McDonald's

Establishes that the financial pressure has gone and the franchising position in the company's own words. Full-year 2025 global comparable sales rose 3.1%, with the US up 2.1%, International Operated Markets up 3.2% and International Developmental Licensed Markets up 4.6%; the fourth quarter was up 5.7% globally. The release contains no reference to the Middle East, Israel or geopolitical impact. It states that McDonald's has over 45,000 locations in over 100 countries and that 'approximately 95% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local business owners', the figure against which Israel is now an exception.

Establishes the current position. Eighteen months after completing the buyback, McDonald's Corporation still directly operated the Israeli business, an unusual arrangement for a company that ordinarily licenses its markets to local operators. Observers quoted suggest it is in no hurry to let go. The article carries no comment from McDonald's Corporation.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concludes that Israeli authorities and security forces 'have committed and are continuing to commit' acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and that Israel 'bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide' (A/HRC/60/CRP.3).

The clearest account of the sale process. McDonald's Corporation, which bought the business from Omri Padan in 2024 for a reported figure above one billion shekels, has approached local businesses including Apex Ventures and major real estate developers to take over as franchisee. A prospective buyer is quoted valuing the business at between USD 200 million and USD 300 million. McDonald's said it was looking for candidates with experience in the food industry.

Records the expansion of the business under McDonald's Corporation's own ownership. Ohad Ehrenreich, senior vice-president of development at McDonald's Israel, sets out twelve openings for 2025, of which seven had already launched: a kosher McDrive in Ofakim, branches in Talpiot in Jerusalem, in the Tet-Zain neighbourhood of Ashdod, in Ir Ovot in the northern Arava, and at the La Market beachfront centre in Rishon LeZion. On completion the network would total 233 branches. The strategy is described as anchoring new BIG shopping centres and extending coverage to peripheral areas.

The only place McDonald's names the Israeli purchase in its own financial reporting, and the point at which the boycott effect reverses. The release records 2024 net pre-tax charges including 'transaction costs associated with the acquisition of McDonald's business in Israel'. Full-year 2024 global comparable sales were -0.1%, with International Developmental Licensed Markets at -0.3%. For the fourth quarter, that segment rose 4.1% and the release states that 'segment performance reflected positive comparable sales, led by the Middle East and Japan'.

An Israeli outlet complaining that McDonald's Israel had cut the military discount it offered during the war, and attributing the change to the shift of ownership from the local operator to McDonald's international headquarters. The article gives no figures for the previous or the new discount. Treated here as reported rather than verified; it is the only account located of the discount position under corporate ownership.

Kempczinski attributes weak international sales to the boycott and identifies the affected markets as the Middle East, Malaysia, Indonesia and France, noting that France has a higher Muslim population and saw disproportionate declines against the US. Published the day after the second quarter results.

The company's own quantification of the damage, furnished with its results. Global comparable sales fell 1.0%, the first quarterly decline since the fourth quarter of 2020: the US down 0.7%, International Operated Markets down 1.1% and International Developmental Licensed Markets down 1.3%. The release states that 'the continued impact of the war in the Middle East and negative comparable sales in China more than offset positive comparable sales in Latin America and Japan'. Neither Israel nor the Alonyal purchase is mentioned anywhere in the release.

Records McDonald's statement that it 'remains committed to the Israeli market and to ensuring a positive employee and customer experience in the market going forward', and Omri Padan's statement on thirty years of Alonyal. Sets the purchase against the boycotts that followed Alonyal's October 2023 announcement of free meals for Israeli soldiers, and against Chris Kempczinski's acknowledgement of a 'meaningful business impact', with Middle East, China and India sales growth at 0.7% in the preceding quarter.

The announcement of the purchase, carried on McDonald's own corporate site. Omri Padan, chief executive and owner of Alonyal Limited, states that an agreement to sell Alonyal to McDonald's Corporation has been signed. Alonyal had held the Israeli licence for more than thirty years and had grown the business to 225 restaurants and more than 5,000 employees, who would be retained on equivalent terms. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Gerbang Alaf Restaurants Sdn Bhd, McDonald's Malaysian licensee, withdrew the RM6 million defamation claim it had filed against BDS Malaysia, following mediation and clarifications by BDS. Managing director Datuk Azmir Jaafar stated that 'the actions of McDonald's operator in Israel are wholly independent of McDonald's Malaysia'. The claim had been filed on 30 December 2023 over social media posts linking the chain to Israel, seeking RM3 million for lost revenue, RM1.5 million for layoffs and RM1.5 million for expired materials.

Carries BBC News reporting that McDonald's missed a key sales target and posted its first quarterly sales miss in nearly four years on weak international growth, and that the company acknowledged the war had 'meaningfully impacted' performance in some overseas markets during the fourth quarter of 2023.

Reports the LinkedIn letter posted by Chris Kempczinski on 4 January 2024 acknowledging a 'meaningful business impact' in the Middle East and in several markets outside it, which he attributed to misinformation and called 'disheartening and ill-founded'. The letter is the first admission at chief executive level that the boycott was working.

The movement's own account of its position, which is narrower than usually reported. The page states that the McDonald's boycott is an organic grassroots campaign that the BDS movement did not launch but 'endorsed and encouraged'. The stated grounds are the Israeli licensee's donation of meals to Israeli military personnel and its promotion of that on social media, and McDonald's Malaysia's lawsuit against BDS Malaysia activists.

The corporation's own words, and the position it abandoned eight months later. Posted to Instagram and X on 3 November 2023: 'McDonald's Corporation is not funding or supporting any governments involved in this conflict, and any actions from our local development licensee business partners were made independently without McDonald's consent or approval.' The company said it was dismayed by disinformation about its position. It accepted no responsibility for the free meals its Israeli licensee had announced the previous month. Collected by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.

Documents the split within the McDonald's system that the corporation's franchising model produced. Operators in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain and Turkey publicly separated themselves from the Israeli licensee's free meals for soldiers and collectively pledged more than USD 3 million to Palestinians in Gaza, including USD 250,000 from McDonald's Kuwait to the Kuwait Red Crescent Society and USD 100,000 from McDonald's Oman. Each stressed that it was an independent business.

The contrary finding on settlements, and the open question the ownership change created. McDonald's Israel turned down an approach to open a branch in the Ariel settlement in the occupied West Bank. A McDonald's Israel spokeswoman explained that the chain refused because the owner of McDonald's Israel had a policy of staying out of the occupied territories. That owner was Alonyal Limited, which McDonald's Corporation bought in 2024; the corporation has made no public statement on whether the policy continues. Collected by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.