14/01/2009 / LEBANON

Demonstration against ‘Zionist’ café Starbucks

090115 starbucks 1.jpg

Tens of demonstrators gathered outside a Starbucks café in Beirut on Tuesday, accusing the American coffee chain of ‘financing Zionism' and for being in part responsible for what's happening in Gaza. Yara Harakeh tells us why she chose to demonstrate. Read more and see photos of the demo below.

Held in Hamra, a Sunni area of Beirut, the demo forced the café to close for the day. Calls for boycotting Starbucks are nothing new though. On the internet, many sites and Facebook groups have been set up on this theme. They accuse the president of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, of being a ‘propagandist for Israel’, a blatant Zionist and of actively supporting George W Bush’s policies in the Middle East. Other American giants have also been targets of this campaign, in particular MacDonalds.

These accusations, made for a number of years now, have been denied by Starbucks. In a statement in 2006, the US company explained that it wasn’t in any way linked to the Israeli Army and that it “didn’t support any political cause".

Contributeurs
Portrait de Yara Harakeh

Yara Harakeh

“We are anti-Zionist, not anti-semitic”

Yara Harakeh, 23, has just finished her studies in biochemistry and is hunting for a job. She was one of the organisers of Tuesday’s demo in front of Starbucks.

Starbucks finances the Israeli Army. I know they deny it but we have documentation to prove it. And yet the chain makes a big part of its profit in the Arab world, where it has over 1,000 branches.
I don't yet know if our action has been very effective. Today hardly anyone was at the Starbucks in Hamra. But we have to wait a few days to see if the demo really stopped people coming to the café. Whatever happens, we won't stop there. Tomorrow we'll be doing the same thing again outside the Starbucks in Verdun (the area where Beirut's Franco-Lebanese high school is).  This is the right time to get this boycotting campaign against Starbucks going again. With all that's going on in Gaza, people are more open to our message.

But I want to make it clear that we are anti-Zionist, not anti-semitic, which is very different. They were in fact anti-semitic slogans heard at our demo but they were from people who weren't part of our group and we managed to stop them quickly."

Photos taken by protestors that Yara posted on her Facebook page

Portrait de Yara Harakeh

Yara Harakeh

  • Lebanon

Anti-Starbucks campaigns on Facebook




Internet users have published several lists of Zionist brands that they recommend boycotting.
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Commentaires

Des documents?

Soumis par Outsider (non vérifié) le lun, 26/01/2009 - 22:33.

Ce serait mieux de fournir des preuves de ce que Yara avance. Sinon, c'est un peu facile de lancer des boycootts.

Utilisateur non inscrit

Gaza Boycott

Soumis par Unregistered user (non vérifié) le jeu, 15/01/2009 - 16:41.

Imagine boycotting SKY TV - how will you know what is going on in the outside world - namely Gaza.

The Palestinian leaders in Gaza need to ask themselves - how much does building better schools and infrastructure - cost in comparison to the cost of rockets - that bring war to the area.

Notice - Hezbollah has not joined in this time - they know that firing off a few rockets doesn't compare to having many of your country's buildings and bridges destroyed.

Utilisateur non inscrit

Have to agree with reply

Soumis par Outsider (non vérifié) le lun, 26/01/2009 - 22:37.

The idea that people in Gaza can choose between rockets and economic development is extraordinarily naive. That development is refused to them. There are huge problems in Gaza that require large-scale development. That won't be able to come through a tunnel. The blockade has to stop and a political not military process has to be engaged.

Utilisateur non inscrit

Response to prior comment

Soumis par Unregistered user (non vérifié) le jeu, 15/01/2009 - 19:57.

In response, let us consider your suggestive point:

1. You suggest that the Palestinians should utilize their money rather for building up their infrastructure. However, you must have noticed by know that they Palestinian leadership does barely have enough finances to sustain its hospitals and social welfare programs, which even then in large part are dependant upon external charities that aid in the Palestinian struggle.

The fact of the matter is that Palestine is inhibited from growth and development due to the blockades and embargos instituted by Israel. Your argument in effect then compares to suggesting that a prisoner confined by his jail cell should seek economic development from the outside society. It does not really make sense.

2. Your argument is based upon the premise that the Palestinians have enough money to buy weaponry. Even your premise is false, as it seems rather likely from evidence that Israel has presented that weaponry is sponsored by foreign organizations and in some cases countries, and as such is smuggled into Gaza.

3. Lastly, it might make sense to entertain the thought that if you were kept for only 5 seconds in a choke-hold, you would retaliate with the limited capacity available to you in that situation. Otherwise, you would simply choke to death. Now, imagine being in a choke-hold for 18 months, thereby slowly but surely suffecating. You call out with a dim and dry voice to all the people around (the nations of the world) and no one comes to your aid. Instead, all have conspired against you. Now, you also see your relatives, family, and friends being choked. All cry out for help. Yet no one comes. Will you then not retaliate as much as you can.

Utilisateur non inscrit