ANDY NGO REPORTS: Chicago makeup artist behind false viral claims that McDonald’s blue wrapper paper is Israeli propaganda

The video, stripped of context and recently reposted across multiple social media platforms like TikTok and Twitter, was originally posted on Instagram on Oct. 19, 2023 by a Chicago Palestinian-American woman running the business account “@makeupbylaureen.” The account is run by Laureen M. Zureikat, a 47-year-old woman based out of Park Ridge, Ill. who was previously known as Laureen Zanayed.

“Wow, what does that resemble?” Zureikat asked in her video when she held up the McDonald’s wrapper that is blue and white. She then recorded herself confronting two employees at a Chicago-area McDonald’s store. “This is obviously in support of Israel…This is in support to kill Palestinian kids.”

Zureikat’s claims were debunked weeks ago after McDonald’s confirmed to multiple media outlets that the wrapping paper is printed in multiple color variations and has been in use for several years. But the outlets did not name who made the video. The Post Millennial reached out to Zureikat for comment and will update this report if she responds.

Laureen M. Zureikat runs a makeup business out of Park Ridge, Ill.

In a later post after Instagram placed a “false information” notice on her video, Zureikat stood by her original accusation. “Regardless of when this packaging was made, it is clear WHY it was made & designed the way it was with those distinctive colors,” she wrote.

Since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel by Hamas, in which atrocities were committed mostly against civilians, pro-Palestine activists in Western countries have vandalized and targeted businesses they accuse of supporting Israel or being Israeli. McDonald’s became a protest target after an Israel franchise donated free meals to Israel Defense Forces personnel at the start of the current war. Muslim protesters released hundreds of spray-painted mice at several McDonald’s locations in Birmingham, England as revenge.