Partner Communications

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. Partner is listed by the UN under activity (e), the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, which places it 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.

Revenue of NIS 770 million excluding interconnection fees, flat year on year; net profit NIS 74 million, up 16%; operating profit NIS 107 million, up 14%; 2.7 million cellular subscribers, 475,000 fibre subscribers and 207,000 television subscribers. Avi Gabbay is quoted as chief executive, confirming he remains in post in 2026.

HOT Mobile is being sold in its entirety to a consortium of Delek Israel and Keystone at 40% each and Leumi Partners, Bank Leumi's investment arm, at 20%, at a headline value of about NIS 1.88 billion with a cash payment of NIS 1.22 billion. Closing is expected by the end of 2026, subject to Israeli Competition Authority and Ministry of Communications approval. Globes reports that Keystone's role is to upgrade the cellular infrastructure that Hot Mobile shares with Partner, that is, the P.H.I. Networks estate carrying Partner's antennas on occupied land. Partner's carve-out bid for the business customer base did not prevail; whether Partner acquired any HOT Mobile business customers separately is unverified.

2025 revenue of NIS 3.1 billion, up 1%; net profit NIS 304 million, up 10%; adjusted EBITDA above NIS 1.2 billion; net financial debt down to NIS 128 million from NIS 254 million; 2.68 million subscribers, 468,000 fibre subscribers and about 839,000 5G users; a declared dividend of NIS 465 million. Establishes that neither the UN listing nor the KLP divestment has produced measurable financial pressure.

In the auction for Altice's HOT Mobile, Pelephone raised its bid to NIS 2.3 billion and Delek Israel offered NIS 1.8 billion, while 'rival mobile telephony companies Cellcom and Partner' submitted offers for Hot Mobile's business customers only. Partner did not bid for the company as a whole.

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. Israeli operators including Partner run 5G across the same territory: Partner completed migration of its entire customer base to a Private 5G core in July 2025.

Partner Communications is entry 74 of the 104 businesses screened, for DBIO listed activities 2, 9 and 11. Its cross-reference table records: UN Database yes, Who Profits yes, AFSC Investigate yes, 2025 UN Special Rapporteur report no, 2025 Amnesty International report no. DBIO V identifies 1,115 European financial institutions with relationships to these 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. Published by a coalition including the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, which hosts the report.

Partner Communications Company Ltd. appears at entry 121 of Annex I, listed for activities (e) and (g): the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport, and the use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes. The 2025 update added 68 businesses and removed 7. Partner had already been listed at entry 67 of A/HRC/43/71 in February 2020 and at entry 59 of the update of 30 June 2023, for the same two activities each time. The ten listed activities are all settlement-related, and the database is confined to them. OHCHR received submissions naming 596 companies and reviewed 215, citing resource constraints. Non-listing means out of scope or not yet reviewed. It has never meant cleared.

Partner completed the transition of all its mobile customers to a new Private 5G network core built with Ericsson, at a cost of tens of millions of shekels, the first such migration in Israel. Documents the vendor relationship underpinning the network that carries Partner's antennas in the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan.

The more recent antenna count. Records that HOT operates 232 cellular antennas in the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan through P.H.I. Networks (2015) LP, the network-sharing limited partnership it holds jointly with Partner Communications, and that Hot Mobile holds a consolidated licence from the Israeli Civil Administration to provide telecommunications services in the occupied West Bank. Page valid until 17/06/2025.

Partner established a global business division under newly appointed vice president Nissan Arieh, covering relationships with telecom operators in Israel and abroad and targeting roaming, data, voice and IoT partnerships and international fibre agreements, including a dark fibre deal with Tamares Telecom from the Jordanian-Israeli border to Haifa. Identifies the company's international counterparties as its growth strategy, and therefore as the point where external pressure applies.

Records that in December 2024 the Israeli Civil Administration published a tender for the construction of 22 cellular communication masts in the occupied West Bank, designed to carry the antennas of Cellcom, Pelephone and PHI in 4G and 5G technologies, to be erected at 22 locations, settlements and roads across the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley. PHI is the Partner and HOT Mobile joint network partnership. Page valid until 23/01/2025.

Places Partner on the BDS Divestment Shortlist under the Occupations screen, tagged Settlement Industry. Cites more than 208 antennas and telecommunication infrastructure facilities on occupied land, service to settlements and military installations, payments to settlement councils, and customer service centres in occupied East Jerusalem conferring market advantage over Palestinian competitors. Its Economic Activism Highlights record the March 2022 University of British Columbia student union divestment motion, the July 2021 KLP divestment, and BDS resolutions at San Francisco State University in November 2020 and Fresno State University in October 2020. Note that the page still lists a NASDAQ ticker; Partner delisted from NASDAQ in January 2023.

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. The legal framework on which institutional exclusion and procurement decisions rest.

The primary field record. Documents a general-unified licence from the Israeli Minister of Communications to provide fixed communication services to settlers in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, valid until January 2027; more than 200 active cellular antennas on occupied land as of April 2024, eighteen in occupied no-man's-land areas, with eight more under construction in East Jerusalem and Modi'in Illit; four sales and service centres in Palestinian neighbourhoods of occupied East Jerusalem, an area off-limits to Palestinian cellular companies; monthly payments to the Beit El local council in 2020 to keep communication equipment on Palestinian land; twelve years of payments to the cooperative society of the Migron outpost; and tenders won between 2017 and 2020 for telecommunications and internet services for the Israeli District Coordination Office for Gaza and the Civil Administration at Beit El. The page footer states the information is valid until 22/04/2024.

The Israeli Ministry of Communications fined all five infrastructure-holding cellular operators, Pelephone, Partner, Cellcom, Hot Mobile and Wecom, a combined NIS 8.7 million for failing licence obligations requiring coverage of at least 95% of settlement or road surface in 4G, with violations recorded in the South and in the occupied West Bank. The report notes this was the first such enforcement, and that a directive signed by the head of Central Command gave the military's Civil Administration power to penalise operators for licence breaches in the occupied territories, which it had previously lacked. Establishes that Partner's licence carries an affirmative, state-enforced obligation to extend coverage to settlements.

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.

KLP excluded sixteen companies, Partner Communications 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. The clearest precedent available for an institutional exclusion decision.

Orange chief executive Stephane Richard announced the intention to withdraw the Orange brand from Partner, after sustained pressure from French human rights organisations and unions over Partner's operations in settlements in the occupied West Bank, and BDS campaigning in Egypt and France. Richard acknowledged the financial penalties involved in breaking the licensing agreement. Partner retired the Orange brand and relaunched under its own name in February 2016. Reported figures for the exit payment differ between sources and we have not been able to reconcile them, so none is stated here.