Starbucks fires more than 2,000 Middle East employees after boycott campaign

Starbucks has fired “more than 2,000” employees across the Middle East, after finding itself targeted for a boycott by pro-Palestine activists during the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

AlShaya Group runs the franchise in the region from its base in Kuwait. It issued a statement confirming the dismissal of employees from its sites in the Middle East and North Africa.

“As a result of the continually challenging trading conditions over the last six months, we have taken the sad and very difficult decision to reduce the number of colleagues in our Starbucks MENA stores,” it said. The company refused to answer questions about the number of employees it had laid off, but Reuters, which was the first to report the matter, estimated the number to be more than 2,000.

The European, Arab and Muslim markets are witnessing a major boycott of Israeli goods, companies which support the Israeli occupation, and those which invest in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. All of Israel’s Jewish settlements are illegal under international law.

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