security stack (JLP’s facial-recognition and age-estimation vendors, Facewatch and Yoti, are UK-origin), and any institutional divestment or defence-specific boycott campaign targeting John Lewis.92010 JLP’s only historically documented Israeli technology relationship - a 2015–16 augmented-reality partnership with the Israeli startup Cimagine - ended when Cimagine was acquired by Snap Inc. in late 2016, and no evidence of continuation was found.2122

These findings, taken together, produce a BRS of 214 (Tier D, Moderate). The score is driven almost entirely by Economic (settlement-linked food sourcing) and Political (the sustained, unresolved SodaStream stocking controversy and asymmetric silence on Gaza), while Military and Digital score at or near zero, reflecting the documentary absence of any military or meaningful digital-technology nexus.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
2008Waitrose sells West Bank settlement-grown organic herbs, labelled “West Bank” rather than “Produce of Israel”15
2008John Lewis discontinues Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics, describing it as a commercial decision; campaigners claim it as a boycott victory16
Nov 2013Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK begins targeting John Lewis over SodaStream, then manufactured at Mishor Adumim in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement23
2014Fortnightly protests held outside John Lewis’s Oxford Street flagship store24
Jul 2014John Lewis withdraws SodaStream from shelves; SodaStream cites strategic refocus, press/PSC cite boycott pressure17
2015John Lewis partners with Israeli AR startup Cimagine for an in-store furniture-visualisation showroom21
Late 2016Cimagine acquired by Snap Inc.; no evidence the JLP integration continued22
Feb 2019Israeli indoor-positioning startup Oriient is a finalist in JLP’s JLAB retail-technology accelerator25
2020Wipro engaged as JLP’s IT-infrastructure outsourcing partner26
Jul 2023John Lewis relists SodaStream via an in-store “Shop in Shop,” by which point SodaStream’s plant had relocated to the Negev3
Aug 2023JLP signs £100m, five-year Google Cloud transformation agreement7
2023 (launch)JLP joins Home Office–backed Project Pegasus retail-crime facial-recognition initiative20
Dec 2023PSC-affiliated groups stage protests at Waitrose over Israeli/settlement produce27
Aug 2024Wipro–JLP relationship extended a further four years8
Sep 2024Jason Tarry becomes JLP Chairman12
30 Oct 2024ICJP sends legal notices to eight UK supermarkets, including Waitrose, over settlement-origin goods2
13 Dec 2024ICJP publicly calls on UK government to review supermarket complicity in settlement trade28
Jan 2025JLP relaunches Yoti-based AI facial age-estimation for online knife sales29
13 Jun 2025ICJP issues a further legal notice to Sainsbury’s; no confirmation Waitrose was included30
13 Nov 2025ICJP warns four UK retailers, including John Lewis, over continued SodaStream sales4
Dec 2025John Lewis responds to ICJP - the only one of four retailers to do so - “respectfully disagreeing” and continuing to sell SodaStream56
Jan 2026JLP publishes Human Rights Policy v3, addressing engagement in “occupied” territories per UN/ICJ/ICC definitions31

Corporate Overview

John Lewis Partnership plc is the UK’s largest employee-owned business, comprising John Lewis department stores and Waitrose & Partners supermarkets, governed in trust for all Partners with no external equity owners, golden shares, or state ownership stakes.11 The group reported partnership sales of £12.8 billion and profit before tax of £97 million in its 2024/25 annual report, which does not characterise Israel as a market, sourcing origin, or strategic region.11 John Lewis International Limited (company no. 07501166) is listed as a subsidiary, but the nature of its international operations is not further disclosed.11 No public evidence identified of any JLP office, warehouse, retail location, or workforce within Israel or the occupied territories.11

The company’s Israeli-linked entities are exclusively supply-side and vendor-side: Ardom Dates (a food supplier in Hevel Eilot, Israel, jointly owned by nine Southern Arava kibbutzim), the historical Cimagine AR partnership, and the JLAB accelerator’s consideration of Oriient.12125 JLP’s principal current technology vendors - Google Cloud, Wipro, Foundever, Calabrio, Facewatch, and Yoti - are US- or UK-domiciled; the audits note that Wipro (JLP’s integrator) separately maintains its own Israel-facing industrial activity (the 2016 acquisition of H.R. Givon, a manufacturing alliance with Israel Aerospace Industries, and a 2017 Tel Aviv University research partnership), but no evidence indicates this reaches JLP’s engagement.3233 JLP’s Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice (2017) and Human Rights Policy v3 (January 2026) govern supplier conduct generally and, in the latter case, specifically address economic engagement with “occupied” territories, though enforcement outcomes for named settlement suppliers are not disclosed.3431

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No mechanism was identified. John Lewis operates as a general department-store retailer with no documented defence contracting, dual-use manufacturing, heavy-machinery/construction supply, defence-prime supply chain integration, base-logistics servicing, munitions/platform production, or export-licensing history connecting it to Israeli military or security bodies.910 The only identified Israeli commercial partnership in this domain is the 2015 Cimagine augmented-reality retail-visualisation deployment, a civilian in-store technology.21

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

John Lewis’s absence from SIBAT listings, defence-exhibition catalogues, the Declassified UK Elbit-supplier investigation, and Who Profits/OHCHR settlement-business databases is a genuine and repeatedly-checked absence, not merely an unsearched gap.910 The UK company implicated in demolition-equipment investigations (JCB) is an entirely separate corporate entity with no relationship to John Lewis Partnership.35 The only litigation-adjacent matters identified - ICJP notices over settlement-origin goods and SodaStream - concern consumer-protection and settlement-goods law, not defence-export law, and no court proceedings specific to a defence-supply relationship were found.26

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

JLP’s technology stack is built on Google Cloud (£100m, five-year strategic agreement from August 2023), Wipro (IT infrastructure since 2020), and Foundever/Calabrio (contact-centre and analytics) - all US- or UK-origin.7836 Retail-security technology (Project Pegasus facial recognition, Yoti age-estimation) is supplied by UK companies Facewatch and Yoti respectively.2029 The sole historical Israeli-origin technology engagements are the 2015–16 Cimagine AR partnership and Oriient’s 2019 JLAB accelerator finalist status; neither is shown to have produced a lasting commercial deployment.2125

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of JLP holding relationships with Israeli surveillance, cyber, or AI/SIGINT vendors (Check Point, NSO-adjacent firms, AnyVision/Oosto, Trigo, Trax, BriefCam), of Israeli data-centre operations, of participation in Project Nimbus, or of any AI/biometric system trained on occupied-territory surveillance data.9 Cimagine’s 2016 acquisition by Snap Inc. effectively closed that relationship, and Oriient’s accelerator participation did not progress to a commercial deployment on available evidence.2225 Wipro’s separate Israel-facing defence-industrial activity (H.R. Givon, IAI alliance) is a fact about JLP’s vendor’s other business, not about JLP’s own engagement, and no evidence bridges the two.3233

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

JLP’s factory list confirms Ardom Dates (Hevel Eilot, Israel; 46 workers) as a current supplier.1 ICJP’s October 2024 notice named Mehadrin, Galilee, Hadiklaim, and other exporters as suppliers of settlement-linked dates, mangos, avocados, tahini, halva, and bakery goods reaching UK supermarkets including Waitrose.2 Waitrose sold West Bank settlement-grown herbs in 2008.15 UK date imports totalled £77.3 million in 2024, with Israel the largest source (32%, £24.7 million), and roughly 40% of Israeli date production is estimated to originate in settlements.37

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of a dedicated JLP import subsidiary, joint venture, or confirmed direct procurement contract with the named settlement exporters, and whether Ardom’s specific inputs originate within or beyond the Green Line was not product-level verified.12 JLP’s Human Rights Policy v3 (January 2026) explicitly requires avoiding economic engagement that “directly benefits the occupying power” in occupied territories, and one source (not independently corroborated by a primary company statement) reported Waitrose no longer sources Medjool dates from Israel.3138 No FDI, R&D presence, employment, or tax footprint in Israel was identified, and no evidence characterises Israel as a market, sourcing region, or profit-flow direction in JLP’s financial disclosures.11 The Waitrose Foundation’s 2024/25 report covers ten countries with no Israel-specific grants.39

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

John Lewis’s political footprint is a record of reactive, campaign-driven stocking decisions: dropping Ahava (2008), withdrawing SodaStream (2014), relisting it (2023), and continuing to sell it through December 2025 despite ICJP and PSC pressure, including being the only one of four retailers to respond to a November 2025 legal warning.1617345 No corporate statement on Gaza since October 2023 was identified, contrasting with a named leadership statement and matched £100,000 donation over Ukraine.1819

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

John Lewis is not listed in the OHCHR settlement-business database or Who Profits.41 Waitrose has stated that products labelled “Israel” originate within pre-1967 borders, that West Bank products are clearly labelled, and that it stopped sourcing own-brand herbs from Israeli settlements under DEFRA’s voluntary guidance.42 John Lewis’s own December 2025 statement “respectfully disagreed” that SodaStream sales breach consumer-protection or criminal law, said it requires suppliers to comply with its responsible sourcing code, and stated sourcing remains “under constant review” - a substantive, if contested, defence.5 No evidence of lobbying, political donations, or personal executive advocacy on the conflict was identified.43

Named Entities and Evidence Map

BDS-1000 Score (V4)

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital1.000.500.500.01
Economic5.804.505.502.93
Political5.004.006.002.45

V_MAX is set by Economic, driven by the confirmed Ardom Dates supplier relationship and Waitrose’s documented exposure to named settlement agricultural exporters - a moderate-impact, moderate-magnitude, moderately-direct sourcing nexus rather than a high-severity one. Political contributes the largest secondary weight, reflecting the sustained, fifteen-year SodaStream/Ahava stocking controversy and the company’s continued sales despite repeated legal warnings. Military and Digital are negligible to zero, reflecting a documented absence of any military or substantive digital-technology nexus. The BRS-214, Tier D (Moderate) outcome is produced by the standard scale-free method: evidence-only inputs, Impact × Magnitude/Proximity per domain, human-vetted against the four domain audits without inference beyond documented findings.

Methodology Note

End Notes

Footnotes

  1. https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/reports-policies-standards/jlp-factory-list.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. https://www.icjpalestine.com/2024/10/30/8-national-supermarkets-threatened-with-legal-action-for-selling-illegal-goods-from-israeli-settlements/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  3. https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2023/07/sodastream-johnlewis-showcase/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. https://www.icjpalestine.com/2025/11/13/icjp-warns-major-uk-retailers-who-stock-sodastream-of-violating-legal-obligations/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2025/12/john-lewis-sodastream/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/12/16/where-love-lives-not-in-the-naqab-region-john-lewis-accused-over-israeli-sodastream-products/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-lewis-partnership-accelerates-technology-transformation-with-100m-agreement-with-google-cloud-301896475.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. https://www.wipro.com/newsroom/press-releases/2024/wipro-extends-relationship-with-the-john-lewis-partnership-to-complete-cloud-transformation-project/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  9. https://www.whoprofits.org/companies ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  10. https://www.ohchr.org/en/business/bhr-database ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  11. https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/documents/john-lewis-partnership-plc-annual-report-2025.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  12. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/j_yAzBQ7Ph8IhHKynvlfwKjZiIA/appointments ↩ ↩2

  13. https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/documents/2-JLPPT-DB-Section-SIP-September-2024.pdf ↩ ↩2

  14. https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/documents/4-JLPPT-DB-Implementation-Statement-2025.pdf ↩

  15. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/06/israelandthepalestinians.supermarkets ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  16. https://www.thejc.com/news/john-lewis-not-boycotting-ahava-p087bd0z ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/amena-saleem/palestine-activists-celebrate-sodastream-shuts-uk-store ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  18. https://www.johnlewispartnership.media/pressrelease/jlp/details/14059 ↩ ↩2

  19. https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2022/03/john-lewis-donates-100000-to-support-ukraine-pledges-to-match-donations-up-to-150000/ ↩ ↩2

  20. https://www.weightmans.com/media-centre/news/retail-violence-government-launches-project-pegasus/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  21. https://www.israel21c.org/john-lewis-partners-with-cimagine/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  22. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/1.761362 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/israel-palestine-ngos-protest-against-john-lewis-partnership-for-selling-sodastream-amid-boycott-over-alleges-ties-with-israeli-settlements-includes-company-comments/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  24. https://www.thejc.com/news/john-lewis-store-rounds-on-israel-boycott-campaigners-h87qjdhk ↩

  25. https://www.essentialretail.com/news/reshaping-the-store-jlab-startups ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  26. https://www.consultingpoint.com/news/2020/7/15/john-lewis-partnership-announces-partnership-with-wipro ↩

  27. https://tellthetruthsheffield.org/2023/12/17/protesters-take-direct-action-at-waitrose-and-marks-and-spencer-in-call-for-boycott-of-israeli-goods/ ↩

  28. https://www.icjpalestine.com/2024/12/13/as-supermarkets-gear-up-for-christmas-windfall-icjp-calls-on-the-government-to-review-supermarkets-complicity-in-illegal-israeli-settlement-trade/ ↩

  29. https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2025/01/john-lewis-ai-age-knives/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  30. https://www.icjpalestine.com/2025/06/13/icjp-issues-legal-notice-to-sainsburys-and-notifies-northern-ireland-executive-over-stocking-of-illegal-israeli-settlement-products/ ↩

  31. https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/documents/JLP-Human-Rights-Policy-2026.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  32. https://www.airframer.com/direct_detail.html?company=137638 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  33. https://www.electronicsforyou.biz/industry-buzz/wipro-infrastructure-engineering-partners-israel-aerospace-industries/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  34. https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/reports-policies-standards/jlp-responsible-sourcing-code-of-practice.pdf ↩

  35. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/11/uk-construction-giant-jcbs-products-used-for-palestinian-house-demolitions-and-illegal-israeli-settlements/ ↩ ↩2

  36. https://contact-centres.com/foundever-john-lewis-partnership-extend-contact-centre-partnership/ ↩

  37. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/Palestine-Israel-dates ↩

  38. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/corporations/brands-sell-palestinian-dates ↩

  39. https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/reports-policies-standards/waitrose-foundation-report-2025.pdf ↩

  40. https://euobserver.com/218014/from-west-bank-to-eu-supermarkets-how-much-longer-will-israeli-settler-imports-go-on ↩

  41. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-human-rights-office-updates-database-businesses-involved-israeli ↩

  42. https://www.fruitnet.com/fresh-produce-journal/waitrose-denies-claims-over-israeli-products/151292.article ↩ ↩2

  43. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/5oUm_c3zRThnaCsfFiolxODSAKQ/appointments ↩