Political Audit: Oracle

Political Audit: Oracle Corporation

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

In the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Oracle CEO Safra Catz directed that “Oracle stands with Israel” be posted on Oracle websites globally in local languages, paired with a $1 million corporate donation to Magen David Adom and a global, uncapped employee-matching fundraising campaign ¹². Catz has publicly framed the company’s geopolitical priorities in explicit terms, stating “For us, it’s the U.S., Israel, and then the rest of the world. We don’t hide it,” and describing an emotional reaction to hostages returning home ². Oracle’s Head of Sales, Shmulik Hauser, stated that Oracle “knew we might lose customers because of our support for Israel” but that “supporting Israel is in our DNA - even if it costs us clients” ². Regarding employees who disagree with the company’s posture, Catz said “if they don’t agree with our mission to support the State of Israel then maybe we aren’t the right company for them” ³⁴. Catz was also reported to have referred to pro-Palestinian rights groups as “brainwashing organizations” that “don’t even know the facts” ³⁴. A 2015 internal email attributed to Catz, surfaced in reporting on anti-BDS youth-outreach efforts, stated “We have to embed the love and respect for Israel in the American culture” ⁵. By contrast, Oracle’s formal 2022 statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine used general “for peace/against illegal war” language, stating the company “stands with the people of Ukraine and against the unlawful attack on their country,” and announced suspension of all operations in Russia and Belarus alongside a $1 million donation split across four humanitarian organizations and matched employee giving ⁶⁷. No public evidence identified of an equivalent Oracle corporate statement specifically addressing Palestinian civilian harm, ceasefire calls, or humanitarian conditions in Gaza. No public evidence identified of an Oracle corporate statement on COVID-19 comparable in scale or specificity to the Ukraine or Israel statements. Oracle’s Israel operations have been publicly framed by leadership not as standard commercial market activity but as strategic partnership, with Catz stating “We are here to help the government, the military and the Israeli economy” ⁸, and planned AI-computing capacity in Israel described in national-strategic terms before being reported redirected elsewhere ⁹.

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Oracle Israel provides servers to the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA), headquartered in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, supporting a monitoring system tied to a permitting regime that rejects the large majority of Palestinian building applications in Area C; the ICA issued tenders in October–November 2024 for “Oracle server support and maintenance services” for this system ¹⁰. Oracle Israel licenses also power the “Matash” system used to issue permits authorizing employers to hire Palestinian workers inside Israel and in settlements ¹⁰. Oracle databases (in use since 2006) underpin the “Rotem-Reut” border-control and population data system deployed at Israeli crossings including West Bank and East Jerusalem checkpoints and the Allenby Bridge; by November 2023 Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority held over 380 Oracle licenses, and between December 2022 and December 2023 Oracle Israel supplied licenses valued at NIS 1,258,323 to the Authority ¹⁰. A 2015 licensing agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, described as the sixth consecutive renewal, was valued at NIS 140 million over three years and supported systems including real-time data transfer to commanders in operational areas ¹⁰. In January 2024, Oracle donated seven tons of auxiliary equipment worth more than half a million dollars to Israeli military units operating in Gaza ¹¹¹⁰. Oracle Israel partnered with the Israeli Air Force from 2021 on a four-year, highly confidential AI/data-engineering effort internally described as “Project Menta”; an Oracle Israel communications executive characterized it in a December 2021 internal message as enabling the Air Force to do “a bunch of important military stuff that we can’t share with you,” and neither Oracle nor Israel’s Ministry of Defense responded to press inquiries ³. Oracle built a 14,000-square-meter, four-floor, 50-meter-underground data center in Jerusalem at a cost of roughly NIS 1.2 billion ($319 million), opened in October 2021, engineered to withstand rocket, missile or car-bomb attack, and serving banks, health funds, defense forces and government ministries ¹²¹³. In January 2024, during a wartime visit, Catz affirmed commitment to build a second, nine-floor-underground Israeli data center ¹⁴⁸; by October 2024, reporting indicated Oracle had shelved the Israel option for its large AI/HPC data center in favor of the UAE, a characterization disputed by Oracle Israel’s country leader ⁹. Oracle separately competed for Israel’s $1.2 billion “Project Nimbus” state/military cloud tender, was disqualified over information-security requirements after AWS and Google won the award, and petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to overturn the result before losing ^15161718. The 2025 UN OHCHR update to its database of businesses linked to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank lists 158 companies ¹⁹²⁰; No public evidence identified that Oracle Corporation itself is named as an entity on that list. Oracle’s contracting record has drawn scrutiny amid broader UN examination of corporate complicity in the occupation, including the Special Rapporteur’s July 2025 report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” ²¹. Oracle is the subject of organized civil-society and boycott campaigns: BDS Movement published a formal “Oracle Company Complicity Profile” in March 2025 ¹¹; Who Profits maintains an ongoing company dossier ¹⁰; a Change.org petition demands Oracle “cease support for Israel and remove their statement from homepage” ²²; and Oracle has been referenced in divestment-campaign literature including the Al-Haq-linked “Don’t Buy into Occupation” coalition’s November 2025 report ²³. Oracle did not respond to press requests for comment on the specific allegations raised in February 2025 reporting ³⁴.

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

In November 2023, an Oracle employee was terminated after posting a combined Palestinian-flag/watermelon Oracle logo to Slack and social media ³⁴. In or around January 2024, 68 Oracle employees signed an open letter stating they were “afraid to speak out publicly for fear of retribution,” criticizing Oracle’s Israel partnerships, and reporting that employees who raised workplace concerns about Gaza were directed to mental-health resources rather than HR/Employee Relations channels; the letter called for a ceasefire statement, a Palestinian employee resource group, and restrictions on product use by Israeli armed forces ³²⁴. Six Oracle employees told The Intercept in February 2025 that they were seeking employment elsewhere because of the internal climate ³. Medical Aid for Palestinians and UNRWA were removed from Oracle’s internal employee donation-matching platform following escalation of the Gaza conflict, with Oracle attributing the change to a shift in giving priorities toward education, environment and health; employee requests for reinstatement went unanswered ³⁴. No public evidence identified of subsequent reinstatement of those charities to the matching platform. Oracle personnel were separately reported to have developed “Words of Iron,” a social-media initiative built with Israeli government ministries to elevate pro-Israel content and counter critical narratives on TikTok, Instagram and X/Twitter, described internally by an Oracle executive in November 2023 as an “important volunteering initiative” ³. In February 2024, Oracle and the Israeli military’s cyber department co-ran a hackathon to develop tech solutions for “rehabilitating Israeli settlements near Gaza” using Oracle technology ³¹⁰. No public evidence identified of an independent academic study or regulatory inquiry specifically examining Oracle’s algorithmic content-moderation practices, as distinct from the internal advocacy initiatives described above. No public evidence identified of Oracle-specific retail or product-origin labeling controversies, consistent with Oracle’s status as a software and cloud-services company without a consumer retail or physical-goods supply chain.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Oracle’s Jerusalem data center is publicly marketed with defense-resilience branding, described as able to “withstand a rocket, a missile or even a car bomb” and as serving defense, government, banking, insurance, infrastructure, technology and retail sector clients ¹²¹³. In January 2024, Catz met in Israel with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and war-cabinet minister Benny Gantz, discussing AI and cloud opportunities with Netanyahu and “security assistance” with Gallant ¹⁴⁸. Oracle won a 2020 UK Ministry of Defence cloud-infrastructure contract, and its databases are also used by the UK Home Office, Office for National Statistics, and NHS ²⁵. Oracle was reported as part of a consortium awarded a 15-year, tens-of-billions-of-dollars CIA cloud contract in 2020 ²⁵. No public evidence identified of Oracle corporate sponsorship of a formal “Brand Israel”-style government public-relations campaign, though the “Words of Iron” collaboration between Oracle personnel and Israeli government ministries constitutes documented informal cooperation on pro-Israel messaging ³. Larry Ellison was a named donor, alongside Roman Abramovich and Sheldon Adelson, to a $100+ million City of David Foundation excavation beneath Silwan, East Jerusalem, whose parent organization Elad is described as a settler group that helps settle Jewish families in Arab neighborhoods ²⁶. The dig’s June 2019 unveiling was attended by the US Ambassador to Israel, three other US ambassadors, Trump Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt, Senator Lindsey Graham, Adelson, and Sara Netanyahu, and drew Palestinian accusations that the US was helping “Judaize” East Jerusalem, while Israeli archaeologists disputed the excavation’s scientific rigor ²⁶. Separate reporting documents decades of institutional cooperation between Elad and the Jewish National Fund in property transfers in Silwan ²⁷, and Peace Now describes Elad’s tourism operations in Silwan as a vehicle for settlement expansion ²⁸.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

Oracle Corp spent $11,610,000 on federal lobbying in 2025 and $2,780,000 in the first part of 2026 ²⁹. Oracle’s federal PAC raised $374,288 during the 2023–2024 election cycle ³⁰. No public evidence identified tying specific Oracle lobbying disclosures to Israel-policy, anti-BDS, or settlement-related legislation. On June 18, 2024, Catz joined Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in a Capitol Hill meeting with a bipartisan group of senators to press for continued US support for Israel, Israel’s “right to defend itself,” removal of Hamas from power, and hostage release, with the meeting also touching on Saudi Arabia’s potential post-Hamas role in Gaza ³¹³². Leaked April 2015 emails between Larry Ellison and then-Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor show Ellison assessing Marco Rubio’s “fealty to Israel” ahead of Rubio’s 2016 presidential run, writing “Marco will be a great friend for Israel”; Ellison subsequently hosted a Rubio fundraiser and contributed $5 million to a pro-Rubio super PAC ³³. Ellison has personally donated a cumulative $26 million or more to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces since 2014, including a record $16.6 million gift in 2017 - the largest single gift in FIDF history, funding IDF infantry brigade well-being facilities ³⁴³⁵. These FIDF gifts are documented as personal Ellison/family donations rather than Oracle corporate-treasury contributions. Separately, Oracle Corporation itself donated $1 million to Magen David Adom in October 2023 and ran a global, dollar-for-dollar employee-matching campaign ¹², a corporate financing pattern comparable in structure (though not in rhetorical framing) to Oracle’s 2022 corporate donation of $1 million split among UNHCR, UNICEF, International Medical Corps and World Central Kitchen for Ukraine, also paired with employee matching ⁶. After October 7, 2023, Oracle doubled salary payments for Israel-based employees, including reservists called up for duty, for the first months of the war ². In January 2024, Oracle donated seven tons of auxiliary equipment worth more than half a million dollars to Israeli military units operating in Gaza ¹¹¹⁰.

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Oracle Corporation is a Delaware-incorporated, NYSE-listed multinational software and cloud-services company whose board composition and governance are disclosed through standard SEC DEF 14A proxy filings ³⁶. No public evidence identified of a state-held golden share, sovereign ownership stake, or founding charter provision tying Oracle’s primary corporate mission to any state’s geopolitical goals. No public evidence identified that Oracle’s charter or founding documents reference Israel, Palestine, or any state-security mandate.

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Larry Ellison, Oracle’s Executive Chair, CTO, founder and largest shareholder, has personally donated $26 million or more to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces since 2014, including the record $16.6 million 2017 gift ³⁴³⁵. Ellison was a named donor to the Elad-linked City of David/Silwan archaeological excavation project ²⁶. In September 2021, while serving as a witness in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s corruption trial, Ellison offered Netanyahu a roughly $450,000-per-year seat on Oracle’s board, an offer Netanyahu’s office denied receiving ³⁷. In 2015, Ellison vetted Marco Rubio’s pro-Israel credentials with Israel’s then-UN Ambassador and subsequently contributed $5 million to a pro-Rubio super PAC ³³. Safra Catz, Oracle’s CEO through the 2025 leadership reorganization and now Executive Vice Chair, is Israeli-American and has been described by multiple outlets as a personal friend of Netanyahu; she made the public statements on Israel prioritization cited above and attended the June 2024 Capitol Hill Israel-advocacy meeting with senators ³¹². Former CIA Director Leon Panetta served on Oracle’s board; per Oracle’s FY2025 DEF 14A filing, Panetta was not standing for re-election at the 2025 annual meeting ³⁶. No public evidence identified of Panetta’s personal statements or affiliations specific to Israel-Palestine. Jeff Yass of Susquehanna International Group is documented as a TikTok investor and Republican donor with a history of donations to pro-Israel groups, relevant to the Oracle-led TikTok transaction consortium, but No public evidence identified that Yass is an Oracle board member or Oracle executive ⁵. No public evidence identified of a personal Ellison or Catz family foundation making direct, named grants to settlement organizations, as distinct from FIDF or the Elad-linked archaeological project.

End Notes