Anti-Israel boycott forces major French supermarket to leave Jordan

11/08/2024 / By Ramon Tomey

A major French supermarket has announced the closure of all its locations in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, amid a boycott targeting businesses that support Israel.

Grocery chain Carrefour confirmed on Monday, Nov. 4, the closure of all its locations in the country on its Facebook page. The business also apologized for any “inconvenience this decision may cause” in the official statement.

Following Carrefour’s closure, its West Asia franchisee, the United Arab Emirates-based Majid Al Futtaim Group (MAFG) quickly announced a new brand to replace the outgoing chain. Hypermax grocery chain will take over the now-closed locations, numbering 34 in all.

MAFG described Hypermax as a “brand-new Arab grocery chain” focusing on locally sourced products. In announcing the change, the franchisee said it “regularly reviews and assesses its businesses to ensure it remains agile in adapting to evolving market dynamics.”

Alaa El Dirania, a member of the Amman Chamber of Commerce, put in his two cents on Carrefour’s departure from the Hashemite kingdom during an interview with the New Arab.

He told the outlet that many commercial stores and enterprises targeted by the boycott – Carrefour included – had witnessed a slump in business. Some of them had closed, if not reducing production altogether. (Related: Corporations like McDonald’s, Starbucks that support Israel are receiving massive backlash, boycotts over support for genocidal bombings of Gazans.)

According to The Cradle, Carrefour Group announced last May that it had opened around 50 stores in Israel. The locations opened under a franchise partnership it entered with the Israeli firm Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary Yenot Bitan in March 2020.

Activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement later accused Carrefour of providing food packs to soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces amid Tel Aviv’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip. While the supermarket chain denied the accusation, this failed to mollify BDS.

BDS: Boycott had a huge impact on Carrefour

The movement ultimately took credit for Carrefour’s departure from the kingdom, describing it as a “victory for the Jordanian people over supporters of terrorism.” In a statement on its website, BDS emphasized that the grocery chain “was forced to leave the Jordanian market, expelled and isolated.”

“The work will not end, and that the time has come to intensify boycott campaigns to isolate and defeat the Zionist project,” the statement continued. “We will continue escalating the boycott campaign … until the MAFG breaks its partnership with the French consortium and discontinues [its use of] the Carrefour trademark. Let us escalate our boycott of Carrefour everywhere to compel it to respect our people’s rights and to stop complicity in violating them.”

Hamza Al-Khader of BDS Jordan chapter remarked that Carrefour’s exit, “in itself,” shows how the boycott of such companies can actually generate positive results for the Jordanian economy. He told the New Arab: “This is an important victory, and one of the boycott’s successes – which really proves that this popular, ethical act of struggle can generate results.”

“[MAFG] was an agent for Carrefour in Jordan. And now it’s dropped that partnership, the employees haven’t lost their jobs as it’s opened a local firm doing the same work, with the same capacity to employ staff,” he continued. “But you can’t just measure these things in terms of wins and losses. There are other factors pushing us in terms of our culture, our identity and our commitment to ethics and values.”

While the boycott is bad news for Carrefour and others, the campaign has received support from the vast majority of Jordanians. A poll from last November found that 93 percent are committed to boycotting products from countries supportive of Israel and its war on Gaza.

Watch this clip of BDS protesters removing products that support Israel from grocery shelves in Northern Ireland.

This video is from the Cynthia’s Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.