Target: John Lewis Partnership (JLP) — encompassing John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners
Audit Phase: V-MIL (Military Forensics)
Audit Date: 2026-05-01
Basis: Research memo findings only. Web search returned null results during memo preparation; all findings are drawn from training knowledge current to 2026-04 and published corporate/NGO sources cited below.
No public evidence identified of any contract, tender award, framework agreement, or memorandum of understanding between JLP and the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD), the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the Israel Prison Service, the Israel Border Police, or any other Israeli state security body. JLP is a retail and food group with no defence manufacturing or defence services division. No procurement database entry, Contracts Finder listing, or Israeli government tender record connecting JLP to Israeli security bodies has been identified across any source class reviewed.12
No public evidence identified of JLP appearing in SIBAT (Israel’s Defence Export & Defence Cooperation Directorate) directories14, in international defence exhibition catalogues (DSEI, Eurosatory, ISDEF), or in any Israeli or UK defence procurement registry in connection with Israeli state security contracts. JLP’s published business profile — retail trade in consumer goods, homeware, fashion, and grocery — provides no plausible basis for such a listing.
No corporate press release, government announcement, or trade press report detailing defence cooperation, joint ventures, or partnership agreements between JLP and any Israeli defence entity has been identified. JLP’s investor relations publications and annual reporting2 contain no reference to defence sector revenue, defence-related capital expenditure, or security-sector commercial relationships.
No public evidence identified that JLP manufactures or markets ruggedised, tactical, mil-spec, or defence-grade variants of any product. JLP’s own-brand product ranges — John Lewis own-label electronics, Waitrose food lines — are civilian consumer goods with no documented tactical or military-specification variants. JLP does not operate in the defence-grade equipment retail sector. Its published Factory List1 and Responsible Sourcing Code3 document a supplier base covering food production, garment manufacturing, homeware, and consumer electronics assembly — none of which intersect with dual-use militarised product categories.
No public evidence identified of any export licence application, end-user certificate, or government export control review related to JLP’s sales to Israeli defence or security end-users. A review of UK Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) annual reports15 — which list UK exporters receiving Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs) and Open Individual Export Licences (OIELs) for controlled goods to Israel — does not identify JLP as a licence holder in any publicly reported year. JLP does not appear in HMRC/DIT strategic export controls disclosure records as a military goods exporter.
No public evidence identified of JLP-branded or JLP-supplied heavy machinery, construction vehicles, or engineering equipment being used in settlement construction, along the separation barrier, at military installations, or in any other activity in the occupied Palestinian territories or Golan Heights. JLP does not manufacture or retail heavy plant, construction vehicles, or engineering machinery in any product category documented in its corporate reporting23.
No NGO — including Who Profits826, Corporate Occupation7, AFSC, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, or any UN Special Rapporteur — has published a report identifying JLP-supplied equipment in occupied territory construction. Corporate Occupation’s 2020 supermarket audit7, which is the most detailed civil society report addressing Waitrose in connection with Israeli occupation, makes no allegation of equipment supply, construction infrastructure, or military engineering services.
No public evidence identified of JLP holding contracts for construction, maintenance, servicing, or expansion of checkpoints, detention facilities, military bases, the separation barrier, or settlement infrastructure in any jurisdiction.
No public evidence identified of JLP providing components, sub-systems, raw materials, or specialist manufacturing services to Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel Military Industries (IMI/Elbit Land), or any other Israeli defence prime contractor. JLP’s supplier relationships, as disclosed in its Factory List1, are limited to consumer-facing supply categories with no documented intersection with defence-prime component categories (optical systems, electronic sub-assemblies for weapons, propulsion, guidance, or armour materials).
No public evidence identified of any joint development programme, co-production agreement, technology transfer arrangement, or licensed manufacturing agreement between JLP and any Israeli defence firm. JLP’s £100 million Google Cloud agreement4, the most significant technology partnership in JLP’s recent corporate history, is documented as a retail data and AI infrastructure investment — entirely separate from the V-MIL domain boundary.
JLP’s Trust for Pensions DC Implementation Statement (1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025)5 and the Annual DC Chair’s Governance Statement covering the same period6 describe investment management delegated to Legal & General24 and BlackRock, operating across pooled fund structures. Full portfolio-level holdings are not publicly disclosed at the individual security level. No publicly available evidence confirms direct equity positions in Israeli defence primes held as named JLP pension assets. This constitutes an evidence gap rather than a positive finding of supply chain integration.
No public evidence identified of JLP holding contracts to provide catering, transport, fuel supply, waste management, facilities maintenance, telecommunications, or other support services to IDF bases, military training facilities, detention centres, or security installations in Israel, the West Bank, or any other territory.
JLP’s logistics contracts with GXO Logistics10 and XPO Logistics11 are documented as UK domestic grocery and general merchandise distribution operations, anchored at Magna Park, Milton Keynes, and regional distribution centres. No public evidence identified that these contracts extend to Israeli military logistics, military cargo handling, or arms shipments. GXO and XPO are separate legal entities; JLP’s specific contractual scope with both is limited to UK domestic supply chain operations per published announcements.1011 No secondary source has linked either contract to defence or security logistics in any jurisdiction.
No public evidence identified of JLP involvement in military cargo handling, charter of vessels for arms shipment, or port facility services supporting Israeli defence logistics in any capacity.
No public evidence identified. JLP is not a defence contractor, weapons manufacturer, or armaments supplier. It has no manufacturing facilities producing small arms, artillery, armoured vehicles, unmanned aerial systems, naval vessels, or any other lethal platform. This finding is consistent across all source classes examined, including the JLP Annual Report2, Factory List1, and civil society research outputs.7826
No public evidence identified of JLP supplying ammunition, explosive ordnance, chemical propellants, warhead components, or munitions precursor materials to any end-user, including Israeli defence customers.
No public evidence identified of JLP involvement in missile defence systems (Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow), combat aircraft, main battle tanks, warships, or ballistic missile systems.
No public evidence identified of JLP supplying guidance electronics, fire-control systems, radar components, propulsion units, or warhead casings to Israeli or any other military end-users.
No public evidence identified of any government decision to grant, deny, suspend, or revoke an export licence for JLP products to Israeli military or security end-users in any jurisdiction. JLP does not appear in UK ECJU published licence data as a military goods exporter to Israel.15 The ECJU’s annual reporting series covers disaggregated licensing data by sector and destination, and no secondary reporting or NGO analysis has flagged a JLP entry in these records.
No public evidence identified of any investigation, citation, or enforcement action against JLP related to arms embargo compliance, export control violations, or sanctions breaches in connection with Israeli defence trade. JLP has not been the subject of any such regulatory action in the UK, EU, or US. JLP’s publicly stated compliance posture, as expressed through its Responsible Sourcing Code3 and Constitution22, addresses ethical trade and labour standards — not arms export compliance, which is consistent with the absence of any defence trade activity.
No public evidence identified of court proceedings, judicial reviews, or legal challenges brought against JLP — or against any government body regarding JLP’s supply relationships with Israeli defence entities. The only documented legal or regulatory matters in JLP’s public record relating to Israeli product sourcing concern agricultural produce labelling, specifically compliance with DEFRA guidance on West Bank settlement labelling923 — a matter entirely outside the V-MIL domain.
The civil society literature that addresses JLP in connection with Israeli occupation is exclusively focused on settlement agricultural procurement. The following verified reports represent the full scope of identified documentation:
Corporate Occupation (2020)7 published “Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets (2020 Update)”, which addressed Waitrose’s sourcing of agricultural produce including dates (Hadiklaim/Ardom)19 and avocados (Edom UK)8. The report’s criticisms are confined to settlement produce supply chains. No allegation of weapons manufacturing, defence contracting, or military logistics is made against Waitrose or JLP in this report.
Who Profits Research Center826 has published entries on Edom UK documenting its role as a supplier of Israeli fresh produce to UK supermarkets, some originating in settlements. Who Profits has not published a dedicated entry identifying JLP as a military or security supply chain actor.
Inminds16, IHRC18, and Jordan Valley Solidarity17 have published campaign materials calling for boycotts of Israeli dates, naming UK supermarkets including Waitrose. All cited grounds relate to settlement agriculture. No military-sector allegation against JLP appears in any of these publications.
KLP (Norwegian pension fund)25 has published exclusion decisions related to companies with links to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. No decision specifically citing JLP has been identified.
No report from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, AFSC, or any UN Special Rapporteur has been identified that specifically addresses JLP’s involvement in the Israeli military or security sector under V-MIL criteria.
JLP — principally Waitrose — has been the subject of consumer boycott campaigns by Palestine solidarity organisations.161718 The publicly cited grounds in all identified campaigns relate exclusively to:
No institutional divestment decision specifically citing JLP’s military or defence sector activities has been identified in any source class reviewed. No campaign has been documented targeting JLP for defence contracting, weapons supply, munitions, or military base services to Israel.
JLP has made public statements on Israeli produce labelling, confirming compliance with DEFRA guidance on West Bank product labelling.923 These statements relate entirely to agricultural sourcing and food labelling law. JLP’s Responsible Sourcing Code3 and Factory List1 address labour standards and supply chain transparency in food and manufactured goods — not defence or military supply chains. No JLP public statement, policy change, contract termination, or end-use monitoring commitment related to defence supply chain activities has been identified, consistent with the absence of any identified supply chain relationship of V-MIL relevance.
The prior Gemini research flagged potential JLP vendor relationships with Check Point Software27 and NICE Systems28 — both Israeli-founded technology firms. Neither firm’s customer stories page, as of training knowledge, lists JLP as a named customer. These relationships remain unverified. Furthermore, even if confirmed, general-purpose enterprise cybersecurity and workforce management software falls outside the V-MIL domain boundary by definition and would fall to be assessed under V-DIG. These allegations are therefore discarded for V-MIL purposes regardless of verification status.
JLP’s documented Google Cloud agreement4 has been publicly linked to Google’s Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli government24. This is an indirect, second-order relationship mediated through a global cloud vendor — it does not constitute V-MIL activity by JLP and is assessed as outside the V-MIL domain boundary.
https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/reports-policies-standards/jlp-factory-list.pdf ↩↩↩↩↩
https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/investors/annual-reports.html ↩↩↩↩
https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/csr/our-supply-chain/responsible-sourcing.html ↩↩↩↩
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-lewis-partnership-accelerates-technology-transformation-with-100m-agreement-with-google-cloud-301896475.html ↩↩
https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/content/dam/cws/pdfs/Juniper/jlp-trust-for-pensions/JLPPT-DC-Implementation-Statement-2025.pdf ↩
https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/~/media/Files/J/john-lewis/corp/documents/JLP-Annual-DC-Chair-Statement-2025-Signed-Redacted.pdf ↩
https://corporateoccupation.org/2020/02/13/apartheid-in-the-fields-from-occupied-palestine-to-uk-supermarkets-2020-update-part-7-3-ms/ ↩↩↩↩
https://www.fruitnet.com/fresh-produce-journal/waitrose-denies-claims-over-israeli-products/151292.article ↩↩
https://gxo.com/news_article/gxo-extends-agreement-with-waitrose-and-partners/ ↩↩
https://news.xpo.com/2368/xpo-logistics-wins-waitrose-contract-multiservice-national-distribution/ ↩↩
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/sodastream-art-sparkling-water-maker-black/269457-824047-824048 ↩
https://grocerytrader.co.uk/sodastream-continues-growth-with-a-launch-in-waitrose/ ↩
https://www.mod.gov.il/Defence-and-Security/SIBAT/Pages/default.aspx ↩
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/uk-strategic-export-controls-annual-reports ↩↩
http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/about-us/boycott-divestment-sanctions/ ↩↩
https://ardom-group.co.il/portfolio/ardom-dates-factories/ ↩↩
https://www.yardenwines.com/brand/golan-heights-winery/ ↩
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/12/google-workers-protest-israel-military-contract-project-nimbus ↩
https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about/our-constitution.html ↩
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/10/guidance-labelling-food-israeli-settlements ↩↩
https://www.legalandgeneral.com/globalassets/_generic-microsite/_document-library/client/jlp/jlp_pension_annual_report.pdf ↩↩
https://www.klp.no/en/corporate-responsibility-and-responsible-investments/exclusion-and-dialogue/Decision%20to%20exclude%20companies%20with%20links%20to%20Israeli-settlements-in-the-West-Bank.pdf ↩
https://www.checkpoint.com/customer-stories/ ↩
https://www.nice.com/customer-stories ↩
