Last Thursday, McDonald’s Israel refused a request to open a store within a mall being built in an Israeli settlement called Ariel in a Palestinian territory. The decision was not coordinated with McDonald’s International headquarters in the U.S.
Some pro-Israeli settlement activists have thus urged a boycott of McDonald’s within the state of Israel and advocate previous McDonald’s customers should instead give their business to an Israel based fast food company called Burger Ranch.
Although McDonald’s Israel spokeswoman Irina Shalmor simply stated to the Associated Press, “McDonald’s shouldn’t build in the occupied Palestinian territories,” it’s suspected by many that the decision was politically informed. McDonald’s Israel’s owner and CEO, is also the founder of Peace Now, an NGO that advocates for a two state solution to the Isreali-Palestinean conflict and has stated that it is opposed to Israeli settlements within the Palestinean territories.
Instead, Burger King has filled the spot for a fast food restaurant within the $27 million mall plan in Ariel. Construction is estimated to be finished by mid 2014.
