On the café terraces, the curious stood up to observe the scene, while intrigued passers-by paused. Sunday, November 19, late in the afternoon, Boulevard Abdelmoumen, in the center of Casablanca, was the scene of a strange face-to-face. On one side, a hundred people, grouped together on a sidewalk. Mostly young people and women, wearing keffiyehs and scarves in the colors of the Palestinian flag. On the other, separated by a tram line, a deployment of police officers in uniform and in plain clothes.
Under the watchful eye of the police, the demonstrators demanded “the end of relations with Israel” and, a new development, called for a boycott of Carrefour, already targeted by this type of action in the past. The leaflets, distributed near a point of sale of the brand, crossed out the blue and red logo of the French group with a cross. “Carrefour has donated thousands of food parcels to soldiers of the occupying army, at a time when Gaza residents are subjected to bombings and a suffocating siege”denounces Kawtar Dazine, member of the Moroccan branch of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, at the origin of the demonstration.
Since the launch of Israeli military operations in Gaza, following the attack by Hamas on October 7 which left around 1,200 dead in Israel according to the latest official report, a large protest movement has agitated Morocco. Marches in support of the Palestinians take place every week in several cities across the country, supported by a national boycott campaign. This affects not only Carrefour, whose brands are operated in Morocco by the LabelVie group, but also another giant, for the first time in the sights of BDS: McDonald’s, number one in fast food in the kingdom.
“Unfounded rumors”
Within these two companies, which did not respond to our requests, the embarrassment is real. And the discretion of the first days gave way, for one of them, to real crisis communication. As early as October, McDonald’s reacted through the press to deny the alleged existence of financial payments to Israel. In a long press release, published on information sites and even the very official daily The morningthe brand refuted “false and unfounded rumors”. She assures that “the royalties that the Moroccan company First Rest International, franchisee of McDonald’s in Morocco, pays to McDonald’s International are in no way used to support any government or any political cause”.
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