Teva y el ejército de Israel (IDF). Teva and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). ESP ENG

Supporting combat soldiers

Several hundred Teva employees in Israel – amounting to at least 10% of its workforce there – were called up for reserve army duty after the Hamas attacks of 7 October.

One of those was Hadar Mama, the CEO of Teva’s logistics company in Israel who was reported to be “fighting in the Gaza Strip but still has his finger on the pulse of SLE”, Teva’s logistics arm.  

“Hadar moves between three command posts: his family, which remained at home under the threat of missile attack, SLE, and his army position”, the Jerusalem Post reported in December 2023.

The paper added: “Between fighting in Gaza and resting on the base, Hadar finds time for virtual meetings with his management team, receives status updates, and makes key decisions”.

Mama was quoted as saying that “Our brigade also received deliveries of equipment collected by Teva workers for us”.

This may have been a reference to Teva’s collaboration with Israeli anti-poverty group Pitchon-Lev to collect “equipment” for IDF (The Israel Defense Forces) soldiers. 

Collection points were established at Teva’s five sites across Israel, enabling employees to donate: around 1.5 tons of equipment – details of which are not specified – had been donated to the IDF by the end of October 2023. 

‘Support the soul’

Teva has also partnered with Momentum, a non-profit group in Israel which helps Israeli combat soldiers address their mental health needs such as post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Teva’s ‘Support the Soul’ programme, launched in response to the 7 October attacks, supports the therapists treating the soldiers.

In a further collaboration the drugs firm has partnered with an organisation called Thank Israeli Soldiers (TIS), which is “dedicated to supporting IDF soldiers through partnerships with Israeli nonprofits”. 

TIS has developed programmes “in coordination with the IDF” to support the mental or physical well-being of “the brave men and women who defend Israel”.

In June this year, TIS posted that “Teva has funded professional supervision for our facilitators, ensuring that they have a safe space to process and recharge”.

Three days after the 7 October attacks, Teva issued a statement saying it was “deeply saddened” by the attacks. It added: “As an Israeli company we condemn this appalling assault and Teva stands with Israel in this time of great loss and challenge”.

Perhaps in recognition of his company’s backing of the IDF, the company’s CEO, Richard Francis, said in late 2023: “Is there any other company in a country that could have been part of a war and still performed the way it did?”, referring to the company’s commercial success that year. 

The firm’s links to the IDF are long standing. In past years Teva participated in the IDF’s ‘Adopt a Battalion’ programme, in which soldiers are given financial and mental health support.

In 2009 Teva was one of the Israeli companies recognised by the IDF as having an “exemplary” relationship with their reservist employees. 

The company has high-level connections in Israel. Former CEO Shlomo Yanai, who was previously a major general in the Israeli military, was reportedly offered the directorship of spy agency Mossad by Benjamin Netanyahu in 2010, but turned it down.

June 2025

Report: Teva’s relationship with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and her
contributions to the Israeli war effort since October 7th, 2023.
TEVA AND THE IDF

Section 1: Teva mobilized for Israeli “War of Iron Swords”
Effort in the context of October 7th, 2023
Teva ramped up production of medication and distribution thereof by 300% in the context of the aftermath of October 7th, 2023. The Israeli government contemporaneously imposed a near-complete blockade on the entrance of vital goods and medicines into the Gaza Strip, while initiating targeted attacks on its health care system1, thereby deepening the medical apartheid for Palestinians.

In the context of the war, at least 10% of Teva’s workforce were called up to the IDF’s reserve army duty; while Teva’s CEO Richard Francis found his new role in presenting to the world “a voice of Israel”.

The local CEO of Teva Israel, Ukraine, Africa and Middle East Clusters, Yossi Ofek, said, "As the national pharmaceutical company of Israel, we have been harnessed - since the beginning of the war - for the benefit of Israel, the wounded and the wounded, the families of the evacuees and the security forces. […] we donated essential medicines, baby food compounds and computers, […] we helped with harvesting and agriculture, we transported produce from the wrap and our employees donated tons of "necessary equipment”.

His statements are echoed by the press releases about the war on Teva’s Israeli website: Teva will now fully commit to aid the war effort through its role in the industry as well as through volunteerism (list below adapted from Teva for Israel):

• Teva swiftly moved to establish a PTSD and trauma treatment training programme to train at
least 200 mental health providers in this field, see image 26.
• It also voluntarily provided resources in service of the war effort, for example by providing materials to IDF soldiers and employees.
• Teva made significant donations for equipment for the Magan David Adom, “to meet Israel’s needs at this time”;
• Teva expanded its long-standing collaborations with Petachon Lev and Friends for medicine who have networks with the IDF;
• Donation of computers;
• From the beginning of the war, collection points were set up for required equipment, including electrical products and more, for the IDF at each of the five Teva sites in Israel;
• Petachon Lev collected 1.5 tons of equipment donated by Teva workers and collected at the logistics center in Shoham;
• The center at Shoham is currently illuminated with outdoor lighting in the colours of the Israeli flag.

Section 2: Contributions to the IDF during war effort and conflict of interest with role as major provider of medication to oPT
Teva, through its website communications and official shareholder communications, demonstrates its support for Israel’s war on Gaza by:
• Supporting reservists working at Teva who are now participating in the war as soldiers;
• Collecting unspecified devices for the IDF;
• Providing psychological and social support to IDF members through social events and programs.

In addition, reservists working for Teva, now active in the army, report that Teva supported them in various ways during the genocidal war on Gaza.

Teva acting with a conflict of interest
Teva plays a dominant role in Israeli society and the health sector. Its selective contributions to the war effort in the interest of Israeli society only – while failing to acknowledge anywhere through organizational statements or action, the suffering of Palestinians (even while they constitute a major source of income and customers for Teva/ SLE) – demonstrates a tendency to erase Palestinians and their experience.

As Teva increased production three-fold for the Israeli war effort, while volunteering and donating to Israeli society and the IDF abundantly, it failed to take any ameliorating actions with
respect to Palestinians. An ethical stance would require Teva not to discriminate between its customers based on any religious, racial or politicized identity; especially seen both Israeli and Palestinian’s relative dependency on Teva for the fulfilment of their basic need for medicine. It is in Teva’s interest that Israel stands to gain in this war, with many of its employees serving in the army, and its financial interests tied to the Israeli economy.

Teva stands to make gains from expansion of Israeli settlement in the oPT as an outcome of the Israeli war on Gaza.
Ethnic cleansing for the purpose of annexation of Palestinian land has frequently been publicly cited as a purpose of the current war on Gaza by Israeli political leadership. Teva would stand to gain from Palestinian displacement and further Israeli expansion across current Palestinian territories: disenfranchisement of Palestinians, the restriction of NGO activity, and the current assault on Palestinian health makes them all the more dependent on the Israeli pharmaceutical sector, while Israel’s expansion of its territories through annexation of more Palestinian land would allow Teva and SLE to continue expanding its network and customer base to new settlers on the newly annexed land (the precedent for which is Teva/ SLE’s current self-serving activities in the oPT).

It follows that it is in Teva’s interest that the war on Palestinians continues to yield results in Israel’s favor, with a possible outcome of more forcible displacement of Palestinians.
It is highly questionable whether a corporation so fully invested in a war effort – in voluntary ways, as well as existentially – can act ethically and responsibly towards a part of its customer base, against whom it supports a war effort.

The absence of any effort towards supplying Palestinians, while simultaneously investing abundantly and voluntarily in its soldiers, trauma programs, donation runs and production for aid of Israelis, deepens the divide of medical apartheid between two of its major customer bases under Israeli administration; especially in the context of the disproportionate amount of
Palestinian injury and death, potentially perpetrated in part by Teva’s reservists.

Teva thus acts with a conflict of interest, as it serves (or fails to serve) its Palestinian customer base, while contributing to efforts directed at their colonial erasure.

The current director of the company SLE, Hadar Mama, has been an active soldier fighting in the Gaza Strip since a few months after the war started, while retaining his position and continuing to work in his leadership role of CEO at Teva-owned logistics company SLE.

As the director of this company, he is also the one person authorized to distribute medication to Palestinian territories. It is questionable, possibly  doubtful, that Hadar Mama can act ethically make decisions in his capacity as CEO of SLE, while this company holds a de facto monopoly on pharmaceutical products and distribution of medication in the area where he is fighting in the war in double capacity as soldier.

The current situation in Gaza, where people are dying from lack of simple medicines and medical supplies amidst the Israeli bombardments, strongly suggests that ethical decisions are not being made. Teva and its subsidiary SLE are clearly acting with a conflict of interest in this case.

Teva's Historical Relationship with the IDF leadership
Among many people that served in Teva’s leadership roles, are those that served in top leadership positions in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Current and historic contributions of Teva’s leadership to the Israeli Defense Force’s leadership have a long legacy: Eli Hurvitz, Teva’s first official director, owner and CEO of the company, was called upon to fight in the Nakba in 1948, and served in all of Israel’s most important wars. Among others, Yanai Shlomo, former director of Teva, is a General (reservist) in the IDF and has been Head of Planning Division (IDF).

AN EXAMPLE
4 June 2025
"We were honored to partner with @teva_israel_ Teva Pharmaceuticals on a beautiful Facilitator Appreciation Evening in Netanya for 180+ trauma specialists, therapists, and mental health workers. 
Throughout the war, Teva has funded professional supervision for our facilitators, ensuring that they have a safe space to process and recharge. 
The night included dinner, live music, and a panel discussion recognizing mental health facilitators for months of grueling, difficult work. Avi Cirt, the CEO of TIS and Momentum, Yossi Ofek, CEO of Teva, Yarden Abarbanel, Head of the Teva funded Facilitator Supervision Program, and Anat Kuchinsky, Head of Gate to the Future Directorate, all spoke thanking facilitators for their critical role in healing Israel throughout the war.
We are so grateful to have the most soulful, professional individuals caring for the heroes defending the Land and the People of Israel! They deserve all of our love, appreciation, and support!"

19 December 2024

Links to the IDF
Teva is outspoken in its support for the IDF in the ongoing war. Yossi Ofek, the regional SVP and General Manager of Teva Israel,54 gave an interview to the Israeli news outlet Ynet in September 2024 where he
explained how Teva had “tripled” the delivery of critical medicines and explicitly sought to aid both civilians and the IDF with medical supplies.
Another Ynetnews article from October 2023 states that Teva made several contributions such as donating medicines in collaboration with charities. These donations also allegedly included Teva employees donating equirement for Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers in collaboraiton with the Pitchon-Lev charity, a poverty alleviation charity. The article also states that several Teva employees have been called up to serve as part of IDF’s reserve force. In a different article posten by the Jerusalem Post on 24 December 2023, it appears
that the CEO of SLE, Teva’s logistics subsidiary in Israel, was allegedly fighting in Gaza after being called into the reserve force. The CEO is quoted saying that “Our brigade also received deliveries of equipment
collected by Teva workers for us”.
According to an article in Israel365News, dated 26 September 2016, Teva is one of several companies that have participated in the “Adopt-a-Battalion” program. Through this program, companies can develop “deep and lasting relationships between IDF soldiers and civilians who support them” by provding an annual donation of about $27,000 for three years. Donors are reportedly invited to adoption cermonies and “receive direct communication with commanders including reports on their battalion, soldier progress, updates about activities done through the adoption, pictures, personal letters from soldiers, gifts bearing the battalion’s insignia and opportunities to join soldiers on bases and during their vacation time.” Another article in Israel
National News from 8 June 2014 similarly states that Teva has participated in the “Adopt-a-Battalion” program.60 However, Teva no longer appears to be an active “partner” on the programme’s official website.
In conclusionTeva appears to be an active supporter of the IDF.