What does Gen-Z think about Israel boycott? We went to TikTok to find out

The BDS movement is witnessing a resurgence after many TikTok users called on their followers to abandon major brands due to their direct involvement in supporting the Israeli Defence Forces following the October 7 attack.

The targeted boycott has focused predominantly on the ‘Big Three’; McDonald's, Starbucks and Disney+.

The decision of the Israel-based McDonald's franchise to offer free food to members of the Israeli military caused a consumer boycott and led to other franchises within the Arab and Muslim regions distancing themselves from the move.

Starbucks sued its union, Starbucks Workers United, earlier this month after the labour organisation posted a since-deleted message on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressing solidarity with Palestinians. 

The hashtag #boycottstarbucks has since gained over 29 million views on TikTok.

Disney+ pledged $2 million to Israeli relief groups and the company will be matching donations from its employees up to $25,000.

"Boycotts work. Keep it going. It works. I know, oftentimes, especially living in the United States, being far away from the situation at hand, it seems like nothing we do on the other side of the world is working. This is working. You have to keep doing"

This boycott is considered to be part of a wider movement called the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement —which was formally launched in 2005 by a coalition of about 170 Palestinian grassroots and civil society groups.

Calls to boycott Israel have grown in recent years amid concern about its treatment of Palestinians. The movement targets international companies they say are engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights, drawing inspiration from the boycotts of South Africa during apartheid.

Leading Palestinian, Israeli, and international rights groups — including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and B’Tselem — have called the situation in the Occupied West Bank “apartheid,” which a UN expert had also stated last year.

Despite social media calls for a targeted boycott of the ‘Big Three’, the BDS movement has not officially added Disney+, McDonalds or Starbucks to their list.

Instead, the movement released a statement acknowledging the increased interest in BDS but asked its supporters to remember the targeted list of complicit companies.

“The BDS movement encourages the continued pressure on those who support Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza. But at the same time, let us strengthen our targeted campaigns and boycott the most complicit companies to maximize our impact!”

Currently, the hashtag #BDS has 2.8 billion views on TikTok whilst the hashtag #BDSboycottlist has amassed 5 million.

Anecdotally, the impact of the targeted boycott is being felt.

X users from Egypt have reported that supermarkets have offered almost 80% reductions of the Starbucks Frappuccino.

“In Egypt .. A discount of 73 pounds.. This is crazy. This has never happened before. In addition to the brands of Pepsi, Coca-Cola and others, everyone stopped buying them completely, and whoever buys them, we treat him like an outcast.”

This week the UK’s McDonalds just announced a reduction in the price of a Big Mac and McNuggets to just 99p for all of November, many online celebrated this as a signal that the boycott is working but reminded their followers to not “fall for their tricks.”  

Another X user @ShahidkBolsen posted that ‘after just 3 weeks of boycott, Starbucks in Malaysia has reduced operation hours nationwide due to devastating loss of customers. The next step would be individual outlet closures and eventually complete disappearance of Starbucks from the country.’

Employees of the franchises have also taken to social media to confirm that the boycott is taking effect.

TikTok user and Starbucks barista Ambrose (@ambrose_darling) posted a video encouraging the pro-Palestine boycott of Starbucks on October 23, which has since amassed 1.3 million views and more than 6,800 comments.

In the video, Ambrose says, “As a barista at Starbucks (I have turned in my notice), in the past, I want to say two, maybe three, days now, there has been a significant decline in customers and orders that are coming in and being placed. I want to say a solid third of the usual amount of people that we get coming in are no longer showing up. And I’m talking these are the type of people you see every day, ordering all the time — they are not coming in.”

Ambrose concludes: “Boycotts work. Keep it going. It works. I know, oftentimes, especially living in the United States, being far away from the situation at hand, it seems like nothing we do on the other side of the world is working. This is working. You have to keep doing.”

@ambrose_darling 🇵🇸 #starbucks #starbucksdrinks #starbucksbarista ♬ original sound - Ambrose

Yet in the past week, a small minority of activists have swapped the silent withdrawal of financial support for these brands for active declarations of solidarity.

At least three locations of the fast-food chain McDonalds have been filled with dozens of mice in the UK. In one of the incidences, the mice were painted red, white and green to represent the Palestinian flag.

A video of the incident that was posted on social media shows a man with a Palestinian flag wrapped around his head carrying a box full of mice into the fast-food restaurant in Birmingham, shouting ‘Free Palestine’.

The reception to these acts has been mixed.  

Some users felt it was an unusual but funny response to the conflict whilst others called it “performative activism at its finest.”  

On X, @Tiannathewriter was quick to call out the various acts of vandalising that have been seen across the world and encouraged her users to think of the actual labourers.

“Stop vandalising these shops please, the only people who suffer are the minimum wage workers and we already know Starbucks don't treat them good (union busting etc). This was a busy Starbucks, your absence IS enough.”

Zoe, (@BLAHBLAH) encouraged her followers on TikTok to expand their boycott: "Tagging of the companies when you boycott, because investors look at trends and they pull their stocks, and that really hurts, that hurts them more than people not buying their products."

Fundamentally, BDS follows the belief that there is no single way to implement the call but that activists should make decisions based on what makes the most sense in their context.

By reaching out to the broader public and finding ways to sensitise those who largely depend on corporate media for information and analysis on Palestine, BDS brings the question of Palestine and Israeli impunity to the forefront.

This sentiment is most evident on the social media platform TikTok where the algorithm responds to the engagement of its users rather than an editorial line.

As such, the question of whether these targeted boycotts affect the bottom line of these big companies becomes irrelevant, the success is predicated by the conversation and awareness that follows.

There is an intentional desire to join in solidarity with the Palestinian people, as things continue to deteriorate in Palestine, people will use their purchasing power to demonstrate that solidarity.

Just this week Bassem Yousef reminded the world when in conversation with Piers Morgan: “McDonald's are giving free meals to the Israelis because nothing will make you feel better after killing a bunch of Palestinian kids than a happy meal."

Aisha Kherallah is a freelance journalist and researcher focused on media freedom and cultural outputs in the MENA region. She holds an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics and also works for the Rory Peck Trust