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Palestinians Call for Pizza Hut Boycott over Add Mocking Barghouti

Palestinians Call for Pizza Hut Boycott over Add Mocking Barghouti
folder_openPalestine access_time6 years ago
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Local Editor

Palestinians sought to boycott Pizza Hut on Tuesday after the company's franchise in the "Israeli" entity had been accused of mocking hunger-striking prisoners.

Palestinians Call for Pizza Hut Boycott over Add Mocking Barghouti

The franchise's Facebook page was said to have shared an image released by "Israeli" police that purportedly shows Palestinian hunger-strike leader Marwan Barghouti secretly breaking his fast.

"Barghouti, if you are going to break your [hunger] strike, isn't pizza the better choice?" a screenshot of the post said, with a pizza box seemingly photoshopped into the picture.

The image was later removed from the Facebook page, though it was still found on the page of at least one local branch.

A spokeswoman for Pizza Hut International apologized for the post.

"It was completely inappropriate and does not reflect the values of our brand," she told AFP.

"The local franchisee in the country removed it," she added. "We truly regret any hurt this may have caused."

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in "Israeli" jails are currently on hunger strike over their conditions.

The post sparked fury on Palestinian social media, including calls to boycott the chain.

"Pizza Hut is ridiculing the prisoners' strike," activist Alaa Abu Diab wrote on Facebook, using the hashtag #boycott_pizzahut.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement, which calls for boycotting the "Israeli" entity until it ends the occupation of Palestinian land, said it supported calls to snub Pizza Hut.

"Pizza Hut's mockery of leaders of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for freedom and dignity adds insult to deep injury," BDS' Mahmoud Nawajaa said.

"We support grassroots Palestinian calls for a worldwide boycott of Pizza Hut, especially in the Arab world," he wrote in an email to AFP.

Pizza Hut has an outlet in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, as well as dozens across the Middle East.

It has many inside the "Israeli" entity, as well as one in the illegal settlement of Maale Adumim in the occupied West Bank. Barghouti is serving five life sentences over his role in the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

"Israeli" authorities said 894 Palestinian prisoners had kept up the strike, though Palestinian officials said it is more than 1,000.

According to Palestinian leaders, some 850,000 Palestinians had been incarcerated since the entity's occupation of their territories 50 years ago.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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