Bezeq

Second-quarter 2026 core revenue rose 4% to NIS 2.03 billion and total revenue 1.4% to NIS 2.17 billion. The board declared NIS 515 million to shareholders, NIS 415 million in cash and the remainder as a buyback. Fibre had been deployed past 3.03 million households with 1.06 million connected; Pelephone had 2.71 million subscribers of whom 1.47 million were on 5G; yes had 563,000. Fixed-line net profit rose 20% to NIS 259 million and yes posted its highest quarterly revenue in eight years. Nir David is named as chief executive and Tomer Raved as chairperson.

Chris Bryant told the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee there was a 'very strong' moral and legal case for banning trade linked to Israeli settlements, that sanctions legislation could be the legal basis, and that restrictions should encompass services alongside goods. Bezeq, Pelephone and yes are each listed by the UN under activity (e), the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, which places the group squarely within the scope the Minister described.

Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons that the Government, jointly with the Department for Business and Trade, had strengthened its business risk guidance to make clear that 'if you are a British citizen or business, you should not conduct any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements'. The statement also announced a fourth sanctions package targeting settler violence networks, and a request to the Charity Commission to investigate UK charities linked to illegal settlements.

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, which manages nearly GBP 120 billion for around two million local government workers across 18 partner funds, sold USD 29.2 million of Israeli government bonds in late September 2025 without publishing any reasoning. As of May 2026 it remained invested in three companies on the UN settlements database (Airbnb, Booking.com and Bank Leumi) and had engaged the Dutch firm Robeco to advise on human rights due diligence. Establishes both that the UK's largest LGPS pool will act on Israeli exposure and that it has not yet applied the UN database to its corporate holdings.

Bezeq has begun deploying a subsea cable of more than 400 terabits to connect Europe to Asia through Israel, a NIS 500 million (USD 172 million) project taking two years to build, with two further cables to launch later in 2026. Chairman Tomer Raved said the company would soon announce a European partner, that the route would relieve congestion in the Strait of Hormuz through which about 17% of global broadband passes, and that it 'positions Israel as the digital backbone, not just of the region, but globally'. Reported alongside first-quarter 2026 results: adjusted net profit of NIS 300 million, core revenue up 2.6% to NIS 2.03 billion, fibre reaching 3 million homes with 1.04 million subscribers, and Pelephone at 2.699 million subscribers.

Core revenue up 3% to NIS 7.96 billion; adjusted EBITDA of NIS 3.85 billion, up 7.8%; adjusted net profit of NIS 1.66 billion, up 31%, against guidance of NIS 1.4 billion; fibre infrastructure reaching 3 million households at a 35% take-up rate with 1.04 million subscribers; a recommended shareholder return of NIS 700 million; and 2026 guidance of stable EBITDA and net profit. Establishes that neither the UN listings nor three institutional exclusions have produced measurable financial pressure.

Israel's Communications Ministry approved the equipment needed to upgrade Palestinian cellular networks in the occupied West Bank from 3G to 4G, with rollout expected within six months, under a 2022 framework agreement delayed by the war on Gaza. Jawwal and Ooredoo signed management agreements with Ericsson. Palestinian operators had been confined to 3G since 2018; Gaza remains on 2G. Bezeq passed its three millionth Israeli household with fibre in the same period. As of August 2026 no source we could find confirms the Palestinian 4G rollout has gone live.

B Communications sold its whole holding in Bezeq for approximately NIS 2.7 billion (USD 860 million) at NIS 6.2 per share, after demand exceeding NIS 8 billion from Israeli and global institutional investors, the largest secondary block trade ever executed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, with Citi as global coordinator and Jefferies and Leader Capital Markets as joint bookrunners. Bezeq's market value had risen about 250% since Searchlight took control in 2019. On completion, Darren Glatt, Searchlight senior partner and Bcom chairman, and Ran Fuhrer left Bezeq's board; Tomer Raved remained chairman. Bezeq has had no controlling shareholder since.

Bezeq is one of the 104 businesses screened in the DBIO coalition's fifth report. DBIO V identifies 1,115 European financial institutions with relationships to those 104 businesses, USD 310 billion in loans and underwriting between January 2023 and August 2025, and USD 1,503 billion in shares and bonds held at 31 August 2025. Research by Profundo; foreword by Francesca Albanese. Copy hosted by the coalition member Al-Haq, the Palestinian human rights organisation.

Three Bezeq Group entities appear in Annex I: Bezeq, the Israeli Telecommunications Corp. Ltd. at entry 25 for activities (e) and (g); Pelephone Communications Ltd. at entry 123 for (e) and (g); and Yes TV and Communications Services Ltd. at entry 154 for (e), a footnote recording that it was previously listed as D.B.S Satellite Services Ltd. Activity (e) is the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport; (g) is the use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes. The 2025 update added 68 businesses and removed 7, bringing the total to 158 after assessing 215. Non-listing means out of scope or not yet reviewed. It has never meant cleared.

The primary field record. Documents a general domestic carrier licence to operate in the occupied West Bank issued by the Israeli Ministry of Communications on 26 October 2020; 64 company-owned properties in settlements per the annual report; retail outlets in occupied East Jerusalem at the Atarot industrial zone and on Nur ad-Din Street; external infrastructure and utilities supplied between 2012 and 2021 for the expansion of the Beitar Illit and Efrat settlements; a project announced in September 2025 with the state-owned National Roads Company of Israel to lay more than 1,000 kilometres of optical fibre to settlements in the occupied West Bank and the occupied Syrian Golan; at least 160 active Pelephone cellular antennas on occupied land under a licence valid to September 2032, with a service centre at Pisgat Ze'ev; contracts with COGAT, the Israeli Civil Administration at Beit El, the District Coordination and Liaison office for Gaza, and the Israel Prison Service including Ofer Prison; and Bezeq's access to the Palestinian market as a captive market. The page footer states the information is valid until 15/08/2025.

Places Bezeq on the BDS Divestment Shortlist, tagged 'Settlement Industry' and 'Wall and Checkpoints in Palestine'. Records infrastructure throughout the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights serving settlements, military bases and checkpoints; the extension of wireless and satellite services through Pelephone and D.B.S; and profit from a captive Palestinian market dependent on its infrastructure. Its Economic Activism Highlights list the 2022 University of British Columbia student union divestment demand, KLP's July 2021 divestment, the 2020 San Francisco State and Fresno State resolutions, Sampension's 2017 exclusion and a 2015 Oglethorpe University resolution.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, then worth USD 1.8 trillion, sold all its shares in Bezeq after its Council on Ethics found that the company's provision of telecom services to settlements in the occupied West Bank facilitates their maintenance and expansion. The fund had already cut its stake from 2.2% at the start of 2024 to 0.76%, worth USD 23.7 million, by the end of June. Bezeq did not reply immediately to a request for comment. The fund had previously divested from nine other companies operating in the occupied West Bank.

The Executive Board of Norges Bank decided to exclude Bezeq The Israeli Telecommunication Corp Ltd from the Government Pension Fund Global 'due to an unacceptable risk that the company contributes to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict', on the conduct-based criterion in section 4(b) of the guidelines, following the Council on Ethics recommendation of 30 August 2024. Evraz PLC was excluded in the same decision.

The decisive document. The Council records that Bezeq 'confirmed that it has no possibility of terminating the provision of telecom services to Israeli settlements' and 'is similarly obliged to supply such services to the Israeli security forces in the West Bank'. It concludes that Bezeq, 'through its physical presence and provision of telecommunications services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is helping to maintain the existence of the illegal Israeli settlements in Area C, and is thereby contributing to the violation of international law', and that 'it must therefore be considered certain that this part of Bezeq's operations will continue for the foreseeable future'. The Council notes Bezeq's contrary arguments (that it also serves Palestinian communities in Area C under the Oslo Accords, describing those services as 'crucial for meeting the telecommunications needs of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian population'; that it does not supply unauthorised outposts; and that it is entirely private with no state ownership) and attaches no decisive weight to them. At the close of June 2024 the fund held 0.76% of Bezeq, worth NOK 252 million. Criterion: section 4(b) of the ethical guidelines.

The International Court of Justice found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, held settlements and their associated economic activity contrary to international law, and set out obligations on states in relation to trade and dealings with settlements. Norway's Council on Ethics relied on this opinion in its assessment of Bezeq, noting that the Oslo Accords 'grant no special rights to the occupying power that do not follow from the law of occupation'.

International Court of Justice found a real and imminent risk to the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide, and ordered Israel to prevent them. The Court made no finding on the merits of the genocide claim; the order's significance for suppliers is that it puts them on notice of a duty of prevention.

OHCHR reassessed the original 112 businesses and removed 15, leaving 97. All three Bezeq Group entities were retained: Bezeq the Israel Telecommunication Corp. Ltd. at entry 13 for (e) and (g); D.B.S Satellite Services Ltd. at entry 22 for (e), footnoted as formerly listed as 'Yes'; and Pelephone Communications Ltd. at entry 61 for (e) and (g).

KLP excluded sixteen companies, Bezeq among them, from holdings totalling around USD 32 million, on the basis of an unacceptable risk of contributing to human rights violations through affiliation with settlements in the occupied West Bank. KLP's reasoning on the telecom operators was that providing services in the West Bank helps make settlements attractive residential areas. Partner Communications and Cellcom were excluded in the same decision.

The first edition, listing 112 business enterprises. Bezeq, the Israel Telecommunication Corp Ltd. appears at entry 16 for activities E and G; Pelephone Communications Ltd. at entry 70 for E and G; and YES at entry 85 for E. The group has therefore been listed three times over in every edition of the database since it was first published.

Sampension, then Denmark's third-largest pension fund with USD 46.1 billion under management, excluded Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bezeq and HeidelbergCement. Its director, Henrik Olejasz Larsen, cited 'the financing of settlements and for the extraction of natural resources and the establishment of infrastructure for telecommunications in the occupied area'. Bezeq was named for owning telecommunications equipment installed within settlements. The decision followed a January 2017 Danwatch investigation, 'Business on Occupied Territory', which found Sampension had the largest exposure of any Danish fund to companies operating in or around settlements.