PNN – The CEO of the world’s largest fast food chain McDonald has admitted that he suffered losses due to customer boycotts for allegedly supporting Israel.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, Chris Kempczynski, the CEO of McDonald, the world’s largest fast-food chain, has admitted that the company has suffered a “significant” loss among customers in the West Asian region because of perceptions of its support for Israel.
McDonald’s became the target of pro-Palestinian activists who called for a boycott of its products after the publication of material on the Internet that showed the company’s restaurants providing free food to Israeli army forces.
According to the Independent newspaper, this request was extended to a general crowd of people who asked each other to stop buying from McDonald to show their anger at Israel’s military response in Gaza. The owners of McDonald’s restaurants in Muslim countries such as Kuwait, Malaysia and Pakistan tried to emphasize their non-support for Israel by issuing statements.
Kempczynski claimed that calls by pro-Palestinian groups to boycott McDonald’s products are not based on reality. The company claims that it has no stance on the Gaza war and that McDonald’s is not responsible for the actions of other McDonald’s franchise restaurants that pay it in exchange for using the company’s brand.
McDonald’s CEO wrote in a LinkedIn post on Thursday: “Some markets in the Middle East and others outside the region have experienced significant business losses due to the war and related misinformation, which is negatively affecting brands such as McDonald’s.”
He continued: “This is disappointing and incorrect. In every country, including the Muslim countries where we operate, McDonald’s is proud to entrust its representation to local owners who work tirelessly to serve their people as well as employ thousands of citizens of their own country.”
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This article continues: “Our hearts go out to the communities and families affected by the war in the Middle East. We abhor violence of any kind and stand firmly against hate speech and will always proudly open our doors to everyone.”
This article was written by McDonald’s while the request to boycott this company has intensified in recent days. The powerful group “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel” this week for the first time officially called for a boycott of McDonald’s products.
After that, the representative of McDonald in Malaysia sued the company for what it called “false and offensive statements” and demanded 1.3 million dollars in damages. McDonald’s Malaysia said that this claim has caused damage to this McDonald’s branch.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel group, on the other hand, said it strongly denies the accusations of defamation. “We cannot allow this matter to be ignored,” the group said in a statement. Let’s show McDonald’s what popular boycotts can do.
On October 7th, the Islamic resistance movement of Palestine, Hamas, in response to more than seven decades of occupation of Palestine and nearly two decades of siege of Gaza and imprisonment and torture of thousands of Palestinians, started the operation known as “Al-Aqsa Storm”.
This operation was one of the deadliest attacks against this regime. Hamas fighters penetrated into the occupied territories at several points of the border fences, attacked the villages and besides killing a large number of Israelis, captured a number of them.
In response to this operation, the Zionist regime launched heavy attacks against Gaza and put this area under complete siege. Despite this, as analysts say, the al-Aqsa storm operation has imposed a major security-political defeat on Israel.
The authorities of the Israeli regime have declared their military goal in this war to destroy Hamas. Meanwhile, many analysts have questioned the possibility of realizing this goal, even in occupied Palestine.