As Gaza ceasefire begins, Malaysians urged to continue anti-Israel boycott

Malaysians should continue the boycott of businesses and entities marked for tacit support for Israel regardless of the recent ceasefire deal in Gaza, said the group behind the global movement that has seen major Western brands' profits plummet more than a year after the Zionist state launched its genocidal war that has killed at least 50,000 Palestinians.

The Malaysian chapter of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS Malaysia) reminded consumers not to forget the ongoing injustice in the occupied territories.

"In reality, Israel is still committing human rights violations against the Palestinians," its chairman Mohd Nazari Ismail told MalaysiaNow.

His call comes as tycoon Vincent Tan, who owns the Starbucks coffee chain in Malaysia which alongside with McDonald's and KFC has been targeted by pro-Palestinian supporters worldwide, once again spoke out against the boycott, this time citing the ceasefire that came into effect yesterday.

"What is the need to continue boycotting Starbucks? There is no need to do so," Tan said as quoted by Malaysiakini.

Even before the ceasefire agreement, Tan reportedly claimed that local customers were returning to Starbucks because they were convinced that the company had no role in the war in Gaza.

Nazari acknowledged that some Malaysians may abandon their boycott of businesses linked to Israeli interests under the impression that the ceasefire would end injustice against Palestinians.

He said the past 14 months had only exposed Israel's brutality to the world.

"The need to maintain the boycott campaign for the sake of justice and the liberation of Palestine is clear," he added.

Nazari said BDS would intensify its campaign in the coming days, including a protest on Jan 24 to urge two government-linked entities, Permodalan Nasional Berhad and Sime Darby to stop buying machinery from US construction equipment maker Caterpillar, which is among companies accused of complicity with Israeli crimes.

Last June, Norway's largest private pension fund rejected nearly US$70 million worth of Caterpillar Inc stocks and bonds over fears the company could be complicit in human rights abuses by providing bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes to make way for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

Starbucks and other major Western fast food chains such as McDonald's and consumer brands like Nestle are among the companies most affected by the global campaign, despite creative attempts by their owners in Muslim countries to distance themselves from Washington's policies in the Middle East, where more than 50,000 civilians have died in Gaza and Lebanon since October 2023 as a result of Israel's massive bombardment.

In Malaysia, Starbucks has also had to contend with stiff competition from alternative local and regional coffee franchises that have sprung up in the past year, further hurting the coffee giant's profits.

Starbucks Malaysia, which is owned by Tan's Berjaya Corporation, also owns the 7-Eleven retail chain, whose chairman is Farhash Wafa Salvador, the former political secretary to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Tan has taken pains in calling on Malaysians to end the boycott, repeating the familiar excuse of local ownership and employment of locals, none of which have been able to stem the anti-Israel boycott movement.

Last year, DAP leader and federal minister Nga Kor Ming accused those behind the boycott as "instigators" out to ruin domestic economy, sparking a backclash from Palestinian supporters.

"Never fall into the trap of instigators, our country needs the efforts of all parties to develop the economy," said Nga, who officiated the opening of a new Starbucks outlet at his ministry in Putrajaya not long before the Gaza war.