Pizza Hut Faces Boycott Calls for Feeding Israeli Soldiers

Pizza Hut is facing boycott calls after it supplied Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) with pizza.

The restaurant chain's Israeli Instagram account reposted a story of two IDF soldiers holding stacks of branded Pizza Hut boxes, and it has been widely shared online. Originally posted by a user with the handle @alex_shults, the two soldiers can be seen smiling and dressed in uniform. Newsweek has as yet been unable to verify where the image was taken and contacted Yum Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, for comment on Saturday via phone call.

Brands across the world have faced boycotts over supposed support of Israel as it strikes back in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks conducted by Hamas. Most notably, McDonald's and Starbucks have both been subject to the ire of pro-Palestinian supporters.

The Quds News Network, a Palestinian Youth News Agency, posted another image of a separate Instagram story on X, formerly Twitter, showing an Israeli soldier posing with a stack of pizza boxes. He has one arm resting on the boxes and another on a rifle in the image posted by an account with the name "Proud to help". Text in the image reads: "For the love of Israel." The Quds Network said the pizzas were free and delivered to Israel military bases. Newsweek is unable to verify the claim at this time.

The posts have caused significant backlash online from pro-Palestinian supporters who have vowed to stop purchasing food from the chain and have encouraged others to do so as well. Academic Tim Anderson posted on X: "OK folks, this is the form of @pizzahut feeding the genocidal regime, you know what to do."

X user Rania called for a boycott of the popular chain, writing: "More trash to boycott! #PizzaHut's latest flavour is genocide!"

At the time of writing, the hashtag #BoycottPizzaHut had more than 136,000 posts on the X site.

However, not everyone was in favor of the hashtag. Israel's supporters hit back at the proposed boycott. Eli Lake quoted the Quds Network post, writing: "Good for Pizza Hut."

Other X users took the posts more in jest. Uri Kurlianchik posted: "You don't understand! This is all a secret plan to make Israeli soldiers too fat to fight in Gaza! Pizza Hut is actually trying to help you!"

"Obviously people in support of Hamas are 'boycotting' PizzaHut for acting humanely," X user anitnelav wrote.

Starbucks issued a public statement in December, following vandalism at a number of its outlets in North America.

Without explicitly referencing the ongoing conflict, Starbucks CEO Laxman 'Laks' Narasimhan said in a letter: "Cities around the world - including here in North America - have seen escalating protests. Many of our stores have experienced incidents of vandalism. We see protestors influenced by misrepresentation on social media of what we stand for."

Narasimhan added: "Our stance is clear. We stand for humanity."

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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