#BDSFail A boycott is worth 1,000 words
A fundraiser for the Samarian town of Ariel reports that the recent decision by McDonald's to
boycott Samaria's largest city has been a
benefit for the city's fundraising.
There are times that I travel the United
States raising funds for humanitarian projects in the city of Ariel when
the story line is difficult to convey. First, there are those who never
heard about Ariel and the projects that we promote. Second, our
objectives, which focus exclusively on the well being of Ariel’s
residents and, by extension, the populace of the nearby communities, are
often tangentially confused with time consuming and wholly irrelevant
political discourse. Fortunately, one small McDonald’s boycott
effectively set the record straight, and we have begun to reap the
benefits.
In the last two days alone, as I develop our
network in the New York metropolitan region, McDonald’s global
reputation precedes me. At presentations, I am introduced as the
representative of the city that was boycotted by McDonald’s. In meetings
with prospective donors, Ronald McDonald’s smile is the topic of
discussion. And of course, those who host me get a kick out of offering
to take me out for anything from a Big Mac to a McCaffe Latte. Whatever
the case, Ariel no longer requires a protracted introduction. The
McDonald’s boycott has caused our name recognition to soar, and our
message has subsequently been succinctly simplified.
We learned long ago that boycotts work in our
favor. The historic boycott of the Ariel Regional Center for the
Performing Arts served to increase our popularity among Israelis across
the political spectrum. One of the more popular rejections of the
boycott in socially progressive circles was rooted in the concept that
the arts should be available to everyone, irrespective of race, belief
and political orientation. As polling consistently indicated, that
essential, basic truth, which came under fire by those who launched the
boycott, was taken as a given by Israelis nationwide. The arts are for
everyone, and while they might convey political ideas, they must not
stifle them.
As I’ve learned in the past 48 hours, what was
true for music, dance and theater is even more true for McNuggets,
McWraps and McFlurries. People care about people much more than they
care about politics. Talk about Secretary of State Kerry’s visit to the
West Bank and you begin to lose people. Talk about McDonald’s
withholding fast food from an untapped consumer market and everything
begins to click. A boycott is worth a thousand words.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Ariel, BDS, Judea and Samaria, McDonald's
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
McDonald's joins the BDS campaign
When I lived in a certain neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, we used to joke that we made aliya so that we could see the golden arches in the distance. That particular McDonald's was located in Mevaseret Tziyon (and was the first McDonald's in Israel to be Kosher), which sits on the 'green line.' Now, the local McDonald's franchisee (who has also had more than his share of run-in's with the Jerusalem rabbinate) is refusing to open a McDonald's in Ariel, because it's
over the green line.
McDonald's confirmed to that it did not intend to open in Ariel and
said that its refusal to operate in the West Bank "had always been the
restaurant chain's policy," according to the report.
Nahmias
said that there were other companies other than McDonald's, that he
refused to name, that expressed concerns that opening in the mall would
negatively impact their international business.
Rami Levy,
Israeli supermarket magnate and one of the entrepreneurs behind the
Ariel mall, did not refer specifically to McDonald's decision but he did
tell the paper that businesses that refuse to open in the West Bank
also harm the Arab population there.
"I do not accept that
companies make business decisions that are informed by political
considerations. The mall in Ariel is expected to employ Arab and Jewish
workers from the area and to provide services for these populations"
Levy said.
"This boycott is superfluous, and it harms the Arab population that it is supposedly trying to protect," he added.
Indeed.
Labels: BDS, McDonald's
Introducing the McFalafel
Boy do we live in weird times. McDonald's is introducing the
McFalafel.
“The McFalafel is another one of our products which has been adjusted to the Israeli taste, joining the Iraqi pita bread series which also include McKebab” said McDonald’s Israel CEO Omri Padan. The McFalafel is your basic falafel, fried in canola oil and topped with tahini and chopped salad. At just under 500 calories, it “meets the standards of wise nutrition which have been promoted by McDonald’s since 2003″, according to Padan.
“Israelis’ tastes lean toward healthier foods. In Israel, the preferred toppings on hamburgers are vegetables, whereas in other countries people choose cheese and bacon. The fat content in the meat sold in McDonald’s’ North American restaurants is 20-24%; here it will be 9%,” said Padan in an interview with the Jerusalem Post last May.
To give you an example of the difference between McDonald’s in Israel versus the United States, in Israel, a Big Mac has just 380 calories, about 30 percent less than in the States.
While not all McDonald’s in Israel are completely kosher, most adhere to “kosher style”. That said, while the meat is 100 percent kosher, it may be possible to finagle your way into obtaining a not-so-secret hidden menu item, the cheeseburger.
In terms of cost, three pieces of falafel with tahini will be NIS 10 (around $2.80) , and NIS 16.90 (around $4.80) for five pieces with tahini.
No, I don't plan to go there to try it. Aside from the fact that I am not aware of a McDonald's with a Kosher certification I would trust (in Jerusalem, they've been fighting with the rabbinate forever), NIS 10 for three falafel balls is outrageous.
But they're just in time for McFebruary.
Labels: falafel, healthy eating, Kosher certification, McDonald's
