Does Costco Wholesale Corporation support Israel?

We have not yet found publicly recorded donations from Costco Wholesale Corporation. Absence of records does not confirm absence of support.

Filed under: Retail & supermarket chains · Companies that support Israel

Background

Costco has no recorded donations, statements, or operations supporting Israel. The company has no warehouses in Israel; when Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich formally invited Costco to enter the Israeli market in February 2023, no public response or market entry followed. Even the pro-Israel tracker Lev Haolam concludes Costco has taken no stance and describes it as "largely neutral." Costco has no corporate PAC, and the Costco Foundation is an employee-hardship fund (funeral, disaster, and financial-hardship assistance for Costco employees) that makes no external grants. In 2010, Costco stopped carrying Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics — made in the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Shalem — after a customer letter-writing campaign, without commenting on the reason. Some boycott lists include Costco because it stocks Israeli-linked products such as Sabra hummus and SodaStream; that is product stocking, not corporate support.

Globes Times of Israel Lev Haolam (pro-Israel tracker) The Forward (2010 Ahava)

What we checked

• News & official statements — 2026-07-20
  Searched Costco + Israel donations, statements, operations, and boycott coverage. Found only the unanswered February 2023 Israeli government invitation to enter the market (Globes, Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post) and the 2010 discontinuation of settlement-made Ahava products after a customer campaign (Forward); no corporate donations, statements, or Israel operations on either side.
• Nonprofit tax filings (Form 990) — 2026-07-20
  Costco Foundation (EIN 91-1799391, Issaquah WA — matches HQ) identified via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer; 990-PF filings 2011–2023 reviewed. It is a pass-through employee-assistance fund (funeral, hardship, house-fire and disaster grants to Costco employees, roughly $250K–$550K/year); no external organizational grantees and no Israel-linked grantees (FIDF, JNF, Magen David Adom, etc.).
• SEC filings — 2026-07-20
  Full-text search of Costco filings (CIK 909832) for "israel": 3 hits, all 11-K employee benefit-plan filings (2013, 2018, 2019) where the mention is a 401(k) plan stock holding ("CyberArk Software Ltd/Israel"); no Israel operations, investments, or donations in filings.
• Federal election records (FEC) — 2026-07-20
  FEC committee search for "Costco" returns no committees; the company has no corporate PAC and therefore no PAC disbursements to pro-Israel committees.
• Independent fact-checkers — 2026-07-20
  No Snopes/Reuters/AFP fact-check of any Costco-Israel donation claim exists — no viral donation rumor to debunk. Boycott-adjacent lists cite only product stocking (Sabra hummus, SodaStream) as ties; the pro-Israel tracker Lev Haolam likewise reports Costco has no stance and no Israel presence.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-07-20

• Globes en.globes.co.il
• Times of Israel timesofisrael.com
• Lev Haolam (pro-Israel tracker) levhaolam.com
• The Forward (2010 Ahava) forward.com