BDS Initiatives Harm Palestinians — STARBUCKS 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.
- When you peel back the onion BDS actually causes direct material damage to Arab Israelis and Palestinians.
- BDS programs cause indirect damage to the wider world.
- 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.
We start with STARBUCKS…
Some of you may have noticed this post making the rounds on socials, that Starbucks’ CEO is concerned that the boycott of Starbucks is starting to affect business:
Schultz never said this and the boycott is not the reason for Starbucks’ stock price decline (more on that at the end).
So what is really going on with this boycott? Why Starbucks?
The whole story started on the 9th of October — before Israel responded to the horrible war crimes committed by Hamas on the 7th of October — when the Starbucks Worker’s Union posted on social media their support for Hamas’ actions utilizing the Starbucks logo.
Starbucks Worker’s Union and Starbucks are distinctly — meaning legally, financially, organizationally — unrelated. They are two completely separate entities.
Starbucks sued SWU for trademark infringement, and rightfully so, and the posts were taken down. But the damage was already done.
Anti-Starbucks messaging immediately started circling online, claiming that Starbucks Corporate is “Anti-Palestinian”, funds genocide, kills babies, and all sorts of flagrant lies you would expect.
It is important to note: Starbucks corporate has never taken political sides on any matter ever and has a strict “no-politics” policy.
In December Starbucks issued an official statement:
Starbucks does not give money to any governments. It’s products are not used in armed conflicts. Starbucks doesn’t even have a single store in Israel.
The sad irony is that the boycott against Starbucks is directly hurting Muslims. There are about 1,500 Starbucks branches in the wider MENA region, from Morocco to Kuwait.
These 1,500 branches employ about 30,000 people. This boycott is causing real damage to these 30,000 people.
To sum up, the Starbucks boycott is based on entirely on false premises and is depriving 30,000 Muslims of their ability to earn a salary.
So why is this even happening?
In my opinion, the answer is simple: Former CEO Howard Schultz is a Jew who also supports Israel’s right to defend itself, and has raised concerns about the troubling Pro-Hamas protests on college campuses.
Because of this, boycotters are willing to put at risk the jobs of 30,000 people in the wider MENA region.
[UPDATE]
2000 Starbucks employees in from the greater MENA region have been let go. The BDS campaign against Starbucks has resulted in 2000 Muslims losing their jobs.
From a financial perspective, and contrary to the misinformation that many of us see on social media, the boycott is not what is causing Starbuck’s current stock slide.
The problem is that Starbucks has experienced a slow decline in same-store traffic over the last four years — well before October 7th. Attributing Starbuck’s financial woes to the boycott is in and of itself is misleading.
The Starbucks case is indicative of wider issues in BDS campaigns. Ultimately they cause more harm than good, 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 is what I personally have been involved with in 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 population in the north
- 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?
