Fast food giant McDonald's drew criticism from several quarters on social media, after its branch in Israel announced that free food parcels would be provided to soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) amidst the ongoing offensive in Gaza.
In a post on social media platform X in Hebrew, the Israeli arm of the American company said it has “shipped 4,000 free meals” to Israeli soldiers and will continue to ship the same number “daily”. Furthermore, IDF personnel will also be offered a 50 percent discount on additional food items, it added, in a tweet which has now been deleted.
After screenshots of the tweet went viral, several netizens in Arab and other Muslim-dominated countries raised questions about the ideological leanings of McDonald's. In Pakistan, various influential social media handles lent their voice behind #BoycottMcDonalds and local politicians made an appeal to stop purchasing from its outlets as a mark of solidarity with the people of Gaza.
This prompted the company's Pakistan-based arm to issue a statement in a bid to distance itself away from the Israeli branch's actions.
“McDonald’s in Pakistan is a local enterprise, with full ownership and operation overseen by SIZA Foods Pvt. Ltd. Pakistan. We are not affiliated with McDonald’s operations in Israel, which is a locally-owned Israelian enterprise. McDonald’s in Israel operates as a separate entity to McDonald’s Pakistan, and makes its own business and communications decisions, independent of our business in Pakistan,” the statement said.
A section of the Pakistani netizens were not convinced with the company's defence. “McDonald's Pakistan hiding behind the cover of being a national franchise, when it usually markets itself as a global entity. Sorry, no takers for this. You can't just become a local organization one day, and a global one the next,” a social media user, identified as Aima Khosa, tweeted.
A similar controversy erupted in a number of West Asian and Middle East countries, promoting the local branches of McDonald's in the UAE, Oman, Lebanon, Turkey and Kuwait to issue clarifications.
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McDonald's Oman said it “stands with Gaza” in this difficult period and has “donated $100,000 towards the relief efforts". McDonald's UAE said it was "deeply saddened by the events in the region" and is “donating 1 million AED to the Emirates Red Crescent”.
The Turkey branch also claimed that it has announced an aid of “$1 million” to the people of Gaza, and described them as “victims of war”. Similarly, the Kuwait branch said it has donated $250,000 to the Kuwait Red Crescent Society for relief efforts in Gaza. "What the McDonald's operator did in Israel was an example of such individual action; it was not a global decision, nor was it approved by any of the other local operators, especially those in our region," it noted.
An estimated 2,300 people in Gaza, a bulk of whom were non-combatant civilians, were killed in Israel's military action over the past week, as per the numbers shared by the Palestinian authorities. The offensive was launched by Israeli forces following raids by Hamas at several of its settlements based in southern part of the country. The death toll in the Hamas attacks has crossed 1,200, officials said.
