Does Dairy Queen (International Dairy Queen, Inc.) support Israel?

We have not yet found publicly recorded donations from Dairy Queen (International Dairy Queen, Inc.). Absence of records does not confirm absence of support.

Filed under: Fast food & restaurant chains · Companies that support Israel

Background

Dairy Queen is a brand of International Dairy Queen, Inc. of Bloomington, Minnesota, owned by Berkshire Hathaway under a deal agreed in October 1997 and completed in 1998 for about $585 million. No donation, in-kind aid, statement, sponsorship or partnership in support of Israel has been documented for Dairy Queen or International Dairy Queen, and the chain does not operate in Israel. Israel Hayom's May 2024 survey of big American chains missing from the Israeli market says of Dairy Queen that it has some 7,000 branches worldwide "but it too has no presence in Israel," and Israel appears in none of the brand's country lists. What is real belongs to the parent, not to the ice-cream chain: Berkshire Hathaway bought 80% of the Tefen-based Israeli toolmaker ISCAR for $4 billion in 2006 and the remaining 20% for $2.05 billion in 2013; its annual subsidiary exhibits have listed "Iscar Ltd. — Israel" ever since, and its report for the 2025 financial year states that "a large portion of [IMC's] products are manufactured in Israel" and that "IMC's operations in Israel have not been significantly impacted by the conflicts in the region." Those are Berkshire Hathaway transactions and disclosures — set out on the Berkshire Hathaway page — and not acts of Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen's appearance on informally circulated consumer boycott lists follows from that ownership chain alone, not from anything the brand itself has done.

Israel Hayom — American chains with no presence in Israel (May 2024) Wikipedia — Dairy Queen (ownership, country list) Wikipedia — Berkshire Hathaway (1997 Dairy Queen acquisition, ~$585M) Berkshire Hathaway FY2025 Form 10-K (IMC manufacturing in Israel) Wikipedia — Iscar Metalworking (2006 and 2013 Berkshire purchases)

What we checked

• News & official statements — 2026-07-30
  Searched Dairy Queen and International Dairy Queen against Israel for donations, statements, sponsorships and franchise history. No corporate action found in either direction. Israeli press (Israel Hayom, May 2024) lists Dairy Queen among the large American chains that have never established a presence in Israel; no opening, franchisee or closure of a Dairy Queen in Israel is recorded in Israeli or trade coverage.
• Nonprofit tax filings (Form 990) — 2026-07-30
  No Dairy Queen or International Dairy Queen corporate foundation is registered in ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer; the name matches are independent franchisee bodies — Heartland Dairy Queen Operators Association (EIN 38-3746412, O'Fallon MO) and Michigan Dairy Queen Operators Association (EIN 87-0780467, Waterford MI). Parent Berkshire Hathaway runs no corporate foundation, so there is no Form 990 grant trail at parent level either. No Israel-linked grantee identified.
• SEC filings — 2026-07-30
  Dairy Queen is not a separate SEC filer. Full-text search for "israel" scoped to parent Berkshire Hathaway (CIK 0001067983) returns the annual EX-21 subsidiary exhibits carrying the line "Iscar Ltd. — Israel" and the 10-K narrative on the IMC industrial-products segment, including the FY2025 statement that IMC's Israeli operations "have not been significantly impacted by the conflicts in the region." Nothing in those filings concerns Dairy Queen.
• Federal election records (FEC) — 2026-07-30
  FEC committee searches for "Dairy Queen" and "International Dairy Queen" return no committee: the brand has no political action committee. The only Berkshire-linked committee is Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company PAC (C00324483), a utility PAC unrelated to the restaurant business. No disbursements to pro-Israel committees identified.
• Independent fact-checkers — 2026-07-30
  Dairy Queen does not appear on the BDS movement's official boycott target list, in either the divestment or the consumer-boycott categories. Where the brand does appear is on informally circulated lists of Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries, grouped with Fruit of the Loom, Brooks Running and Duracell — an ownership-chain argument, not an allegation of any act by Dairy Queen. No fact check documents a Dairy Queen donation to Israel.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-07-30

• Israel Hayom — American chains with no presence in Israel (May 2024) israelhayom.co.il
• Wikipedia — Dairy Queen (ownership, country list) en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia — Berkshire Hathaway (1997 Dairy Queen acquisition, ~$585M) en.wikipedia.org
• Berkshire Hathaway FY2025 Form 10-K (IMC manufacturing in Israel) sec.gov
• Wikipedia — Iscar Metalworking (2006 and 2013 Berkshire purchases) en.wikipedia.org