Starbucks, an American coffee chaintops the boycott lists for Palestine. Furthermore, these boycotts have even reached the point of physical interventions against those sitting and working in the branches.

In Turkey Starbucks has 663 locations One of the countries in the Middle East where it has no branches is Israel. Don’t you find this a bit surprising, now that the boycott is taking center stage? Let’s see why.

Starbucks is a company founded in 1971 by three friends in the US.

In this sector, those three friends named Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl started as a small but ambitious venture, without realizing it, they are now the world’s leading companies. They created the great coffee chain. But the person who played the leading role in the company’s growth was Howard Schultz. Schultz is a key figure in Starbucks’ modern success story. After experiencing coffee culture in Italy in the early 1980s, he got together with the founders of Starbucks and came up with the idea.

Initially, Starbucks operated as a store that sold only coffee beans and ingredients. However, Schultz was influenced by the cafe culture he saw in Italy.came up with the idea of ​​bringing the coffee drinking experience to a café atmosphere.

Starbucks’ founders were not enthusiastic about this idea.

Howard Schultz

Despite these obstacles, over time, Schultz bought the company and became the head of Starbucks, allowing the company to expand and become a global coffee brand. The company, which developed under his leadership, is now number one in the world.. In fact, the focus of the criticism begins with Schultz.. Because he is a Jewish businessman.

So first of all why? Boycott Starbucks became the focus? Has it been publicly stated that he supports Israel?

The most important factor in the formation of this idea is that the founder is of Jewish descent.

Jewish ancestry of Howard Schultz In addition, the close attitude of the US towards Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian war are the reasons that led to these phenomena. Another reason was Starbucks’ announcement that it would take legal action against the ‘Starbucks Employees Union’, which shared statements of support for the Palestinians.

Let us briefly recall this incident. Starbucks employees on October 9 is in ‘Workers united’, He sent a message of solidarity to Palestine. Following this incident, Starbucks filed a lawsuit against the union, claiming it had damaged the company’s image and caused anger among customers.

This incident had major repercussions around the world, especially in the American press.

Sara Kelly, executive vice president of Starbucksmade a statement on the union’s post, sending a message of support for Palestine. The statement published on October 11 on the company’s website made the following statements:

“Our esteemed business partner, as a leadership team, would like to once again express our sincere condolences to the innocent people who lost their lives, were injured, displaced and affected by the terrible acts of terror and increased violence and hatred in the country. Israel and Gaza this week. Starbucks publicly condemns hate, terrorism and acts of violence.”

Starbucks, founder Howard Schultz He denies accusations that he provides financial support to Israel with the following statement on his official website:

“This is absolutely false information. Starbucks or Howard, Rumors that he provides financial support to the Israeli government and/or the Israeli army are absolutely untrue.. Because Starbucks is a publicly traded company, it must disclose corporate donations annually through a proxy statement.”

The branch that Starbucks opened in Israel existed between 2001 and 2003.

The reason why there are no Starbucks locations in Israel is the company’s ongoing operational problems. Today Starbucks has no active locations in Israel.

Starbucks has chosen to regionally manage its rapidly growing locations around the world. Middle East, including Turkey; Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and even North Africa, It belongs to the Alshaya group.

Kuwait-based Alshaya Grouphas been active as a business partner of Starbucks since 1999. Starbucks branches in Turkey are actually managed by this group and receive financial support from it.

It is said that the first Starbucks branch in Israel was boycotted and closed after it could not make a profit because it was located in Kuwait.

Reportedly, Starbucks operates in Israel in order not to lose the market in other Arab countries. Withdrawn from Israel. However, Starbucks states that the decision not to open a branch in Israel is not a political reason.

According to the company, the main reason stems from the company’s incompatibility with Israeli coffee culture. The reason is purely taste! Considering the news in the Israeli media, no Starbucks It’s more about their eating and drinking habits than for any political reason.

Hundreds of thousands of partners and managers around the world have different views on different issues. Regardless of this diversity of beliefs, Starbucks has always been an apolitical organization It reiterates that it will enforce its founding principle in an impartial manner.