Short answer: As of July 2026, yes, PepsiCo has deep and openly acknowledged business ties to Israel. It owns SodaStream outright, runs SodaStream's flagship plant in the Negev near the Bedouin town of Rahat, and since November 2024 is the sole owner of the Sabra and Obela hummus brands. That is a striking reversal for a company that honored the Arab League boycott and stayed out of Israel until 1991. On the boycott question, PepsiCo itself is not named on the official BDS priority target list, though its SodaStream brand has a long boycott history and grassroots consumer boycotts in some countries have swept Pepsi in alongside Coca-Cola since October 2023.
What the record actually shows
PepsiCo does not frame itself as a political actor, but its investments in Israel are large, documented, and easy to trace.
- 1991: Pepsi entered the Israeli market for the first time, ending decades of honoring the Arab League boycott of companies that did business with Israel. Its arrival was controversial in Israel too, though over religious-sensitivity advertising disputes rather than the boycott question. (The Christian Science Monitor; Tablet)
- 2008: PepsiCo and Israel's Strauss Group formed Sabra as a 50/50 joint venture in the United States, giving PepsiCo a half-stake in a brand rooted in an Israeli food company. (The Times of Israel)
- August 2018: PepsiCo announced it would acquire the Israeli home-carbonation company SodaStream for $3.2 billion, its largest buyout in eight years, and said the company would keep its base of operations in Israel. (The Times of Israel)
- December 2018: PepsiCo completed the SodaStream acquisition. SodaStream became a PepsiCo subsidiary and continued to operate from Israel. (The Times of Israel)
- 2019: PepsiCo backed an expansion of the SodaStream plant in the Negev, reported at roughly $92.5 million, a facility employing thousands of Jewish, Bedouin, and Arab workers and held up as a flagship example of investment in southern Israel. (JNS)
- November 2024: PepsiCo bought Strauss Group's remaining 50% stake in the Sabra and Obela hummus businesses for about $244 million, becoming the sole owner. (The Times of Israel)
Where the boycott talk comes from
Most "Pepsi is on the boycott list" claims trace back to SodaStream. Before PepsiCo owned it, SodaStream ran a factory in Mishor Adumim, an industrial park attached to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and BDS activists campaigned against that site for years. In October 2015 SodaStream closed the settlement factory and consolidated production at a new plant in the Idan HaNegev Industrial Park near Rahat, inside Israel's pre-1967 lines. The move was contested from every direction: BDS claimed victory, while SodaStream's leadership accused boycotters of costing Palestinian workers their jobs, and roughly 75 West Bank Palestinian employees ultimately lost their positions when Israel would not issue permits for the new site. PepsiCo bought the company after this relocation. (The Times of Israel; BDS Movement)
On the lists themselves: viral social-media graphics often show "Pepsi" as an Israel-boycott target, but the official Palestinian-led BDS movement's November 2024 corporate priority-targeting guide does not name PepsiCo as one of its priority targets. What is true is that SodaStream carries a long, documented BDS history, and that since October 2023 broad grassroots consumer boycotts across some Muslim-majority countries have folded Pepsi in alongside Coca-Cola, boosting local soda brands. So the accurate reading is narrow: PepsiCo is not an official BDS target, but it does own Israeli brands, and informal boycotts do reach it. (BDS Movement)
The bottom line
PepsiCo is unambiguously invested in Israel. It owns SodaStream and its Negev factory, and as of November 2024 it fully owns the Sabra and Obela hummus brands. The company that once boycotted Israel is now one of the larger American corporate investors in the Israeli consumer-goods economy. On boycott status, the honest line is that PepsiCo itself is not on the official BDS priority target list, even though its SodaStream brand has a real boycott history and grassroots boycotts in some regions include Pepsi. Treat "Pepsi is on the boycott list" as an oversimplification rather than an established fact.
Support Israel directly
If you want your spending to back Israel without parsing a corporation's holdings, you can do it directly. Explore our Support Israel collection for apparel, jewelry, and gifts that stand openly with Israel and the Jewish people, every purchase a clear choice rather than a footnote in a balance sheet.
Related
Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
