McDonald's in Malaysia demands compensation after a significant decline in its revenues (Shutterstock)

Kuala Lumpur -

Professor Muhammad Nazri Ismail has been leading a campaign to boycott companies that cooperate with Israel for years, and since October 7, he has led a series of demonstrations in Malaysia to denounce the massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, and to demand an end to the Western-backed Israeli aggression on Gaza.

Despite the lawsuit filed by Lion Horn Company, the owner of the McDonald's franchise in Malaysia, against the BDS branch in Malaysia, Ismail insists on moving forward with the boycott campaign and escalating it, as he told Al Jazeera Net, until this campaign stops. Companies support Israel or the latter stops its aggression and does justice to the Palestinian people.

Ismail heads the BDS Malaysia chapter and is the former dean of the Faculty of Accounting and Economics at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Leon Horn accuses the BDS Foundation branch in Malaysia of defaming her, denies participating in financing the Israeli occupation army as stated in the foundation’s statements, and says that McDonald’s Malaysia has no relationship with the company’s branch in Israel.

Pictures and videos appeared on social media of McDonald's distributing free meals to Israeli soldiers believed to be fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The company is demanding compensation estimated at more than $2.2 million, half of which is for the decline in revenues, and the other half is distributed between compensation for employees who lost their jobs and expired food supplies.

Muhammad Nazri Ismail pledged to escalate the campaign to boycott companies that support Israel (Al Jazeera)

Settlement talks

The lawyer for the Boycott Israel Foundation, Muhammad Redha Hassan, told reporters in front of the Shah Alam Court that the two parties entered into a dialogue to reach an extrajudicial solution. He explained that they held a first session today, Monday, which he described as positive, through a mediator appointed by the court, and that another session will be held on April 30. Next April.

Lawyer Reda Hussein, for legal reasons, refused to disclose the nature of the cases being negotiated, and merely said that there were two or three cases, at a time when McDonald’s representatives refused to comment before the end of the negotiation sessions.

Sources have confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that the Israel Boycott Foundation has called on McDonald's to condemn the massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and not just distance itself from the actions of the company's branch in Israel, while McDonald's requires the Foundation to apologize on its social networking sites in order to drop the lawsuit.

A source familiar with the dialogue sessions added that representatives of both parties realize that the lawsuit contributed to popular support for the boycott campaign and increased its momentum, and that reaching an extrajudicial settlement may benefit both parties.

Not to feed the killers

Outside the Shah Alam Court building, dozens of activists in the boycott of Israel campaign confirmed their continued exposure of companies and bodies that support the Israeli occupation, and escalation of popular demands to boycott it. They said that the case filed against the boycott institution is an indication of its success.

The activists carried slogans denouncing the massacres committed by Israel, demanding that McDonald's stop feeding the murderers and criminals of the occupation soldiers, and displayed models of the bodies of children in blood-stained shrouds.

As for Professor Muhammad Nazri Ismail, he told Al Jazeera Net that the campaign targets the illegal Israeli occupation and the settlements that international law classifies as illegal.

Ismail added that the right to expression is guaranteed for demonstrators who denounce everything that supports the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces, and that those who accuse McDonald's and other companies and countries are the ones who watch Israeli crimes on screens, not just the bodies that call for a boycott of Israel.

Source: Al Jazeera