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Starbucks CEO Blames ‘Misrepresentation on Social Media’ Regarding Company’s Position on Israel-Hamas War
The Starbucks logo. Photo: Reuters / Lucy Nicholson.
Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan claimed there’s a “misrepresentation on social media of what we stand for” in an open letter on Tuesday that addressed acts of vandalism and other controversies the coffee chain has faced since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
In the letter shared on the Starbucks blog, Narasimhan, who took on his role as CEO in March, did not directly reference the war. Instead, he talked about “conflicts” in the world that have “unleashed violence against the innocent, hate and weaponized speech, and lies — all of which we condemn.”
There have been efforts to boycott the Seattle-based coffee chain after it sued Workers United, the union organizing its employees, because the latter posted anti-Israel messages on social media following the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel while using logos similar to those trademakred by Starbucks. The coffee giant alleged trademark infringement, demanding that the union stop using its name and logo because the company had no official stance on the Gaza war and the social media posts prompted complaints and harmed its brand.
Share prices for the world’s largest coffee company have reportedly dropped by about 9 percent since mid-November — a decline of some $11 billion in its market cap — and there have been several instances of vandalism at Starbucks locations in the US since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Misinformation on social media has also negatively affected the company’s business, such as posts on X/Twitter that falsely accuse Starbucks of directly funding “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. Starbucks has no stores in Gaza, and all its locations in Israel closed in 2003.
“Many of our stores have experienced incidents of vandalism,” Narasimhan wrote in the open letter. “We see protesters influenced by misrepresentation on social media of what we stand for. We have worked with local authorities to ensure our partners and customers are safe. Nothing is more important.”
He added: “Our stance is clear. We stand for humanity.”
At a Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle, pro-Palestinian protesters who stormed the store smashed windows, wrote “Enter if you support genocide” in chalk on the floor, and spray-painted on the walls “free Gaza” and “free Palestine.” Last week, a Starbucks location in New York was spray-painted with pro-Palestinian graffiti, and at another store eight blocks away, a customer harassed employees and alleged that the company was anti-Israel.
“It is during times of conflict and pain when it is most important to come together,” Narasimhan further said in his letter. “I am realistic that it will take time. But I know it will happen.”
“In my daily meditation, I pray for peace — immediately,” he concluded.
The post Starbucks CEO Blames ‘Misrepresentation on Social Media’ Regarding Company’s Position on Israel-Hamas War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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