Audit Phase: V-MIL
Target Entity: Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST)
Audit Date: May 2026
Evidence Base: Research memo findings only; no independent new research conducted.
No public evidence has been identified of any direct contract, tender award, framework agreement, or memorandum of understanding between Costco Wholesale Corporation and the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD), the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Israel Prison Service, Israel Border Police, or any other Israeli state security body.17 No procurement database entry, government gazette notice, or defence trade press report documenting such a relationship has been located.
Costco does not appear in SIBAT (Israel’s Defence Export and Defence Cooperation Directorate) listings, international defence exhibition catalogues, or Israeli or international defence procurement registries.17 Costco’s business classification as a warehouse-format wholesale membership retailer does not correspond to any category typically covered by SIBAT-registered entities.
No corporate press releases or government announcements documenting defence cooperation, joint ventures, or partnership agreements between Costco and any Israeli defence entity have been identified.
The only documented government-level contact between Costco and any Israeli state actor is a 2023 letter from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich inviting Costco to enter the Israeli civilian food retail market.12 This is an economic development solicitation addressed to a foreign retailer; it is not a defence contract, security cooperation agreement, or procurement instrument. No Costco board-level response to that solicitation has been made public, and it is not known whether the invitation was acknowledged, declined, or remains open.12
Evidence gap: Israeli government procurement databases (the Rashut Hamikrazim / Government Procurement Administration portal at mr.gov.il) are not fully publicly accessible in English. A Hebrew-language search of that portal would be required to confirm with full confidence the absence of Costco from Israeli public-sector tender records. That search was not possible within the scope of this audit.
Costco retails commercially available DJI consumer drone models — including Mini series and Mavic series units — as bundled consumer electronics packages.31 These are unmodified commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) units sold without restriction to general members of the public. No tactical, ruggedised, or military-specification variant of any DJI product has been documented as sold or offered by Costco.
Al Jazeera reporting from May 2025 documents that the IDF actively retrofits commercial DJI drone platforms — including small civilian models — for surveillance operations and weapons delivery in Gaza, including modifications enabling grenade delivery and tunnel monitoring.13 The report documents a systemic IDF practice of COTS drone acquisition and field modification but does not identify Costco as a specific procurement channel; DJI civilian platforms are referenced generically.13
No evidence has been located that Costco has concluded any institutional supply agreement, standing order, or preferential arrangement with the IDF, Israeli procurement agencies, or Israeli defence-adjacent intermediaries for drone units.13 The documented IDF COTS drone acquisition pathway in open-source reporting does not name Costco as a supplier. Costco’s warehouse-format, bulk-purchase model — like any mass-market electronics retailer — means that individual purchasers, including any third party acting on behalf of an institutional buyer, can acquire multiple DJI units without disclosure obligations on Costco’s part. No evidence of IDF-directed bulk DJI purchases through Costco has been identified.
Internal inventory records noted in a Reddit post from 2025 reference Costco listing the DJI Mini 4 Pro bundle as “discontinued” in its in-store system, indicating the product relationship is subject to standard commercial lifecycle management rather than any extraordinary arrangement.31
Costco’s Kirkland Signature private label is a civilian consumer brand. No documented tactical, mil-spec, or ruggedised Kirkland Signature product variant exists.17 The brand encompasses foodstuffs, household goods, clothing, and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals — all civilian consumer-grade goods.
No public evidence has been identified of export licence applications, end-user certificates, or government export control reviews specific to Costco’s sale of DJI drones to Israeli military or security end-users. DJI was added to the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List in 2022 for national security reasons relating to Chinese military ties; no licence action specific to Costco-to-Israel drone transfers has been identified.
No public evidence has been identified of Costco-branded or Costco-supplied heavy machinery, construction equipment, armoured vehicles, or demolition equipment documented in UN reports, NGO investigations, photographic evidence, or court records as operating within Israeli settlements, along the separation barrier, at military installations, or within occupied territories. Costco does not manufacture, wholesale, or distribute heavy construction or earth-moving equipment as part of any documented business line.
No evidence has been identified of Costco holding any contract — prime, subcontract, or service — for the construction, maintenance, servicing, or expansion of checkpoints, detention facilities, military bases, the separation barrier, or settlement infrastructure.
The Keter Group, a supplier of resin outdoor storage products stocked by Costco, operates manufacturing facilities in the Barkan Industrial Zone, an industrial settlement park in the West Bank documented by the Who Profits Research Center as built on land of the Palestinian villages of Haris, Bruqin, and Sarta.56 Costco-sold Keter products (deck boxes, resin furniture) represent finished consumer goods in the outdoor storage and garden category.242526 Keter is not a heavy machinery or construction infrastructure supplier, and the Barkan facilities produce resin consumer goods, not construction equipment or military materiel. The Keter–Costco commercial relationship is addressed in full under Section 4 and Section 8 below.
No public evidence has been identified of any verified supply relationship between Costco and Israeli defence prime contractors including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, or Israel Military Industries (IMI/Elbit Land). Costco’s procurement and logistics model is oriented toward finished consumer goods; it is not a components supplier, sub-systems integrator, raw materials wholesaler, or specialist manufacturing partner to any element of the Israeli defence industrial base.
Two claims from prior research were subjected to critical review and discarded:
NYC General Corporation Tax Allocation reports (2005–2006) were cited as placing “RAFAEL USA INC.” and “COSTCO WHOLESALE CORPORATION” on the same document.[^31][^32] These are city-wide tax allocation registers that list all major corporate taxpayers in the same annual filing; co-appearance on a municipal tax register is not evidence of any commercial, contractual, or supply chain relationship. This claim is assessed as not probative.
ZipRecruiter job listing co-appearance showing Elbit Systems and Costco results appearing together in a Virginia search was cited as evidence of supply chain integration. This is an artefact of search engine aggregation and constitutes no evidence of any relationship. This claim is assessed as a fabricated inference and is discarded.
The Who Profits Research Center documents Keter Group as operating manufacturing facilities in the Barkan Industrial Zone in the West Bank.56 Costco product listings confirm that Keter-branded outdoor storage products have been sold through Costco’s platform,24 and a documented collaboration between Keter, Tetra Pak, and Costco for recycled-carton planters was reported in trade press in 2024.2526
Keter is not a defence prime contractor. However, its inclusion in the Who Profits settlement-industry database reflects its status as a company with documented West Bank industrial operations. No shipment-level provenance documentation has been identified linking specific Costco-sold Keter SKUs to Barkan production rather than to Keter’s facilities inside the Green Line (Carmiel, Yokneam). This provenance gap is material and unresolved; no bill of lading, customs entry record, or country-of-origin certificate has been located for the Costco–Keter supply flow.56
FDA DailyMed records confirm that Kirkland Signature Minoxidil Topical Solution USP 5% lists the manufacturer as Perrigo, with the production site associated with Perrigo’s Yeruham facility in the Negev, Israel.3 Kirkland Signature Diclofenac Sodium Topical Gel 1% similarly lists Perrigo as distributor with Israel as manufacturing origin.4 Perrigo’s Israeli operations originate from its 2005 acquisition of Agis Industries.29 Yeruham is located inside sovereign Israeli territory (the Negev) within the pre-1967 Green Line; it is not in the West Bank, Gaza, or any other occupied territory, and no UN body or NGO has characterised it as such. The Perrigo–Costco manufacturing relationship is documented as civilian pharmaceutical production with no identified connection to Israeli defence manufacturing.
No public evidence has been identified of Costco holding any catering, transport, fuel supply, waste management, facilities maintenance, telecommunications, or other support services contract with IDF bases, military training facilities, detention centres, or other Israeli security installations.
A claim from prior research that Kirkland Signature products appear on “IDF Kashrut Logistics lists” was subjected to critical review. The cited document is a COR (Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit) Passover consumer guide — a civilian rabbinical consumer publication for kosher-observant consumers in the United States, not an IDF institutional procurement document. Appearance on a civilian kosher certification guide does not constitute evidence of supply to IDF bases. This characterisation is assessed as a misrepresentation of the source and is discarded.
Reporting from October 2023 documents that American Jewish diaspora organisations purchased consumer goods — sleeping bags, toiletries, socks — from unspecified U.S. retailers including bulk retailers, to ship to IDF reservists following the October 7 attacks.19 This reporting does not name Costco as a specific source. The inference of Costco participation from general descriptions of bulk retail purchasing is not corroborated by any named source and is not treated as a verified finding. The general practice of diaspora organisations using U.S. wholesale retailers for such aid purchases is documented, but Costco’s specific involvement is not confirmed.19
Costco operates an “Export Sales” programme enabling members to purchase goods for export via approved freight forwarders.14 Third-party package forwarding services explicitly document Israel as a shipping destination and market their services to facilitate U.S. Costco purchases for Israeli customers.2122 This establishes a documented civilian parallel import channel through which Costco goods flow to Israel via third-party logistics intermediaries. Costco’s own terms restrict direct international shipping to freight forwarders rather than individual consumers.21 No evidence has been identified that these channels have been used specifically by Israeli Ministry of Defence or IDF institutional buyers; the documented end-use is civilian parallel import.142122
No public evidence has been identified of any role by Costco Wholesale Corporation in the manufacture, assembly, licensing, or supply of lethal weapons systems, munitions, precursor materials, or strategic defence platforms.
Costco has no documented role in any of Israel’s strategic missile defence programmes — Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow, or equivalent platforms — as prime contractor, subcontractor, component supplier, or logistics provider. No sub-system, critical component, or dual-use material supplied by Costco to any Israeli defence prime or government body has been identified in any publicly available source.
Costco is a consumer retail and wholesale membership corporation. Its documented product categories — foodstuffs, household goods, electronics, clothing, pharmaceuticals, garden equipment, tires, optical and hearing services — have no intersection with weapons system integration, munitions production, or strategic platform development.
No public evidence has been identified of any government decision to grant, deny, suspend, or revoke an export licence for Costco products specifically destined for Israeli military or security end-users. Costco’s export activities are governed by standard U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR); no Israel-specific export enforcement action against Costco has been located.
No public evidence has been identified of any investigation, citation, or enforcement action against Costco related to arms embargoes, export control regimes, or sanctions affecting defence trade with Israel or any other jurisdiction in connection with military goods.
Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2010, concerns Costco’s parallel importation of Omega watches and the applicability of the first-sale doctrine under copyright law.30 This case has no connection to Israeli defence trade, export control compliance, or military procurement. A prior memo’s attempt to link grey-market importation litigation to Israeli military procurement is not probative and is discarded.
An SEC no-action letter dated September 15, 2025 documents a shareholder proposal submitted to Costco’s board referencing “Palestine/Israel employees” and the “Holy Land Principles.”20 This filing confirms that at least one shareholder group attempted to introduce an Israel/Palestine-related human rights resolution into Costco’s proxy process during the 2025 cycle. The filing reflects a request by Costco to exclude the proposal from its proxy statement. The precise scope of the employment practices or human rights supply chain audit demanded by the proposal requires reading the full filing to characterise, and that full-text review was not completed within the scope of this audit.20
Costco’s corporate political spending policy states the company does not make direct corporate contributions to political parties or candidates.18 Fox Business reported in 2024 that Costco board members made personal political donations predominantly to Democratic candidates in the 2024 election cycle;27 this reflects personal political activity by directors, not corporate political spending.
The UN OHCHR, pursuant to its mandate under Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36, included Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories in its database of businesses with documented operations in Israeli-occupied territories.8 Ahava’s formal response to the OHCHR is publicly available.8 Ahava’s primary resource extraction — Dead Sea minerals and mud — occurs at or near Mitzpe Shalem, a settlement in the Jordan Valley area of the occupied West Bank.89
Costco.com product listings confirm that Ahava-branded products, including Ahava Mineral Body Lotion (17 fl oz, 2-pack) and Ahava Crystal Osmoter X6 Smoothing Cream, have been available for purchase on Costco’s platform.710 Visualizing Palestine’s BDS dataset and campaign timeline documents Ahava as a sustained target of BDS consumer campaigns, noting that some retailers removed Ahava products following campaign pressure; Costco continued to stock Ahava products as of the dates reflected in its product listings.16
No Costco-specific investigation by the OHCHR, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, or AFSC naming Costco in direct connection with Ahava — as distinct from Ahava as the primary subject of concern — has been identified. Costco’s documented relationship is as a downstream retail seller of Ahava products, not as a party to Ahava’s West Bank extraction operations.89
The Who Profits Research Center documents Keter Group as operating manufacturing facilities in the Barkan Industrial Zone, an Israeli industrial settlement park established on West Bank land belonging to the Palestinian villages of Haris, Bruqin, and Sarta.56
Costco product listings confirm that Keter-branded outdoor storage products have been sold through Costco.24 A documented three-party collaboration between Keter, Tetra Pak, and Costco for recycled-carton planters was reported in trade and sustainability press in 2024.2526 This collaboration involved Costco as the retail endpoint for a Keter-manufactured product developed in partnership with Tetra Pak.
Who Profits documents Keter’s Barkan presence but does not identify whether specific product batches sold to Costco originate from Barkan or from Keter’s Green Line facilities (Carmiel, Yokneam).56 No shipment-level provenance documentation — bill of lading, certificate of origin, or customs entry — linking specific Costco-sold Keter SKUs to Barkan production has been identified. Costco does not appear as a named company in the Who Profits company database in its own right; it appears as a documented retail customer of Keter, which is a listed company.
BDS Coalition Canada’s 2024 and 2025 Ramadan campaign materials name Costco as a retailer of Israeli Medjool dates, identifying Hadiklaim (the Israeli Date Growers’ Cooperative, whose membership includes Jordan Valley settlement growers) as the attributed source.1112 The campaigns name Costco alongside other major North American retailers. CJPME (Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East) lists Costco in its BDS consumer guide in connection with these claims.23
Costco’s primary documented U.S. date supplier is Natural Delights, operating out of Bard Valley, California.28 The BDS campaign assertion is that Costco sources Israeli dates (via Hadiklaim) seasonally when U.S. domestic supply is insufficient. No Costco corporate disclosure, purchase order, import record, or independent supply chain audit corroborating this seasonal Israeli-origin switching claim has been identified. The assertion originates solely from BDS campaign materials and has not been independently verified.1112
FDA DailyMed regulatory records confirm that Kirkland Signature Minoxidil Topical Solution USP 5% lists Perrigo as the manufacturer, with origin associated with Perrigo’s Yeruham, Negev facility.3 Kirkland Signature Diclofenac Sodium Topical Gel 1% similarly lists Perrigo as distributor with Israel as manufacturing origin.4 Perrigo’s Israeli pharmaceutical operations derive from its 2005 acquisition of Agis Industries.29 Yeruham is an Israeli development town within sovereign territory inside the pre-1967 Green Line and has not been characterised as occupied territory by any UN body or NGO.34
Costco has been named in BDS campaign materials in connection with: (a) stocking Ahava products manufactured in connection with West Bank resource extraction,1516 (b) stocking Keter products associated with Barkan Industrial Zone manufacturing,56 and (c) stocking Israeli-origin Medjool dates attributed to Hadiklaim.111223 An Inminds (UK-based pro-Palestine activist group) campaign page documents direct consumer actions targeting Costco for selling Israeli products.15
No institutional divestment decisions by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, or insurance bodies specifically citing Costco’s defence-sector activities have been identified. All identified civil society campaigns relate to civilian settlement-linked goods (Ahava, Keter, dates), not to Costco’s involvement in Israeli military or defence supply.
An SEC no-action letter dated September 15, 2025 documents a shareholder proposal submitted to Costco’s board referencing “Palestine/Israel employees” and the “Holy Land Principles,”20 confirming that at least one shareholder group introduced an Israel/Palestine-related human rights resolution into Costco’s 2025 proxy process. Costco sought to exclude the proposal from its proxy statement.
Costco has not issued specific public policy statements, contract terminations, or end-use monitoring commitments in response to civil society pressure regarding Israeli-linked products or any defence supply chain concern.17 The available corporate commentary characterises Costco’s stance as one of general “political neutrality.”17
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-invites-us-retail-giant-costco-to-make-foray-into-local-food-market/ ↩↩
https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/lookup.cfm?setid=2fc3f51e-bad6-16f3-e063-6294a90ab5b6&version=2 ↩↩↩
https://fda.report/DailyMed/65fb46b7-eea3-4ae4-b391-82bb4a52c3b6 ↩↩↩
https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/excel?Presence=16&Type=Table ↩↩↩↩↩↩
https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/excel?Traded=3&Type=Table ↩↩↩↩↩↩
https://www.costco.com/ahava-crystal-osmoter-x6-smoothing-cream%2C-1.7-fl-oz.product.4000299399.html ↩
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/business/pot-db/4-ahava-dead-sea-laboratories-ltd.pdf ↩↩↩↩
https://www.costco.com/ahava-mineral-body-lotion%2C-17-fl-oz%2C-2-pack.product.1860123.html ↩
https://bdscoalition.ca/2024/02/11/2024-ramadan-boycott-israeli-dates-break-fast-with-palestinian-medjoul/ ↩↩↩
https://bdscoalition.ca/2025/01/19/2025-ramadan-boycott-israeli-dates-break-fast-with-palestinian-medjoul/ ↩↩↩
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/8/israel-retrofitting-dji-commercial-drones-to-bomb-and-surveil-gaza ↩↩↩
https://brusselsmorning.com/does-costco-support-israel-the-companys-neutral-stance-and-global-operations/80915/ ↩↩↩↩↩
https://s201.q4cdn.com/287523651/files/doc_downloads/govdocs/Policy-Regarding-Spending-on-Elections-and-Policy-Advocacy.pdf ↩
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-jews-rush-to-aid-israel-with-bulletproof-vests-socks-and-soap-101697057869222.html ↩↩
https://www.sec.gov/files/corpfin/no-action/14a-8/ncpprcostco9152025-14a8inc.pdf ↩↩↩
https://www.costco.com/keter-cortina-30-gallon-resin-deck-box-for-patio-outdoor-storage%2C-grey.product.4000117534.html ↩↩↩
https://packagingsuppliersglobal.com/news/supplier-news/costco-to-sell-planters-made-from-recycled-cartons-in-collaboration-with-tetra-pak-keter ↩↩↩
https://sustainabilitymag.com/articles/costco-could-circular-containers-encourage-green-gardening ↩↩↩
https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/costco-board-members-donated-heavily-democrats-2024-election-cycle ↩
https://www.naturaldelights.com/faq ↩
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/562/40/ ↩
https://www.reddit.com/r/dji/comments/1j2t5uw/costco_lists_mini_4_pro_bundle_as_discontinued_in/ ↩↩
