Jewish settler leaders are campaigning to prevent McDonald’s from opening a branch in Ben-Gurion Airport, claiming that the global restaurant chain unofficially boycotts West Bank settlements.
According to the report in Ynet, settlers want to prevent McDonald’s from “participating in a government tender for the duty-free hall” at the international airport.
In a letter to the finance and transportation ministers, Yossi Dagan, head of the so-called Samaria Regional Council, claimed that McDonald’s Israel has continuously refused to open any branches in settlements in the occupied West Bank.
"Leading settlement official" calls for McDonalds to be kicked out of Ben Gurion airport – because the company refuses to open restaurants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Yossi Dagan claims McDonalds is breaking anti-boycott laws.https://t.co/2BYT7tYkdO
— Tom Kavanagh (@_TomKavanagh) June 3, 2019
Dagan wrote:
“In the past few days, I have learned about McDonald’s intention to compete in the Israel Airport Authority tender to open restaurants at Ben-Gurion Airport.”
Dagan claimed that the head of McDonald’s Israel, Omri Padan, is responsible for the decision to boycott the settlements.
He wrote:
“This blatant boycott was not created casually, but officially and openly, as Omri Padan emphasized in 2013 when he vehemently refused to open a branch of the chain in Ariel [settlement].”
Omri Padan, founder of Peace Now, which opposes all settlements and views them as obstacles to peace. http://t.co/4w1hoheWAo
— Zoey (@maveryleans) June 28, 2013
Dagan continued:
“The law to prevent harm to the State of Israel via a boycott is clear and unequivocal (regarding) any public call for a cultural, academic or economic boycott of any person or entity solely because of a connection to the State of Israel.”
The settler leader claimed that Padan is in violation of the anti-boycott law, and thus cannot participate in a government tender.
Cuando una empresa, como en este caso McDonalds, no abre una filial en un asentamiento israelí, el término no es ‘boicot indirecto’ sino respeto del derecho internacional. https://t.co/yCKcFwbTes
— Itxaso Domínguez (@itxasdo) June 4, 2019
Ynet noted that “Padan was among the founders of the Peace Now movement, which has been advocating an end to occupation of the West Bank”.
In response, Ynet reported, “McDonald’s Israel said the global McDonald’s headquarters did not approve branches in the West Bank”.
(Middle East Monitor, PC, Social Media)
