How We Score Complicity
We give the companies, venture capitalists and investment firms we research a complicity score between 1 and 100. The higher the number, the more deeply that entity is tied to Israel's occupation of Palestine, its settlements, the genocide in Gaza, or the militaries of the states that keep arming Israel.
This page explains what goes into a score, why some acts count for more than others, and how to read what you see on a company page.
Where a Score Comes From
Every score starts with our own research: the article we write about a company and the sources it cites. We don't add anything the article doesn't say. We go through each article and pull out the separate things a company has done, such as a weapons contract, a donation, a shop in a settlement or a public statement. Each of these is a finding, and each one goes into exactly one of the categories listed further down. Every finding has to be backed by a passage in the article itself.
What We Leave Out
We score conduct. A few things never count, however they come up:
- Anyone's nationality, citizenship, ethnicity or religion. We look at what a company does, not at who works there.
- Military service we can't document. We don't guess it from someone's name, nationality or background, and we never count people who refused or avoided service.
- Things the law requires, such as paying taxes.
- Issues outside what we cover, even serious ones: labour rights, privacy, the environment, policing, immigration enforcement, general political donations, and work for the armies of countries not named in our categories. An article may mention them, but they won't move the score.
- Deals with other companies. A supplier, customer or partner has its own page and its own score, and it only affects this one through the relationship described under Related Companies.
How a Finding Is Weighed
Findings don't all count the same. Each category carries its own severity, so building a settlement or arming the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) counts for far more than running an R&D office in Israel. From there, we adjust for the details of each act:
- The date. Military supply, donations and deals with the Israeli state count for more if they happened, or were still going on, after 7 October 2023.
- The size. A token gesture counts for less than an ordinary act, and a large contract or something central to the business counts for more.
- Who did it. An act by the company itself counts in full, and one by a subsidiary or franchisee a bit less. When a founder, CEO, chair or other senior executive acts in public, it counts almost as much as the company acting, unless the company has publicly distanced itself. If a company stays silent about what its leaders do, we treat that as approval. Private views that came out through leaks, and the conduct of junior staff, count for much less.
- Whether it's still happening. Ongoing involvement counts in full. Once it ends, it counts for less as the years pass, and a public divestment lowers it further. It never drops to zero, because stopping doesn't undo what came before.
From Findings to a Score
A company's most serious finding sets the starting point. Each additional finding raises the score, but by less each time, so a long list of minor findings can't match one severe one. No score goes above 100.
In practice, the score reflects how bad the worst documented act is and how much else we found alongside it.
Related Companies
A company's score also reflects its ties to other companies through ownership, franchising, investment and business deals. A related company passes on part of its own record, never all of it, and the share depends on the kind of link:
- Parents and subsidiaries pass on most of their record when one owns the other outright. A partial stake passes on less.
- Franchisors and franchisees follow the same rule, depending on whether the franchise is wholly or partly owned.
- Business partners, such as suppliers, customers, distributors and joint ventures, pass on a small share.
- Investors pass on part of their record to the companies they back. Two or more complicit backers count for more than one, but investors alone can never put a company in the Major tier. Once a fund has exited, or the company has been acquired or shut down, that investment stops counting.
- Brands carry the score of the company that owns them. The full breakdown is on the owner's page.
Among parent, subsidiary, franchise and partner links, only the strongest one counts, so having lots of connections doesn't push a score up by itself.
Venture Capitalists and Investment Firms
We judge a fund by what it pays for as well as by what it does itself. On top of its own findings, a venture capitalist's or investment firm's score reflects its most complicit holdings, and it rises further for each holding that is highly complicit in its own right.
Score Tiers
Each score falls into a tier. The tier name tells you how much complicity we've documented. It never means that level is acceptable. The line beside it is what we suggest you do.
- ComplicitScore 1–24Avoid when an alternative is easy
- SignificantScore 25–49Avoid: switch to an alternative
- MajorScore 50–74Boycott
- SevereScore 75–100Boycott
No score on a page means we haven't documented complicity for that company yet. It doesn't mean the company is clean.
The Categories We Score
Each finding fits exactly one of the acts below, grouped the same way as on a company page. If an act doesn't match any of them, we don't score it. If two could apply, we pick the more specific one.
Military & security
Direct support for the IOF: weapons and the parts that go into them, AI, cloud and targeting services, surveillance used in the occupied territories, shipping arms, joint programmes with the IOF, and investment in Israeli weapons and surveillance companies. Anything that ends up with the IOF belongs here, whichever country or programme it goes through. These are some of the heaviest acts we score.
- Sells weapons, munitions or weapon platforms to the IOF
- Supplies components that go into weapons used by the IOF (engines, guidance, designed-in chips)
- Provides AI, cloud, data or targeting services to the IOF or the Israeli war ministry
- Supplies surveillance, biometric or checkpoint technology used in the occupied territories
- Ships or transports arms to Israel
- Sells dual-use goods with a documented IOF end use
- Runs joint R&D, training or an accelerator with the IOF or the Israeli war ministry
- Sells non-lethal goods or services to the IOF (food, uniforms, general software)
- Invests in or acquires Israeli weapons, military-technology or surveillance companies
General militarism
Work for the armed forces of the states that arm Israel, and investment in war companies anywhere outside Israel. The United States, Israel's main arms supplier, generally counts most. Germany comes next, then the United Kingdom, Italy, India, the Czech Republic, Romania and Taiwan, and then France, Spain and Canada, which announced limits on arms sales to Israel while military goods kept reaching it. Selling weapons or military technology counts for more than ordinary contracts, and all of it counts for less than supplying the IOF directly.
Sources on each country's arms supplies to Israel:
- Israeli customs data on military goods from all of these countries: Al Jazeera, Not just the US: 51 nations armed Israel amid Gaza war
- Sells weapons, munitions or weapon platforms to the US military
- Provides AI, cloud, data, surveillance or targeting technology to the US military, the Department of War or US intelligence agencies
- Holds other contracts with the US military (non-lethal goods or services: logistics, food, general software, recruitment)
- Invests in or acquires weapons makers or military-technology companies outside Israel (war AI, drones, munitions, military surveillance)
- Sells weapons, munitions or weapon platforms to the German armed forces (Bundeswehr)
- Provides AI, cloud, data, surveillance or targeting technology to the German armed forces, war ministry or intelligence agencies
- Holds other contracts with the German armed forces (non-lethal goods or services)
- Sells weapons, munitions or weapon platforms to the armed forces of the United Kingdom, Italy, India, the Czech Republic, Romania or Taiwan
- Provides AI, cloud, data, surveillance or targeting technology to the armed forces, war ministries or intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, Italy, India, the Czech Republic, Romania or Taiwan
- Holds other contracts with the armed forces of the United Kingdom, Italy, India, the Czech Republic, Romania or Taiwan (non-lethal goods or services)
- Sells weapons, munitions, weapon platforms or military technology to the armed forces of France, Spain or Canada
Donations & material support
Money, goods or services given to the IOF, the Israeli government or settler organisations. That includes soldier-welfare funds and companies matching their employees' donations to them. Funding the IOF or the settlements directly is among the heaviest acts we score.
- Donates money to the IOF or Israeli government, including soldier-welfare funds
- Donates goods or services to the IOF (free meals, equipment, licenses)
- Funds settler organizations or charities that build settlements
- Matches employee donations to IOF-linked funds
Occupation & settlements
Involvement in the occupation of Palestinian land and in the settlements, which are illegal under international law. This covers building settlements, supplying the machinery used to build them and to demolish Palestinian homes, financing them, guarding them, providing their services, taking resources from occupied land, operating there, and listing, advertising or selling what the settlements offer. Building settlements is the heaviest act we score.
- Builds settlements or their infrastructure (housing, roads, the separation wall)
- Supplies equipment used in home demolitions or settlement construction
- Finances settlements (loans, mortgages, project investment)
- Provides security services to settlements or checkpoints
- Extracts natural resources (quarrying, water) in occupied territory
- Provides utilities, telecom or transport to settlements
- Operates a branch, factory or store in a settlement
- Lists, advertises or earns from settlement properties, rentals, construction projects or tours (classifieds, real estate or travel platforms)
- Sources or sells settlement products, including labelling them "Made in Israel"
Government & state
Ties to the Israeli state outside its military, such as buying its bonds or lending it money, selling to its ministries and agencies (the police and prison service included), signing formal partnerships with ministries, and lobbying against boycotts or arms embargoes.
- Buys Israeli government bonds or lends to the Israeli state
- Sells non-military goods or services to the Israeli government
- Signs a strategic partnership or MoU with Israeli government ministries
- Lobbies for anti-boycott laws or against arms embargoes
Economic ties
Support for the Israeli economy, such as investments presented as backing it during the war, R&D centres or major operations in Israel, buying or investing in Israeli companies, and being based in Israel. These count, but for less than direct support for the IOF or the occupation.
- Makes an investment explicitly framed as supporting the Israeli economy during the war
- Opens or expands an R&D center or major operations in Israel
- Acquires an Israeli company
- Invests in Israeli companies (non-military, non-settlement)
- Is headquartered in Israel, or was founded in Israel and keeps its main operations or R&D there (including companies that moved their legal headquarters abroad)
Intelligence & security-service ties
Documented ties to IOF intelligence units and Israeli security services like Unit 8200, Talpiot, Shin Bet and Mossad. That can mean veterans among a company's founders or top leadership, or a business built on those units: technology that came out of unit work, a unit background used as a selling point, or hiring through unit programmes.
- Founded or led (founder, CEO, CTO, chair or other C-level) by veterans of IOF intelligence units or Israeli security services (Unit 8200, Unit 81, Unit 9900, Talpiot, Shin Bet, Mossad)
- Builds its business on Israeli intelligence-unit work or keeps an institutional pipeline with those units: technology derived from unit work, marketing its unit origin as a selling point, or recruiting through unit or alumni programmes
Military service of leadership
Service in the IOF by a company's founders or top leadership, where our research documents it. Service during the genocide in Gaza counts for more. Past compulsory service is one of the lightest acts we score.
- Founded or led (founder, CEO, CTO, chair or other C-level) by people who served in the IOF (compulsory service or reserve duty)
- Founded or led by people who served in the IOF during the genocide in Gaza (reserve duty or active service since 7 October 2023)
Public stance & conduct
What a company says and does in public. This includes promoting the IOF, statements backing the war, punishing staff for supporting Palestine, steering news coverage, making support for Israel a condition of the job, repeating IOF claims as fact, and campaigning for the Israeli state.
- Runs sponsorships or marketing campaigns with the IOF, or uses its brand to promote the IOF
- Issues a corporate statement backing the military campaign
- Has a documented case of disciplining or firing staff for pro-Palestine speech
- Directs editorial coverage to justify the military campaign or suppress Palestinian casualties, documented by internal instructions, policies or staff testimony (media / platforms)
- Makes support for the Israeli state or the IOF a condition of employment or binding corporate policy (e.g. a pledge staff must sign or accept)
- Publishes or amplifies IOF or Israeli government claims as fact without attribution, or runs paid Israeli government advocacy campaigns
- Publicly advocates for the Israeli state or the US-Israel alliance outside a specific military campaign, including accepting honours given for that advocacy (speeches, awards, lobby events)
Corrections
If you think we got a finding, a link or a score wrong, or that something is missing, write to us at [email protected].