The Middle East franchisee of Starbucks said Tuesday it has begun firing around 2,000 workers at its coffee shops across the region after the brand found itself targeted by Hamas supporters.

The Kuwait-based Alshaya Group, a private family firm holding franchise rights for a variety of Western companies including The Cheesecake Factory, H&M and Shake Shack, issued a statement acknowledging the firings at its Middle Eastern and North African locations.

“As a result of the continually challenging trading conditions over the last six months, we have taken the sad and very difficult decision to reduce the number of colleagues in our Starbucks MENA stores,” the statement read.

Alshaya later confirmed it was firing about 2,000 employees, as first reported by Reuters. Many of its employees in the Gulf Arab states are foreign workers hailing from Asian nations.

Alshaya runs about 1,900 Starbucks branches in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. It had employed more than 19,000 staff, according to the Seattle-based company. The layoffs represent just over 10% of its staff.

Pro-Hamas supporters began calling to boycott Starbucks after the company sued the Starbucks Workers United (SWU), a union with more than 360 participating stores and more than 9,000 employees after it made a post on its X account that said “Solidarity with Palestine” after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 – kindling the ire of pro-Israel customers.

At the same time, Hamas supporters began calling for a boycott of McDonald’s, spurred by news reports that a franchise owner in Israel said that its restaurants would be providing free meals to IDF soldiers and Israeli hospitals.

Following the boycott calls, Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan sent a letter to Starbucks employees and customers saying that people were being misled by false information about the company’s positions.

“We see protestors influenced by misrepresentation on social media of what we stand for,” Narasimhan stated. “Cities around the world – including here in North America – have seen escalating protests. Many of our stores have experienced incidents of vandalism. We have worked with local authorities to ensure our partners and customers are safe. Our stance is clear. We stand for humanity.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem & AP)