Disabled Israeli veterans protest McDonald’s over its Judea and Samaria boycott

A disabled Israeli veterans group is protesting McDonald’s this week.

By World Israel News Staff

The IDF Disabled Veterans Forum, a group made up of hundreds of wounded Israeli soldiers, is protesting McDonald’s this week in the wake of its bid to open a branch at Ben-Gurion International Airport. Their reason: McDonald’s refuses to open restaurants across the Green Line in areas Israel captured in the Six Day War.

“The State of Israel has a law – the Boycott Law. And this law is meant to deal with companies like McDonald’s that criticize Israel’s policies and boycott parts of the population. But on the other hand – they have no problem competing for a government tender and make money off the same citizens they boycott,” reads a post on the group’s Facebook page from June 4.

“So this party is ending today. The idea that a company boycotting parts of the State of Israel will compete in a government tender and stand proudly at the exit gate of the State of Israel is intolerable,” the post continues.

The IDF Disabled Veterans Forum points out in its post that the head of McDonald’s in Israel is Omri Padan, who is one of the founders of Peace Now, a radical left organization which calls for Israel to hand over Judea and Samaria for the creation of a Palestinian State.

“Omri Padan must understand that his ideology has a price,” the group said. “And today we are giving him the bill. We invite you to join us in demanding the government of Israel prevent McDonald’s participating in the Ben-Gurion Airport tender, stop the madness!”

Parodying signs found in Judea and Samaria marking various areas as A, B and C, the group placed similar signs outside McDonald’s branches in Tel Aviv. They read in Arabic, English and Hebrew: “Israelis please note! ‘Area M’ is ahead of you, which is controlled by a company that boycotts parts of Israel. By entering this area you become a supporter of the boycott.”

The Samaria Regional Council also joined the protest. It’s an elected group that provides municipal services to 35 Jewish towns in Samaria.

Council head Yossi Dagan wrote to Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Transportation Minister Israel Katz and Yaakov Ganot, director general of the Israel Airports Authority.

“A company that boycotts part of the state must not be allowed to compete in government tenders. The State of Israel recently passed the ‘Boycott Law’ whose purpose is to impose sanctions that will help deal with internal and external elements that seek to harm and confiscate parts of the State of Israel and its citizens,” he wrote.

Israelis from the left have also weighed in on the controversy. Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy wrote an op-ed on Thursday in that paper titled, “Thanks McDonald’s for Reminding Israel There Is a Green Line, and Even a Red Line.”

“People of morality must therefore contemptuously cross through the warning signs that the right has posted at the chain’s branches and demonstratively buy a green salad with corn sticks as an act of support for the company’s courage and determination,” Levy wrote, who in the same piece expressed his distaste for the meat industry.

On Wednesday left-wing Israeli Prof. Amir Hetsroni, who teaches in Istanbul, posted an Instagram video of himself eating french fries and wearing a Palestinian scarf inside a McDonald’s, The Jerusalem Post reports.

In the video, he says Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are “international criminals.”