BDS Initiatives Harm Palestinians — MCDONALD’S Case Study

I am a huge believer that economic integration is a critical component toward reducing conflict. Joint innovation, collaboration, and mutually beneficial trade agreements can have significant impact on reducing tensions and aligning incentives.

This is why I am opposed to Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) initiatives against Israel that are picking up steam around the globe.

1. When you peel back the onion BDS actually causes direct material damage to Arab Israelis and Palestinians.
2. BDS programs cause indirect damage to the wider world.
3. BDS programs are based on flimsy logic.

There are significantly better ways to support Palestinians (I share what I do at the bottom).

I am starting this series to unpack various BDS initiatives to show exactly why they are fundamentally flawed with the hope of finding better pathways to reaching coexistence.

Let’s look at MCDONALD’S

As some of you may have noticed, there is a global Boycott against McDonald’s going on right now.

The whole issue started when the owner of the the McDonald’s franchise in Israel, “Alonyal Limited” headed by Omri Padad, distributed free food to Israeli soldiers who were fighting against Hamas terrorists immediately following October 7th.

This was immediately followed up by fake post that first appeared on Facebook, and is still circulating:

This is a lie — The post was a fabrication created by a Scottish activist group “Art Workers for Palestine”. McDonald’s responded appropriately:

“We are dismayed by the disinformation and inaccurate reports regarding our position in response to the conflict in the Middle East. McDonald’s Corporation is not funding or supporting any governments involved in this conflict.”

The post circled the globe, like so many purposefully biased bits of misinformation, and the fire was lit. Nobody bothered to note that it was built on a lie.

We all know what McDonald’s makes. The products have nothing to do with war or conflict. The company does not give money to any governmental entity.

McDonald’s also works in a franchise model, meaning McDonald’s creates a contractual relationship with an independent operator. The operator gets the rights to use the brand name and the secret recipes. McDonald’s gets a percentage of the revenue.

This is how McDonald’s operates all over the world.

Every franchise has autonomy — meaning McDonald's corporate actually has nothing to do with what the franchise in Israel does.

What this means is that McDonald’s has absolutely no authority or connection to Alonyal Limited or Padan’s decision to give free food to IDF soldiers. Blaming McDonald’s corporate for Padan’s decision is erroneous.

The sad irony of this is that Omri Padan is one of the founders of Peace Now, the largest Israeli advocacy group promoting peace between Israel and Palestine. Padan has been a staunch supporter of Palestinian self-determination in the West Bank for literally 30 years.

Padan’s take on the situation simple: one can be for Palestinians, and also against Hamas at the same time.

This perspective is shared by a large percentage of Israeli’s, as Hamas has spent nearly 20 years destroying any chance of hope for people in Gaza.

In addition, about 25% of the Franchise’s employees are Arab Israelis — predominantly Muslim. That means the BDS campaign against McDonald’s is risking employment of about 1250 Muslims. I am sure some of them are employees who live in Gaza and the West Bank as well.

At the highest level, the McDonald’s boycott is actually risking employment for tens of thousands of Muslims across the region.

McDonald’s has 40,000 locations, 5% of which are the greater Muslim-Majority MENA region.

Each location has on average 50 employees.

This means the BDS campaign against McDonald’s is harming 100,000 people from Morocco to Pakistan.

The effects of this boycott campaign are already being felt, but ironically not in Israel.

CEO Chris Kempczinski recently stated that the effects of the boycott are most severe in France. There are 1500 “Macdo” locations in France, many operated by Muslim franchisers. The BDS campaign is putting all of them at risk — and all based on a lie.

So let’s review what we have learned about the McDonald’s Boycott:

1. It started off with a flagrant lie.
2. McDonald’s doesn’t make products used in war or conflict, nor does it give money to any governments
3. The McDonald’s boycott is harming once of the staunches voices who has been fighting for Palestinian rights for nearly three decades
4. The McDonald’s boycott is actually harming Muslims employees — both in Israel and globally.

The bright side of this story is that McDonald’s recently agree to buy-back Alonyal’s franchise locations, on the condition that “employees will be retained on equivalent terms.”

In the weirdest twist — it is actually McDonald’s corporate that is guaranteeing employment for 1250 Arab Israelis and Palestinians, while the BDS movement is actively harming them.

The McDonald’s case is indicative of wider issues in BDS campaigns, just like the Starbucks BDS campaign.

Ultimately these initiatives cause significant harm, are based on false premises, and they do nothing to actually support Palestine.

There are many practical ways to support Palestine and to foster collaboration and mutually beneficial economic ties.

Here are some of the things I have personally done over the last two years:

• Entrepreneurship Seminars for burgeoning founders from the West Bank
• Working with the leading HMO in Israel to provide remote care access for the dispersed Bedouin population.
• Working with local NGOs to bring technology to address Diabetes for the Arab Israeli and Druze population in the north of Israel.
• Upcoming massive project with a global NGO to build an innovation infrastructure for the Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem (crossing fingers this one gets approved).
• Daily support for dozens of startups that are either founded by Arab Israelis, employ Arab Israelis in key positions, or employ Palestinians from Gaza and the W.B. remotely: Helping them connect to investors, co-developers, corporate entities, pilot sites, etc..

Note that none of these efforts involve blatant Anti-Semitism, hate-speech, or fabricated biased misinformation promoted on socials like Bella Hadid.

What have you done?