Wang Zhao Agence France-Presse Des gens s’arrêtent pour manger au Mcdonald’s à Beijing en Chine. Photo d’illustration
McDonald's Malaysia announced it had filed a defamation lawsuit against a pro-Palestinian group, seeking $1.3 million in damages over boycott calls against Western companies for their alleged support of Israel.
The fast food chain said its civil suit against BDS Malaysia was to protect its “rights and interests in accordance with law”, in a statement released on Friday.
Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia with a predominantly Muslim population, provides strong support for the Palestinian cause.
McDonald's clarified that the group “does not support or condone the current conflict in the Middle East.”
“While we understand and respect that boycotting is an individual decision, we believe it should be based on facts and not false allegations,” McDonald's emphasized.< /p>
McDonald's is seeking six million ringgit in damages for alleged defamation, according to a copy of the legal document seen by AFP.
In a post on X on Friday, BDS Malaysia said it “categorically denies this alleged defamation”. BDS Malaysia is part of the global “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” campaign, launched by Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005.
She advocates a boycott of Israel due to the treatment of Palestinians.
In response to the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, BDS Malaysia has stepped up its calls for Malaysians to boycott Western brands, including McDonald's, KFC and Zara, which it says are “complicit Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians.”
Israel launched an offensive in Gaza after bloody attacks by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, which left around 1,140 people dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on Israeli figures .
Palestinian commandos also took around 250 people hostage, more than half of whom are still in the fighting zone, with some considered dead.
Since then, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, Israel has shelled the Gaza Strip and killed at least 21,672 people, most of them women and children.