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Does Bank Hapoalim support Israel?

Support documentedupdated 2026-07-30

Yes — Bank Hapoalim has documented support for Israel on record. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Banks & financial companies · Companies that support Israel

Background

Bank Hapoalim is an Israeli institution, so the question is not whether it "supports Israel" in the abstract but what it has actually done that is documented. Two strands are on the record. First, its wartime relief for Israeli customers — a NIS 750 million interest-free bridging fund, deferral of NIS 17.8 billion in loan and mortgage payments, and fee and mortgage waivers for reservists and residents near Gaza — part of which the Bank of Israel required of all Israeli lenders and part of which the bank added on its own, at an estimated cost of up to NIS 420 million. Second, third-party findings about its lending in the occupied West Bank: the UN OHCHR database lists it, and Norway's sovereign wealth fund excluded it in August 2025 over settlement-construction guarantees. One claim we could not verify: we found no evidence that Bank Hapoalim underwrote Israel Bonds or the State of Israel's international war-bond offerings — the documented underwriters of the $19.4 billion of Israeli government bonds sold between October 2023 and January 2025 were Western investment banks. Israeli banks' financing of the state runs through the domestic bond market and their own balance sheets, which is not the same thing and is not documented here as a specific transaction.

Times of Israel (Nov 2023 — deferrals) OHCHR — A/HRC/60/19 database Norges Bank Investment Management — exclusions BankTrack / PAX (Profundo) — underwriters of Israeli government bonds

Timeline of documented support

202420252023-10 — In-kind support: Israeli reservists, evacuees and businesses near Gaza (bank customers)In-kind support2023-102023-11 — In-kind support: Bank Hapoalim customers affected by the warIn-kind support2023-112025-08 — Operations in Israel: Israel (domestic banking operations)Operations in Israel2025-082025-08 — Operations in Israel: Building contractors constructing apartment buildings in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (bank guarantees)Operations in Israel2025-082025-09 — Operations in Israel: Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem (banking and financial services)Operations in Israel2025-09

Documented support

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Operations in Israel2025-08-15—Israel (domestic banking operations)
Bank Hapoalim is an Israeli bank, listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and is Israel's largest lender. It earned record profits through the war years: NIS 2.5 billion ($740 million) in the second quarter of 2025 alone, up 14% year-on-year, driven by a 15.1% rise in financing income and an 8.2% jump in fees. The Times of Israel reported that Israel's biggest banks came under scrutiny for the gap between their soaring wartime gains and the finances of ordinary Israelis. This entry records what the bank is and where it operates; it is not a donation.
In-kind support2023-10-10—Israeli reservists, evacuees and businesses near Gaza (bank customers)
Three days after the October 7, 2023 attack, the bank announced a package of concessions for customers called up as military reservists and for residents living up to 40 kilometres from the Gaza Strip: deferral of loan payments for up to two months without charges, a three-month waiver of main bank fees, prime-rate loans, deferral or spreading of credit-card charges, and mortgage payment freezes for up to three months. Alongside it the bank set up a NIS 750 million fund for interest-free bridging loans to business and private customers in the south. These are the bank's own commercial concessions to its customers, not cash grants to organisations.
In-kind support2023-11-16$4,700,000,000Bank Hapoalim customers affected by the war
The bank reported it had deferred NIS 17.8 billion ($4.7 billion) of loan and mortgage payments because of the war, of which about NIS 9 billion were housing loans, and estimated the relief would cost it up to about NIS 420 million if every eligible customer used it in full. Precision matters here: part of this relief was mandated for all Israeli lenders by a Bank of Israel plan (three-month mortgage freezes for customers within seven kilometres of the border, fee and interest exemptions), and Bank Hapoalim went beyond that minimum with its own programme. The deferred sums are postponed customer debt, not money given away.
Operations in Israel2025-09-26—Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem (banking and financial services)
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights lists "Bank Hapoalim Ltd." as entry 17 in its database of business enterprises involved in activities linked to Israeli settlements (A/HRC/60/19, 26 September 2025, 158 enterprises). The listed activities recorded against the bank are (e) provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, (f) banking and financial operations helping to develop, expand or maintain settlements, including loans for housing and business development, and (g) the use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes. This is a UN finding of "reasonable grounds to believe," recorded here with its source; it is not a court judgment.
Operations in Israel2025-08-25—Building contractors constructing apartment buildings in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (bank guarantees)
Norges Bank, which manages Norway's roughly $2 trillion Government Pension Fund Global, announced on 25 August 2025 that it was excluding Bank Hapoalim BM from the fund, along with Bank Leumi, Mizrahi Tefahot, First International Bank of Israel, FIBI Holdings and Caterpillar, citing an unacceptable risk of contributing to serious violations of individuals' rights in war or conflict. The underlying Council on Ethics recommendation of 2 July 2025 documented that the bank issues the legally mandatory buyer-protection guarantees to contractors building apartment blocks in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem — most recently in 2024 — and called those guarantees "a necessary precondition" for such construction. At the end of 2024 the fund had held 1.39% of the bank's shares, worth NOK 2.5 billion. The bank disputed the Council's conclusions during the process.

Frequently asked questions

Did Bank Hapoalim donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of cash donations, but Bank Hapoalim has documented support of other kinds (Operations in Israel, In-kind support). See the records on this page.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 12 distinct sources are cited for Bank Hapoalim. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-07-30

Companies with documented support