Sawt Falasteen - Carrefour name disappears from Arab stores as Israel boycotters claim victory

The French multinational has long been in the crosshairs of Palestinian supporters, who accuse it of selling products from Israeli settlements and partnering with Israeli firms operating there.

The group has denied operating in the settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

But in the past year Majid Al Futtaim, the group that operates the Carrefour franchise in the Middle East, has closed the brand's supermarkets in Jordan, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.

It has since reopened under the new name HyperMax, citing "growing demand for locally sourced products and services in a number of our markets".

It did not explicitly link the rebranding to the boycotts, and experts are divided over how much of a role they played in the closures.

But pro-Palestinian shoppers have nonetheless claimed victory

Huda Ahmed, a 45-year-old mother of three, said she stepped into the Carrefour-turned-HyperMax store in Manama, Bahrain last week for the first time in almost two years.

"I am glad they actually listened to their customers and disengaged from the Carrefour brand. Things can't be business as usual with a genocide going on at our doorsteps," Ahmed told AFP.

"We still made sure not to buy the products that are on the boycott lists... but the company deserves credit for making the move," she added.

- 'Broader scaling down' -

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which began two decades ago, has accused Carrefour of "profiting from Israel's illegal settlements" through its franchise partnership with Israeli retailer Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary, supermarket chain Yenot Bitan.

According to BDS, Yenot Bitan has stores in settlements and both firms are "directly involved in a number of projects fostering Israel's illegal settlements enterprise".

It has accused Carrefour-Israel of supporting Israeli soldiers "partaking in the unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza with gifts of personal packages".

It also demanded that Carrefour stop selling products from the settlements.

Carrefour chief executive Alexandre Bompard has said previously that no Carrefour stores are operating in West Bank settlements and has denied having any "partisan or political ties".

The Israeli government accuses supporters of the BDS movement of being antisemitic.

In Bahrain, which has ties to Israel, activists have held weekly protests and vigils for Gaza.

According to a HyperMax employee in the country, foot traffic slowed noticeably after the start of the Gaza war, when the store was still operating under the Carrefour brand.

"Almost all our customers stopped coming," he said, requesting anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. Since the rebranding, "I am seeing more customers coming in, particularly Bahrainis and Arabs."

For M.R. Raghu, who heads the Marmore Mena Intelligence consulting firm, the Carrefour closures are part of a "broader scaling down of operations by the retailer, amid weakening financial health" as its stores also shut elsewhere in the world.

And Majid Al Futtaim has maintained Carrefour franchises elsewhere in the Middle East, including in the Gulf's two biggest economies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

- 'Brand concerns' -

Ghassan Nasaif, a pro-Palestinian activist in Bahrain, called Majid Al Futtaim's decision a "great victory" for the movement, saying "this is exactly what we were asking" from the group.

Majid Al Futtaim saw its retail revenue, which includes Carrefour, drop 10 percent last year following a four percent decline in 2023, with the company citing "geopolitical tensions" affecting consumer sentiment, among other factors.

In the first half of this year, retail revenues have softened one percent from the same period a year earlier.

"Consumer demand is currently strong and growing across the Gulf, and the fact that the regional franchise holder, MAF, has been rebranding many Carrefour stores as HyperMax does seem to imply a link to boycott-related brand concerns," according to Justin Alexander, director of Khalij Economics, a consulting firm.

For Musab al-Otaibi, an activist in Kuwait, people have "no other weapon than boycotts" as the death toll climbs in Gaza.

Bader al-Saif, an assistant professor at Kuwait University, called the Carrefour closures "a microcosm of a bigger story".

"It shows that the voices of people in the Gulf do matter... that there are ways to express yourself even if you're in a restricted space," he said.

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B.Mahmoud--SF-PST