Does Lipton support Israel?

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

Filed under: Food & beverage brands · Companies that support Israel

Background

Who owns Lipton changed, and the change matters. Unilever agreed in November 2021 to sell its tea business — then called ekaterra — to CVC Capital Partners Fund VIII for €4.5 billion; the sale completed on 1 July 2022 and the business was renamed LIPTON Teas and Infusions, an Amsterdam-headquartered company owned by CVC funds. Since that date the Lipton tea brand is no longer Unilever's, with narrow exceptions Unilever kept: the Lipton name for tea in India, Nepal, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, for soup mixes in North America, and for ready-to-drink iced tea worldwide, which is bottled and sold through the Pepsi Lipton joint venture with PepsiCo. So a claim about "Lipton" needs to say which Lipton: the tea company owned by CVC, or the Unilever-PepsiCo iced-tea venture. In Israel, Lipton tea holds roughly 12% of a market dominated by the Israeli company Wissotzky (about 76%); Lipton has historically been marketed in Israel inside Unilever Israel's brand portfolio and still appears on Israeli distributor listings of that portfolio, but no Israeli subsidiary, factory or licensee of LIPTON Teas and Infusions is documented, and Lipton Ice Tea has been handled in Israel by local soft-drink distributors. Nothing was found — before or after the ownership change — that documents a donation, in-kind contribution, investment, sponsorship or statement of support for Israel, its army or any Israeli organisation by the Lipton brand or by LIPTON Teas and Infusions. Boycott lists that name Lipton rely on the pre-2022 Unilever link or on the PepsiCo iced-tea venture; both are parent-level relationships documented on the Unilever and PepsiCo pages, not acts of Lipton.

Unilever (official) — completion of the sale of its Tea business, ekaterra CVC (official) — Unilever to sell ekaterra to CVC Capital Partners Fund VIII for €4.5bn Wikipedia — Lipton Teas and Infusions (ownership, retained Unilever rights) World Tea News — Wissotzky's share of the Israeli tea market vs Lipton

What we checked

• News & official statements — 2026-07-30
  English and Hebrew searches (Unilever and CVC press releases, Food Dive, Food Business News, STiR, Ynet, Globes, World Tea News) established the July 2022 transfer of the Lipton tea brand to CVC-owned LIPTON Teas and Infusions and the split with Unilever's retained ready-to-drink rights, but produced no report of any donation, sponsorship or statement of support for Israel by Lipton or its current owner; no Israeli LIPTON Teas and Infusions subsidiary, plant or licensee was found.
• Nonprofit tax filings (Form 990) — 2026-07-30
  No Lipton or LIPTON Teas and Infusions charitable foundation appears in ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer; the brand's owner is a Dutch company held by CVC funds and files no US Form 990. Unilever's US philanthropic vehicles were reviewed on the parent page with no Israel-linked grantee.
• SEC filings — 2026-07-30
  LIPTON Teas and Infusions is privately held and is not an SEC filer; historical Lipton tea disclosures sit in Unilever PLC filings (CIK 217410), reviewed on the parent page, and the ready-to-drink venture is disclosed by PepsiCo (CIK 77476) — neither contains Israel-specific Lipton content.
• Federal election records (FEC) — 2026-07-30
  FEC committee search returns no Lipton or ekaterra committee; the brand's owner is a foreign private company barred from US federal contributions. Unilever- and PepsiCo-affiliated committees were checked on those parent pages with no pro-Israel committee disbursements.
• Independent fact-checkers — 2026-07-30
  No Snopes/Reuters/AFP fact check substantiates claims that Lipton funds Israel. The Witness boycott guide lists both "Lipton" and "Lipton Iced Tea", in the first case on the outdated premise that Unilever still owns the tea brand and in the second because of the PepsiCo venture; neither entry cites a Lipton action. Neither LIPTON Teas and Infusions nor Unilever is on the BDS movement's official targeted-boycott list.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-07-30

• Unilever (official) — completion of the sale of its Tea business, ekaterra unilever.com
• CVC (official) — Unilever to sell ekaterra to CVC Capital Partners Fund VIII for €4.5bn cvc.com
• Wikipedia — Lipton Teas and Infusions (ownership, retained Unilever rights) en.wikipedia.org
• World Tea News — Wissotzky's share of the Israeli tea market vs Lipton worldteanews.com