McDonald’s Won’t Open Restaurant in Ariel Settlement in Occupied West Bank

By JTA June 26, 2013

McDonald’s Israel declined an offer to open a restaurant in Ariel because it is located in the West Bank.

In a statement, McDonald’s said its refusal to open a franchise in the West Bank has “always been the restaurant chain’s policy,” according to the Calcalist, the Israeli business daily that first reported the story.

McDonald’s had been approached by a realtor to open in a mall scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014. About 50 stores and eateries, many of them chains, either are on board or in talks to open in the Ariel Mall, according to The Calcalist. Some of the chains are wary of committing to the project because of its West Bank location, the report said.

The owner and general manager of McDonald’s Israel, Omri Padan, is a founder of Peace Now.

Rami Levy, the Israeli supermarket mogul who is an investor in the new mall, told Calcalist, “I do not accept that companies make business decisions that are informed by political considerations. The mall in Ariel is expected to employ Arab and Jewish workers from the area and to provide services for these populations.”

A cultural center in Ariel and the Ariel University both have been the target of boycotts.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO