At least 2,215 Palestinians, including 724 children, have been killed and 8,714 others wounded, the health ministry in the Gaza Strip.
McDonald’s Qatar has announced a QAR 1 million donation for humanitarian assistance in Gaza after the corporation’s Israel branch confirmed it was donating thousands of meals to the Israeli military despite its brutal campaign on the besieged Strip.
In a statement sent to Doha News, the 100% locally owned and operated enterprise announced the #For_Palestine campaign to provide “urgent food aid, water, shelter and care to meet the basic needs and provide relief to the Palestinian people of Gaza.
“In this regard, McDonald’s Qatar is donating an amount of 1,000,000 riyals to contribute to the relief efforts of the people of Gaza, may God help them,” the statement added.
McDonald’s in Qatar is fully and locally owned by Al Mana Restaurant and Food Company, W.L.L.
The statement confirmed it operates responsibly and is completely independent both socially and financially, and has “no connection or relationship with any practices issued by any other franchise” of the fast food chain around the world, the statement continued.
In an earlier statement, the local franchise said “McDonald’s in Israel operates as a separate entity to McDonald’s Qatar, and makes its own business and communications decisions, independent of our business in Qatar.”
Earlier this week, McDonald’s Israel announced it is giving out thousands of free meals to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and Israeli settlers.
In an Instagram story on Thursday, the Israel enterprise said it has been donating “tens of thousands of meals,” across Israel over the past few days as Tel Aviv wages one of deadliest wars on the besieged Gaza Strip.
The densely populated enclave is currently facing a complete siege, with Israel preventing access to water, electricity and food to more than two million Palestinians.
Announcing the siege on Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said “there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly”.
At least 2,215 Palestinians, including 724 children, have been killed and 8,714 others wounded, the health ministry in the Gaza Strip confirmed on Saturday.
“McDonald’s donated and continues to donate tens of thousands of meals to IDF units, the police, hospitals, residents around the Strip and all rescue forces. We continue donating thousands of meals daily to our forces across the country. In addition to a 50% discount to soldiers and security forces who come to our branches,” the Israeli enterprise wrote.
So far the fast food chain has supplied 12,000 meals to the IOF and Israeli settlers, according to a post on Thursday.
Mcdonald’s Qatar, first opened in 1995 and now boasts a total of 74 restaurants across the Gulf nation.
“We play a crucial role in bolstering our national economy. We take pride in contributing to employment opportunities, local business partnerships, and fostering economic growth,” Mcdonald’s Qatar said in a statement to Doha News.
Over the last week, McDonald’s enterprises around the world have appeared to take a range of stances.
Mcdonald’s Turkiye committed to providing $1 million in humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza. It linked this decision to public concerns expressed by Turkish citizens regarding the daily distribution of thousands of meals to the Israeli regime’s soldiers.
In light of the internal backlash, McDonald’s Turkiye released an official statement, emphasising that the Turkish enterprise is local and functions as independently owned. It further stressed that there are no operational or organisational links between McDonald’s Turkiye and McDonald’s Israel.
News of the Israeli enterprise’s donation to soldiers and settlers stirred up online rage with many taking to social media to call for a boycott of the fast food chain.
Boycotting refers to a nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation or country as a form of protest or activism in a bid to exert pressure to bring about positive change.
The Palestinian Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which was inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, calls for action to apply pressure on Israel to comply with international law.
The boycotts entail pulling support from Israel’s apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, as well as all Israeli and international enterprises involved in human rights violations against Palestinians.
BDS urges banks, local governments, churches, pension funds, and universities to remove their investments from Israel and all Israeli and international firms that support Israeli apartheid.
Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has actively implemented a regime of settler colonialism, apartheid and occupation over the Palestinian people. This has pushed many to join the BDS movement in a bid to achieve indirect political justice through a bottom-up approach.
