Make them take a stand

Okay. Let's talk about Starbucks, just as an example, really. I haven't seen any evidence that Starbucks, as a company, funds Israel or supports Israel as a company. Now the former CEO is Jewish and is a Zionist, And he personally donated money to Israel and has been given some sort of a, you know, Zionist of the year sort of award in the past. That's Shultz, Howard Shultz.

Now he's no longer the CEO. But anyway, Starbucks has a very bad image in the Muslim world and among pro Palestinian activists who believe that the company supports Israel, mostly because of Howard Schultz. Now I've seen that unionized workers in Starbucks have taken a pro Palestinian stance and that the company has tried to distance themselves from the the unionized workers. Given Starbucks experience, when Schultz took a, you know, full on pro LGBT stance and he got Starbucks boycotted by, you know, all the bourgeoisie suburban soccer moms who buy pumpkin spice lattes, the company has not been very keen to take any sort of political stance on any particular issue. Now in Malaysia, there have been calls to boycott Starbucks over the the perception that they support Israel, and I think business is visibly down.

The local company that owns the franchises in Malaysia has publicly stated that they do not support Israel and that they have in fact donated, I think, 2,000,000 ringgits to Palestinian charities. Now, I have no idea what the situation is in franchises in other parts of the world. It could be the same. But either way, Starbucks still has a bad reputation around the world. This is a vulnerability.

Insisting on taking a neutral stance is not gonna help them. A franchise like the one in Malaysia is trying to get the message out to the Malaysian public that they support Palestine because, you know, it's Malaysia. But this should be the case across the global south. So, okay, you have to push them for more. You have to push them for a positive public stance and to take active steps.

You know, Starbucks, the economy in The US is collapsing. They don't people people in the in The United States don't have money for $10 coffees anymore. You know? You've closed hundreds of of outlets in The United States, and your best hope Starbucks' best hope and their best plan is to expand into the global South, into Africa and Asia. Well, the global South is pro Palestinian.

So look, when when they got boycotted on the LGBT issue, the LGBT community did not fill the gap. They couldn't. They're too small of a population. And how many cappuccinos can you really drink? So, the absence of their alienated customers could not be compensated by the customers that they pandered to.

And so they dropped their stance. And they dropped Howard Schultz, in fact, over that. That's how it works. But, you know, Muslims drink a lot of coffee. Arabs drink a lot of coffee.

I remember the the Starbucks that I used to go to back when I lived in Michigan was always full of Arabs. I mean, was one one store that had to change their hours to twenty four hours because in the city where I live Moroccans used to hang out at that Starbucks all night. So multiply those numbers internationally by our numbers internationally. Our numbers in the markets where Starbucks wants to expand are phenomenal. Taking a pro Palestinian stance makes sense, makes business sense, and being neutral does not.

So you have to push these companies. You have to push companies like Starbucks. Never be satisfied. Okay. You don't support Israel.

You're neutral. Whatever. But what are you doing to support the Palestinians? That's what we need. A pro Palestinian stance, not a neutral stance.

And if your franchise supports Palestinians, so you need now to communicate with the Starbucks headquarters in Seattle and let them know, that they need, at their level, to take a positive stance officially and publicly as a company because their lack of a position, cannot overcome the bad image that they have globally on this issue. They need to do something about that. Let the franchises talk to Seattle. Get them to make a statement. And then still don't be satisfied.

Once you've made a statement, now back up your statement. Donate, just like the franchises do, but 10 times the amount of what the franchises donated. Support Palestinian NGOs, lobby the government, etcetera, etcetera. There's no end to what you can actually ask them to do because they have so much power. So Starbucks, like I said, is just an example.

You can push this issue with any company, particularly any company that has expansion plans into the global South markets. But any company, really. You can literally put them in a position where they have to take a stand. You can go, for example, to any shop, any store, and as you walk in, just slap a free Palestine sticker on the window. You know, just put a free Palestine sticker on the window or on the door as you go in.

Then take a picture of that and spread it on social media congratulating that company for taking such a positive stance on the Palestinian issue. Then they'll have to either affirm it or disavow it, and their marketing department will be burning the midnight oil trying to draft the media statement of how they're gonna handle that issue. You know? Company backtracks on pro Palestinian stance. It's a nightmare.

There's no way to spin a disavowal without bringing a spotlight on their action and then putting them on a boycott list. I mean, did they cave to Zionist pressure? Are they pro genocide? On and on. It automatically puts the company at the top of, any list, for Muslims to either, boycott or reward.

Now with regards to Starbucks again, like I said, I read that the company, has received a lot of emails and messages from Zionists, because of the stance that was taken by unionized workers that was pro Palestinian. So that means this is something that the company listens to. And we shouldn't be like the LGBT who did not support the pro LGBT stance that Starbucks took and just let them lose their money in a boycott. For every one message that they get from Zionists, they should get 10 messages from anti Zionists. Those union workers should be supported for the stance that they took.

So inshallah, I will will try to draft an email and who to send it to, and I'll put it in our telegram group. Then you can just take that email and either just run it as it is or run it through a paraphrasing AI tool or just write one yourself in your own words and send it off. But again, what you need to do is impose a pro Palestinian stance on a company, let's call it giving them the benefit of the doubt, and then publicize and congratulate them for their public stance or for their pro Palestinian stance. If they affirm it, then that's great. And if they try to disavow it, then that's a PR nightmare for them, and it will and it will put them immediately on a boycott list.

Either way, nobody gets to sit this one out. You have to take a stand. We have to know what your stand is, and then we, as consumers, will make our decisions accordingly.