Israel Matzav

Boycott McDonald's?

Revenant leaders are calling for a boycott of McDonald's in response to its refusal to allow a restaurant to open under its brand name in Ariel. This is from the first link.

Settler groups are urging settlers specifically and Israeli citizens in general to refrain from entering McDonald’s restaurants around Israel. The move is a response to a local McDonald’s franchise that announced earlier this week that it had turned down an offer to open a branch in the town of Ariel.

The fourth largest settlement in the West Bank, Ariel is a suburban-style development, home to roughly 18,000 people and a university that enrolls some 10,000 students. It’s located about 10 miles east of the Green Line, an armistice line drawn in 1949 that separates Israel from the West Bank, part of the territory on which Palestinians hope to establish a future state.

According to a report in the Israeli financial newspaper Globes, the owner and CEO of McDonald’s’ Israel franchise chain, Omri Padan, is also one of the founders of the anti-settlement watchdog organization Peace Now and has always had a policy of not operating in the West Bank. Padan’s franchises are independent from McDonald’s’ U.S. corporate headquarters, which does not have a say in his decision to not expand to Ariel.

Some of those angry at the franchise’s decision not to open a branch in Ariel urged disgruntled customers to call the local franchise in protest. They posted the phone number of McDonald’s Israel on the My Israel Facebook group under an image that read, “McDonald’s I’m not loving it.”

On Thursday, leaders of the settler movement argued that McDonald’s had “turned from a business into an organization with an anti-Israel political agenda.”

...

In light of the decision, Israel’s homegrown fast-food chain Burger Ranch announced it would open a branch in Ariel instead. On Thursday morning, Finance Minister Naftali Bennett, a former West Bank settlement council leader, announced on his Facebook page that he would be first customer at Burger Ranch when it opens in the town.

Given that most of the McDonald's in this country are not Kosher (120 out of 160), and most of the revenants and their supporters probably would not eat there anyway, if there's a boycott, will anyone notice?

Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Labels: Ariel, BDS, McDonald's

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:14 PM