Boycotts
The Strauss Group states on their website that they provide care packages to soldiers in the IDF's Golani Brigade,[27] leading to activists targeting Max Brenner stores for boycotts Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. In 2011, pro-Palestinian activist group Students for Palestine organized a series of protests outside Max Brenner outlets in Australia. The protest in Melbourne led to 19 arrests.[28][29]
The protests have drawn condemnation from then Foreign Minister of Australia (and former prime minister) Kevin Rudd, who remarked "I don't think in 21st-century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business."[30] In September 2011, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission said that "the protesters had not broken federal competition law because the protests did not cause substantial loss or damage to the Max Brenner chocolate stores."[31] Some pro-Palestinian organizations including Australians for Palestine have distanced themselves from the protests but have publicly defended the choice of Max Brenner as a boycott target.[32][33][34] In October 2011, Izzat Abdulhadi, head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia said that he is against the "full-scale" BDS campaign, and in particular expressed his anger over the occasionally violent protests at the Max Brenner stores, saying, "BDS is a non-violent process and I don't think it's the right of anybody to use BDS as a violent action or to prevent people from buying from any place."[35]
Protest organizers consistently denied that the protests were violent, and instead accused the police of acting with brutality.[36]
Julia Gillard denounced the planned protest against the Max Brenner shop on the Kensington campus of University of New South Wales, accusing the organizers of engaging in an ugly attempt to spread anti-Semitism and Holocaust-denial.[37] In a survey conducted by the university to ascertain which new stores students and faculty wanted on campus, a Max Brenner chocolate shop was the second most popular choice.[38] Max Brenner Australia spokespersons stated that the sole shareholders of the franchise operation in Australia are a young Australian couple who have no direct connection to the Strauss Group. The franchise employs over 1,100 Australian residents across four states.[39]
In May 2013, The Australian newspaper reported on a YouTube video segment featuring an interview with Palestine Action Group Sydney spokesperson Patrick Harrison at a protest outside the Parramatta Max Brenner store. Harrison stated in the interview: "financially speaking there isn't really any connection between this Max Brenner store in particular and Israel," and that the retail outlet has become a "cultural ambassador for Israel",[40] which the newspaper used to argue that protests were unjustified.[41] In response, the Palestine Action Group pointed out earlier reports by the Australian acknowledging that Max Brenner is a brand of the Strauss Group.[42] Harrison responded by pointing out that Max Brenner's Australian franchise operations are referenced in the Strauss Group's annual report, and argued that the Australian franchisees should hand back their licenses to Strauss to signal their opposition to Strauss's support for the Israeli occupation.[43]
In the early 2010s, BDS activists protested outside the Clarendon St, South Melbourne, store handing leaflets to people passing by. In October 2014, this store closed.
