The Carrefour name has disappeared from storefronts in some Arab countries, with pro-Palestinian shoppers and activists hailing the shift as a victory for their boycott of brands perceived as being linked to Israel, said an AFP report.It has since reopened under the new name HyperMax.
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.
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.
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.
“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,” she added.
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”.