Political Audit: Uber Technologies, Inc.

Audit Phase: Political Subject Entity: Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER; Delaware incorporation) Headquarters: 1725 3rd Street, San Francisco, California 94158, United States Audit Date: June 2026 Evidence Base: Published corporate disclosures and SEC filings, primary investigative journalism (ICIJ “Uber Files” and partner outlets), NGO and campaign-group materials, national and trade press, and proxy-statement governance data. This audit is a forensic evidence inventory only. No scoring, weighting, or interpretive conclusion is drawn here.

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

Official Position on the Israel-Palestine Conflict

No public evidence was identified of any named, dated corporate statement by Uber Technologies, Inc. addressing the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, the subsequent Israeli military operations in Gaza, or Palestinian civilian casualties. Uber’s corporate newsroom and investor-relations pages, reviewed in June 2026, carry no statement on the conflict. Uber’s public-facing “All Are Welcome” community policy addresses discrimination in general terms and contains no reference to the Israel-Palestine conflict.¹

Comparative Responsiveness (Ukraine vs. Gaza)

Uber issued named, explicit corporate responses to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Through its “Supporting Ukraine” / “Keep Ukraine Moving” program, Uber expanded operations in Ukraine, provided more than 100,000 free rides for refugees and essential workers, added an in-app donation button for U.S. riders to the International Rescue Committee with corporate matching pledged up to $1 million, raised approximately $5 million in combined user donations and matching grants, made an additional $500,000 donation to the IFRC and World Food Program USA, delivered emergency food, medicine and shelter supplies, and assisted the evacuation of Ukrainian cultural heritage items.²³

No equivalent named corporate condemnation of any party to the Gaza conflict (October 2023 onward), and no comparable in-app fundraising or corporate matching campaign for Gaza humanitarian relief, was identified in the public record.¹⁴⁵ The contrast between the documented, named Ukraine response and the absence of an identified named statement or relief campaign on Gaza is recorded here as a factual matter of corporate-communications record, not as an inference.

Market Framing in Regulatory Filings

Uber’s Form 10-K filings describe its Middle East, North Africa and South Asia operations primarily through the Careem subsidiary under standard geographic-segment and risk-factor disclosure. No special geopolitical partnership language, occupation-specific operational framing, or conflict-sensitive disclosure beyond routine risk language was identified in those filings.⁶

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Careem and the West Bank

Uber acquired the Dubai-based ride-hailing company Careem (acquisition completed January 2020) which had operated in Palestinian Authority-administered territory in the West Bank prior to the acquisition. Careem launched ride-hailing services in Ramallah in 2016; a 2017 feature documented drivers navigating Israeli military checkpoints as a routine operational variable.⁷⁸

In November 2017 Careem suspended its Ramallah operations at the request of / under a ban by the Palestinian Authority, which cited operation without licensing under the PA transportation law (drivers required to be licensed by the Transportation Ministry).⁹¹⁰ Careem subsequently resumed Ramallah service after reaching agreement with Palestinian transport authorities to charge metered-taxi fares and operate with licensed drivers.¹¹ No public evidence was identified that Careem or Uber directly services Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

International Regulatory and UN Status

No public evidence was identified of Uber or Careem being named in the UN Human Rights Council database of business enterprises involved in activities relating to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, or of any ICC proceeding, ICJ ruling, or international regulatory action naming Uber or Careem in connection with occupied-territory operations.

Civil Society Boycott Campaigns

The September 2025 announcement of Uber’s Flytrex investment triggered documented civil-society boycott activity (the investment itself is inventoried under Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics). The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) published items on 23 September 2025 documenting boycott calls by activists and pro-Palestinian campaigners, and recorded that it sought a response from Uber on 13 October 2025 and received no reply.⁴⁵ The Canadian BDS Coalition published a formal call to “boycott Uber Eats and the Uber platform” on 2 October 2025, citing the 18 September 2025 Flytrex partnership, the IDF backgrounds of Flytrex’s founders, “dual-use” drone technology, and Flytrex backing from OurCrowd and the Israel Innovation Authority.¹² The consumer-boycott platform Boycat also published a boycott call citing the Flytrex investment.¹³ No organised BDS campaign specifically targeting Uber prior to the Flytrex announcement was identified.

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

Platform Categorisation - Toronto Uber Eats Incident

In January 2024, CBC News reported that more than 300 Middle Eastern restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area - including Palestinian, Lebanese, Iraqi and Afghan eateries, among them a Palestinian-Lebanese pizzeria, “Levant” - appeared under an “Israeli” cuisine category on Uber Eats, while a “Palestinian” category did not exist on the platform.¹⁴ The restaurant publicly described the listing as a “blatant anti-Palestinian action,” and the episode drew wide social-media criticism and some boycott calls.¹⁴ Uber Eats attributed the issue to search-and-categorisation logic (it stated “Israeli” had been listed and searched more often than “Palestinian,” influencing search expansion, and that no Palestinian category previously existed) and announced it would introduce a Palestinian category globally.¹⁵ No independent academic study, FTC inquiry, or Canadian regulatory review of Uber Eats’ categorisation policies with respect to Israeli/Palestinian content was identified beyond this media coverage.

Settlement-Product Labelling / Sourcing

No public evidence identified. No reports, civil-society documentation, or regulatory actions regarding the labelling, sourcing, or categorisation of products originating from Israeli settlements on Uber’s platforms were identified beyond the Toronto categorisation incident above.

Employee Relations and Speech

A June 2025 Guardian investigation reported that Muslim and Arab employees across large technology firms reported self-censorship and fear of retaliation for expressing pro-Palestinian views; the piece addresses the sector broadly and cites no Uber-specific disciplinary incident.¹⁶ No verified Uber-specific terminations or formal disciplinary actions against employees for pro-Palestinian (or pro-Israel) speech were identified.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Marketing and Commercial Identity

Uber does not market itself using military heritage, defence-sector origins, or state-security branding. Its commercial identity is civilian and oriented around ride-hailing, food delivery (Uber Eats), and freight. No defence-heritage marketing or branding aligned with any state’s security apparatus was identified.

Israeli-State and Academic Institutional Partnerships

No public evidence was identified of Uber holding a formal partnership, sponsorship, or institutional agreement with Israeli government bodies, Israeli state academic institutions, or any “Brand Israel” / public-diplomacy campaign. No research partnership, joint innovation program, or defence-linked academic collaboration between Uber and an Israeli university was corroborated.

State Honours and Government-Linked PR

No public evidence was identified that Uber has accepted Israeli state honours, hosted Israeli government officials in a formal non-commercial capacity, or sponsored Israeli government-backed cultural-diplomacy campaigns.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

The “Uber Files” - Israel Lobbying (2013–2017)

The most extensively documented instance of Uber’s engagement with Israeli governmental structures derives from the July 2022 “Uber Files” - 124,000 leaked internal records obtained by The Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), covering 2013–2017.¹⁷ Findings reported by ICIJ partners (Times of Israel, Shomrim, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz) include:

• Senior Uber officials bypassed the Transportation Ministry, whose then-minister Yisrael (Israel) Katz opposed Uber’s entry, and appealed directly to the Prime Minister’s Office; then-CEO Travis Kalanick met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos in early 2016. Netanyahu reportedly promised to “break the resistance” of the transportation minister and publicly voiced support for Uber.¹⁸¹⁹
• Eli Groner, director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, advised the company on messaging, media timing, and “that it’s important that the prime minister looks good.”¹⁸¹⁹
• Uber drafted its own ride-sharing legislation, which - with very few changes - was submitted to the Knesset three times by different lawmakers: by MK Moshe Feiglin (2014); reintroduced in 2016 by MKs including Amir Ohana, Bezalel Smotrich and Robert Ilatov; and again in 2021 by MKs Eitan Ginzburg, Yorai Lahav Hertzanu, Idit Silman and Nir Orbach.¹⁸¹⁹
• Uber engaged former ambassadors as intermediaries and deployed a “kill switch” / data-blocking technology during regulatory and enforcement operations to deny authorities access to internal data (a global Uber Files theme).¹⁷¹⁸

These events are historical (2013–2017) and predate Dara Khosrowshahi’s tenure as CEO (he was appointed in 2017); the documented direct engagement with Netanyahu’s office was conducted under the Kalanick-era leadership. No public evidence was identified attributing the Israel lobbying campaign personally to Khosrowshahi.¹⁷¹⁸

U.S. Federal Lobbying

Uber is a registered U.S. federal lobbyist; disclosed priorities center on transportation-network regulation, autonomous vehicles, and gig-worker labour classification. No public evidence was identified, in disclosed U.S. lobbying records, of Uber lobbying on Israel-Palestine policy, anti-BDS legislation, or bilateral Israel-U.S. trade.

Financial Contributions to Advocacy Organisations

No public evidence was identified of Uber corporate donations to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), the Jewish National Fund (JNF), or comparable Israel-aligned organisations.

Flytrex Partnership and Investment

On 18 September 2025 Uber announced a strategic partnership with, and an equity investment (reported by press as tens of millions of dollars) in, the Israeli autonomous drone-delivery company Flytrex, to integrate drone delivery into Uber Eats, with pilot markets in the U.S. expected by the end of 2025.²⁰²¹ Flytrex was founded in 2013 by Yariv Bash and Amit Regev; Bash also founded SpaceIL, the Israeli nonprofit behind the Beresheet lunar mission.²¹²² The company holds FAA Beyond Visual Line of Sight certification and reported over 200,000 U.S. deliveries.²⁰ Uber’s press release did not state a specific dollar figure or name pilot cities.²⁰ The BHRRC documented civil-society criticism of the investment and Uber’s non-response (see Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories).⁴⁵

Crisis Asset Mobilisation - Ukraine vs. Gaza

Uber’s documented logistics mobilisation for Ukraine (free rides, in-app donations, corporate matching, supply delivery, cultural-heritage evacuation) is detailed under Corporate Communications & Public Stance.²³ No public evidence was identified of Uber mobilising logistics capacity, free services, in-app donation mechanisms, or corporate matching for Gaza humanitarian relief at any point from October 2023 onward.⁴⁵

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Uber Technologies, Inc. is incorporated in Delaware and listed on the NYSE (UBER); its stated mission is civilian and commercial in orientation (“We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion”). No golden share, special-purpose share, state-held equity stake with directive authority, or charter provision tying Uber’s corporate mission to any government’s geopolitical objectives was identified.⁶

The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) is a significant equity investor in Uber; PIF Deputy Governor and Head of International Investments Turqi Alnowaiser was appointed to Uber’s Board on 16 November 2023 and serves on the Audit Committee.²³²⁴ This is documented as a commercial sovereign-wealth investment relationship; no public evidence was identified of geopolitical directives transmitted to Uber management through this channel. Careem operates as an Uber subsidiary serving the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia; its West Bank operational history predates Uber’s ownership.⁷¹¹

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Ronald D. Sugar - Non-Executive Board Chair

Per Uber’s FY2026 proxy materials, Ronald Sugar serves as Chair of Uber’s Board (Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee; member of the Compensation Committee).²⁴ Sugar was Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman Corporation (2003–2010), a major U.S. defence contractor whose products and contracts have included systems sold to Israel under U.S. Foreign Military Sales arrangements.²⁵ His individual directional role in any specific Israel-facing contract is not documented at the individual level. No verified personal donations by Sugar to FIDF, JNF, AIPAC, or comparable organisations, and no board memberships in Israel-advocacy organisations, were identified.

Dara Khosrowshahi - Chief Executive Officer

Khosrowshahi is an Iranian-American executive who publicly criticised the 2017 U.S. travel restrictions targeting Muslim-majority countries.²⁶ He became Uber CEO in August 2017, after the period covered by the Uber Files Israel lobbying. No public evidence was identified attributing the Israel lobbying campaign to him personally, no verified public statement by him specifically addressing the Gaza conflict (post-October 2023), and no verified personal donations by him to FIDF, JNF, or comparable Israel-aligned organisations.¹⁷²⁶

Turqi Alnowaiser - Board Member

Alnowaiser serves as Deputy Governor and Head of the International Investments Division of Saudi Arabia’s PIF, and joined Uber’s Board in November 2023 representing PIF’s equity interest.²³²⁴ No documented instance of Alnowaiser directing Uber management on geopolitical matters was identified.

Other Named Directors with Defence-Sector History

Per Uber’s FY2026 proxy, the board includes Revathi Advaithi (CEO of Flex Ltd.; previously a director of BAE Systems plc, a multinational defence contractor) and John Thain (founding partner of Pine Island Capital Partners, a private-equity firm investing in aerospace and defence).²⁴ No public evidence was identified of personal donations by these directors to Israel-aligned advocacy organisations, nor of any Israel-specific portfolio investment attributable to them in the reviewed record.

General

No public statements, op-eds, signed letters, or social-media activity by any current Uber executive or director on the Israel-Palestine conflict were identified. Claims about named individuals are reported only where sourced; the absence of evidence in this sub-category is recorded as searched-and-not-found and is not a conclusive finding of absence.

End Notes