Registry · ICL

Does ICL Group support Israel?

ICL Group Ltd.

Owned by The Israel Corporation Ltd. Records for the parent company are kept separately.

Support documentedupdated 2026-09-26

Yes — ICL Group has documented support for Israel on record, including $1,771,000 in donations. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Energy & oil companies · Companies that support Israel

Background

ICL is an Israeli company, so the question is not whether it "supports Israel" in the abstract but what is documented. Three strands are on the record: its Dead Sea concession and Negev plants, which make it one of the largest industrial users of Israeli natural resources and a major payer of royalties to the Israeli treasury; its own disclosure that it gave financial and equipment donations, employee volunteering and support to Israel's medical and mental-health systems for evacuees during the war, without publishing a total; and the November 2025 settlement with the Ministry of Finance ahead of the 2030 concession expiry. Unlike several other large Israeli firms, ICL does not appear in the UN OHCHR database of businesses linked to Israeli settlements (A/HRC/60/19, 26 September 2025). One claim circulates that needs precision: ICL's US subsidiary in St. Louis, Missouri manufactures white phosphorus under US Department of Defense contracts reported at about $1.6 million between 2020 and 2024, in support of the Pine Bluff Arsenal, and Amnesty International has linked munitions used in October 2023 attacks in Lebanon to that arsenal by lot markings. That is a contract with the US government, not a documented transaction between ICL and Israel; ICL did not respond to press requests for comment, and we found no documentation of ICL supplying white phosphorus to the Israeli military. It is recorded here as an unverified claim, not as evidence. A Hebrew-press pass on 26 September 2026 put figures on giving the English-language press never reported: about NIS 5 million approved by ICL's board in June 2025 towards repairing missile damage at Soroka University Medical Center, NIS 1.88 million to Ben-Gurion University between 2015 and 2022 through the subsidiaries Bromine Compounds and Dead Sea Works, NIS 1.6 million to the state Nature and Parks Authority in 2018-2019, NIS 900,000 and 20,000 test swabs to two hospitals at the start of Covid-19, and smaller community giving in the Negev. Some of that money went to Israeli public bodies — a university, a state authority, the Arad municipality — and the same Israeli reporting that uncovered it criticises it as donations flowing into a region the company also pollutes, and notes that the Nature and Parks Authority stopped taking ICL money once it was in litigation with the company.

ICL Group 20-F for 2024 (SEC EDGAR) OHCHR — A/HRC/60/19 settlement-business database (ICL not listed) St. Louis Magazine — ICL, white phosphorus and city tax incentives The Times of Israel — Dead Sea concession settlement ice (אייס) — "עידן עופר פותח את הכיס: זה הסכום שתתרום ICL לסורוקה", 24 June 2025 שקוף (Shakuf) — Ben-Gurion University forced to disclose the size of the donations it received from ICL, 26 January 2023 (read via Wayback; the live page blocks scripted access) ynet / שומרים (Shomrim investigation by Nurit Malkin) — ICL, Noble Energy and Nesher: the Nature Authority and its donors, 26 March 2021

Timeline of documented support

20202021202220232024202520262019-06 — Operations in Israel: Jordan Valley settlements of Na'ama, Mehola and Na'aran, and the Ramat Magshimim and Tomer settlements (occupied West Bank and Syrian Golan)Operations in Israel2019-062019 — Donation: Israel Nature and Parks Authority, a state authorityDonation20192020-03 — Donation: Soroka University Medical Center, Beersheba, and the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomerDonation2020-032020-03 — In-kind support: Covid-19 testing in Israel, pre-approved by Israel's Ministry of HealthIn-kind support2020-032022 — Donation: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, BeershebaDonation20222022-11 — Donation: The Arad municipality and other Negev local authorities, and resident-led community initiativesDonation2022-112023-04 — Donation: Low-income and needy families in Israel, through the "Tormim Ozrim" (Donors Help) projectDonation2023-042024-03 — Employee donation match: The "Big Brother for Lone Soldiers" association and the IDF's Lone Soldiers CentreEmployee donation match2024-032024 — Donation: Israeli evacuees from the Gaza envelope and the northern border, and the Israeli medical and mental-health systemsDonation20242024 — Operations in Israel: Israeli military reserve service (ICL employees in Israel)Operations in Israel20242025-03 — Operations in Israel: Israel (Dead Sea Works concession at Sodom; Rotem, Oron and Zin plants in the Negev)Operations in Israel2025-032025 — Operations in Israel: Dead Sea Northern Basin, characterised by Who Profits as within the occupied West BankOperations in Israel20252025-06 — Donation: Soroka University Medical Center, BeershebaDonation2025-062025-11 — Government contract: State of Israel (Ministry of Finance) — Dead Sea concession arrangementsGovernment contract2025-112026-02 — Operations in Israel: Beersheba, Israel — ICL's new headquarters buildingOperations in Israel2026-02

Documented support

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Operations in Israel2025-03-13—Israel (Dead Sea Works concession at Sodom; Rotem, Oron and Zin plants in the Negev)
ICL is an Israeli minerals and specialty-chemicals company, controlled by Israel Corporation (the Ofer family) and listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Its Israeli backbone is the Dead Sea concession: under the Israeli Dead Sea Concession Law of 1961, as amended in 1986, subsidiary Dead Sea Works was granted the right to exploit the Dead Sea's resources and to lease the land for its plants at Sodom for a period ending on 31 March 2030. In Israel ICL extracts potash, phosphate, bromine, magnesium and other minerals, and also runs the Oron and Zin plants at Mishor Rotem and production facilities at Naot Hovav. This entry records what the company is and where it operates; it is not a donation.
Donation2024—Israeli evacuees from the Gaza envelope and the northern border, and the Israeli medical and mental-health systems
In its annual report for 2024, ICL states that after the Israeli government declared a state of war on 7 October 2023 and residents of the Gaza envelope and the northern frontier were evacuated, the company "continued its efforts to provide aid to evacuees and other populations in needs, through a variety of means including financial donations, donation of equipment, and employee volunteering," and that it "continued to support the Israeli medical and mental health systems" and its own employees and their families. The company discloses the categories of aid but not a monetary total, so no amount is recorded here.
One source
Operations in Israel2024—Israeli military reserve service (ICL employees in Israel)
ICL disclosed that in 2024, as a result of the war, approximately 15% of its employees in Israel were drafted in multiple rounds for army reserve duty, and that the company "made some adjustments to our operations, to meet customer commitments and production requirements without incurring any material impact." This is a statutory call-up of individual employees by the state, not a company donation; what the company did was keep its Israeli plants producing through it.
One source
Government contract2025-11-06$2,540,000,000State of Israel (Ministry of Finance) — Dead Sea concession arrangements
ICL and the Israeli Ministry of Finance signed a principles document settling what happens when the Dead Sea concession expires on 31 March 2030. ICL gave up its statutory right of first refusal on a new concession, clearing the way for an open international tender, and in exchange the state will pay ICL $2.54 billion for the assets transferred to it at expiry, plus reimbursement of actual salt-harvesting investments made from January 2025. ICL had argued the assets were worth about $6 billion. Under the accompanying reform the state's take from Dead Sea revenues rises from 34% to 50%. ICL's shares fell about 15% on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on the announcement. This is a commercial settlement with the Israeli state, not charitable giving.
Operations in Israel2025—Dead Sea Northern Basin, characterised by Who Profits as within the occupied West Bank
Who Profits, an Israeli-Palestinian advocacy research centre, documents that ICL's fully owned subsidiary Dead Sea Works pumps brine and minerals from the Dead Sea's Northern Basin — which it places within the occupied West Bank — through pumping stations and a feeding canal, into evaporation ponds in the Southern Basin, under the concession running to 31 March 2030. It reports 2025 output from the operation of about 3.57 million tons of potash, 150,000 tons of bromine, 17,800 tons of magnesium metal, 185,000 tons of salt and 112,000 tons of magnesium chloride. This is Who Profits' own territorial characterisation of the Northern Basin, not a finding of ours: ICL's SEC 20-F describes the same concession only as covering plants at Sodom in Israel's Negev and does not describe a West Bank component, and Who Profits' published profile carries no inline citation for the Northern Basin's location. We record it as Who Profits' documented claim.
One source
Operations in Israel2019-06—Jordan Valley settlements of Na'ama, Mehola and Na'aran, and the Ramat Magshimim and Tomer settlements (occupied West Bank and Syrian Golan)
Who Profits documents that products of ICL Group's fully owned subsidiary Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd. were found, in June 2019, at the Jordan Valley settlements of Na'ama, Mehola and Na'aran in the occupied West Bank; that ICL's customer-retention programme includes regional agronomists serving the Jordan Valley, the occupied Syrian Golan and the occupied West Bank; and that ICL fertiliser was used in a 2016-2017 almond-tree trial at the Ramat Magshimim settlement in the occupied Golan and a 2014 pesticide trial at the Tomer settlement in the West Bank. Who Profits classifies this under "Services to the Settlements" and "Settlement Enterprise." Its published profile shows no inline citation for these specific claims (dates and settlement names are stated in the text but not linked to a document); we record them as Who Profits' documented characterisation of a named subsidiary's activity, not independently verified by us against a primary document.
One source
Donation2020-03-22$247,000Soroka University Medical Center, Beersheba, and the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer
ICL announced on 22 March 2020 that it had donated NIS 900,000 — which the report gives as approximately US$247,000, an implied rate of about 3.64 shekels to the dollar against the Bank of Israel's official 3.658 on 24 March 2020 — to two Israeli hospitals, Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba and the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, for their work against Covid-19. The donor is the corporation itself, not a foundation, its employees or its controlling shareholder.
One source
In-kind support2020-03-22₪200,000Covid-19 testing in Israel, pre-approved by Israel's Ministry of Health
Alongside the cash, ICL used the regional managers of its factories in China to import 20,000 swabs for Covid-19 diagnosis in Israel, pre-approved by Israel's Ministry of Health. The company reported the swabs' cost as NIS 200,000, which the same report converts loosely to about US$50,000; that pair implies 4.0 shekels to the dollar while the Bank of Israel's rate on 24 March 2020 was 3.658, so no dollar figure is recorded for this row and the shekel figure stands.
One source
Donation2019₪1,600,000Israel Nature and Parks Authority, a state authority
During 2018 and 2019 NIS 1.6 million reached the Israel Nature and Parks Authority — a state body that holds enforcement powers and sits on national planning committees — from Bromine Compounds Ltd., a subsidiary of ICL, according to a Shomrim investigation published in ynet. In the same period the Authority, as a member of the National Planning and Building Council, supported the mining plan of another ICL subsidiary, Rotem Amfert, at Sde Barir near Arad. A further NIS 150,000 ICL donation, for the "Rotem HaMidbar" education programme in the south, appears in the Authority's 2021 budget; the Authority said that money had been received earlier and was only drawn down that year, so it may be part of the same NIS 1.6 million rather than additional to it. The Authority states it has taken nothing from ICL since legal proceedings against the company began in 2019, and the Environmental Protection Minister barred donations from polluting bodies from its 2022 budget. No single exchange rate fits a two-year total, so no dollar figure is recorded.
Donation2022₪1,880,000Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev disclosed to the Shakuf newsroom and the Movement for Freedom of Information — after two and a half years of withholding the figures and a further six-month delay — that between 2015 and 2022 it received NIS 1.88 million from ICL. The donors named were two ICL subsidiaries rather than the parent: Bromine Compounds Ltd. gave NIS 1 million for student scholarships and NIS 740,000 for community involvement in the Negev and workshops, and Dead Sea Works gave about NIS 140,000 to the BGRacing Formula team project in the engineering faculty. Ben-Gurion was the only university that would not say on which dates the money arrived, nor what it received in total from corporations; ICL did not comment. Shakuf, an Israeli investigative outlet, frames the giving as money flowing into a region the company also pollutes — that characterisation is the outlet's, not ours. No single exchange rate fits an eight-year total, so no dollar figure is recorded.
One source
Donation2022-11—The Arad municipality and other Negev local authorities, and resident-led community initiatives
ICL's flagship community programme, "Thinking Doing" (Hoshvim Osim), funds resident-led initiatives together with Negev local authorities; ynet reported in March 2025 that it had started about nine years earlier in Yeruham and since run in Beersheba, Arad, Dimona and further municipalities and regional councils, with the company giving money and professional mentoring and its employees often volunteering. Its Arad chapter, launched in November 2022, restored donation ties with the Arad municipality after a six-year break. Shakuf reported that ICL had given the city hundreds of thousands of shekels over the years for social causes, that the money stopped in 2016 when the municipality and 2,000 residents petitioned the Supreme Court against the Sde Barir phosphate mine of ICL's subsidiary Rotem Amfert, and that it resumed after the petition was rejected; ICL told Shakuf the halt was legal rather than retaliatory, since it could not keep donating to a body suing it. No figure is published for the resumed giving, so no amount is recorded.
Donation2023-04-04$56,000Low-income and needy families in Israel, through the "Tormim Ozrim" (Donors Help) project
In its fifth year with the "Tormim Ozrim" (Donors Help) project, ICL donated shopping vouchers worth NIS 200,000 (about US$56,000 at the Bank of Israel rate of 3.564 shekels to the dollar on 4 April 2023) to needy families before Passover 2023, and its employees packed about 2,400 food parcels for low-income families at the company's sites. The vouchers are corporate money; the packing is employee volunteering, which the report does not put a value on.
One source
Employee donation match2024-03-25$60,000The "Big Brother for Lone Soldiers" association and the IDF's Lone Soldiers Centre
ICL employees raised money for lone soldiers and reservists without family support in Israel by donating vacation days, and the company, then led by chief executive Raviv Zoller, matched the sum and doubled it. The report puts the aid at more than NIS 220,000 (about US$60,000 at the Bank of Israel rate of 3.66 shekels to the dollar on 26 March 2024, the first rate published after the announcement), handed out from late March 2024 as hundreds of pre-loaded payment cards through the "Big Brother for Lone Soldiers" association and the IDF's Lone Soldiers Centre. The figure is an aggregate: on the report's account the company's match doubled what employees gave, so roughly half of it is corporate money. The credit-card company Visa Cal contributed a further sum that the report does not quantify and that is not counted here.
One source
Donation2025-06-24$1,468,000Soroka University Medical Center, Beersheba
ICL's board approved a donation of about NIS 5 million (about US$1.47 million at the Bank of Israel rate of 3.405 shekels to the dollar on 24 June 2025) towards repairing Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba, which took a direct hit in an Iranian missile salvo in June 2025. The company presented it as the first step of a drive it leads, "Bringing the Pulse Back to Soroka", aiming at about NIS 15 million; about NIS 9 million had come in by 26 June 2025, including from OPC Energy, Haifa Group, EY, XT Group and the developer Udi Angel — that is other donors' money, not ICL's. ICL's community relations manager Racheli Bohadana called on the whole business sector to join. The donor is the company: Hebrew headlines framed it as the giving of controlling shareholder Idan Ofer, but the decision reported is the board's and the money is the corporation's.
Operations in Israel2026-02-18—Beersheba, Israel — ICL's new headquarters building
ICL inaugurated a new headquarters building in Beersheba on 18 February 2026, at a ceremony attended by President Isaac Herzog, Beersheba mayor Ruvik Danilovich and ICL chief executive Elad Aharonson, who called the move "a declaration of identity" and a deliberate choice to place the company's centre of gravity in the Negev capital. The 12-storey, roughly 15,000-square-metre green-standard tower gathers about 1,000 head-office staff previously spread across several buildings in the city. Figures presented at the ceremony put ICL's direct workforce at about 4,500, most of them Negev residents in Beersheba, Dimona, Arad and Yeruham, and cited a BDO report estimating the company's contribution to Israel's economy at about NIS 17.6 billion a year, some 10% of the south's output and 27% of industrial output in the Beersheba district. That last figure is a consultancy's estimate of economic activity, not money the company gave, so no amount is recorded. This entry records operations, not a donation.
One source
Donations total$1,771,000

Frequently asked questions

Did ICL Group donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

Yes. Documented donations total $1,771,000, including $1,468,000 to Soroka University Medical Center, Beersheba. Each donation is listed on this page with its date and source.

How much has ICL Group given?

Documented donations total $1,771,000. The largest single recorded item is $1,468,000 to Soroka University Medical Center, Beersheba (2025-06-24).

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. 19 distinct sources are cited for ICL Group. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-09-26

More companies