Paris, 18 February 2026

In a letter to Mr Chris Kempczinski, President and CEO, McDonald’s Corporation, Dr Shimon Samuels, Emeritus Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, and Alex Uberti, Project Manager of CSW-Europe, expressed serious concern regarding the placement of his company’s advertisement alongside a deeply hateful and antisemitic article, published last November in the Omani newspaper Al Roya, entitled “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, written by Hatim Al-Tai, who is himself the owner and chairman of Roya Press & Publishing.

Specifically, the article exploits the Gaza conflict as a pretext to recycle long-standing antisemitic conspiracy theories and defamatory narratives. This text is not political criticism or legitimate commentary; it is hate speech that promotes collective demonization and historical falsehoods.

The Al Roya article spares no-one, accusing Jewish families of centuries ago, up to modern institutions such as the women’s organization Hadassah. It depicts “the Zionist entity” having “planted a malignant seed in the heart of Arabism” [sic!], consistently “inciting chaos, wars, and revolutions”... “a latent evil in our region and the world, and it is the primary perpetrator and directly responsible for all the wars and conflicts”, including “the two Gulf wars” (and not Saddam Hussein), the “destruction of Afghanistan” (and not Russia, Al Qaeda or the Talibans), the civil wars following the “Arab Springs... in Syria, Libya and elsewhere” (and not fierce dictators such as Assad or Khadafi), and the tribal conflicts, epidemics and famines in Africa, etc. (and not terrorist factions, ethnic-religious enemies, or the mismanagement of undemocratic and dysfunctional regimes)... “fuelling conflict with the blood of innocent Arabs and Muslims.” [sic!]

Hatim Al-Tai claims Jews and Israel had no historical connection to what has been their Biblical “Promised Land”, once a Hebrew kingdom and resting ground of generations of Prophets and rabbis, mentioned as such also in Christian and even in Muslim holy texts... He also relays the antisemitic canard of “the Zionist lobby controlling the media, decision-making, manipulates elections”... and “Zionist machinations” responsible for “the sharp decline in education”... “the destruction of morality through pornography and the normalization of homosexuality”... “spreading drugs through criminal gangs”... and the “destruction of religion, through the creation of extremist terrorist organizations... such as ISIS.” [sic!]

We lamented the company’s brand figuring alongside such expressions of hate, and hoped it was not tacit endorsement or indifference in relation to McDonald’s stated “commitments to diversity, inclusion, and corporate responsibility”.

The letter urged an investigation on how this placement occurred, “to ensure your advertising is immediately removed from this platform, and to review your advertising safeguards so that your brand is not associated with content that promotes hatred or dehumanization of any group”.

McDonald’s response thanked us for “flagging the issue”. Their Global Chief Impact Officer reiterated the company’s policy to “abhor violence of any kind and firmly stand against hate speech”. Nevertheless, he also explained that the “franchisee’s advertisement placement was inadvertent and not intentionally associated with the adjacent editorial content”.

We insisted that large companies wield significant influence through where they choose or allow their messages to appear. Taking swift corrective action would send a clear signal that the normalization of antisemitism or hate speech under any guise cannot be tolerated. We would expect McDonald’s to steer away from advertising in Al Roya.

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For more information, contact csweurope@gmail.com.