ACTION ALERT: Tell Cameron Mitchell Restaurants to End Its Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Sponsorship

(COLUMBUS, OH, 9/8/2026) – The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio), the state’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on Ohioans to contact Cameron Mitchell Restaurants and urge the Columbus-based hospitality group to rescind its sponsorship of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Ohio, an American organization that raises funds for soldiers of the Israeli military. 

Urge Cameron Mitchell Restaurants to end its support for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces and to redirect that support to humanitarian relief in Gaza. 

Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Ohio publicly recognized Cameron Mitchell Restaurants as a “Chief of Staff sponsor” of its Bourbon & Bubbles fundraiser, thanking the company for its “generosity and partnership” in making the event possible. The company has not responded to the community letter. 

On September 1, CAIR-Ohio joined eight other Central Ohio organizations in signing an open community letter to Cameron Mitchell and the Cameron Mitchell Restaurants Operating Board, published by the Columbus Free Press. 

Friends of the Israel Defense Forces raises American charitable dollars for the armed forces of a foreign state, including toward facilities on military bases, dozens of which are located illegally in the occupied West Bank. UNICEF reported that between October 7, 2023 and February 3, 2026, 71,803 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, including at least 21,289 children. 

The letter asks Cameron Mitchell Restaurants to take three steps: 

• Rescind support for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Ohio and any other chapters of that organization. 

• Refrain from sponsoring, contributing to, or otherwise promoting the activities of that organization. 

• Donate to a charity providing medical or food relief to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 

“We are not asking Cameron Mitchell Restaurants to take a position on a foreign conflict. We are asking it to stop funding one,” said CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Khalid Turaani. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO 

1. Contact Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. Submit a message through the corporate contact form at cameronmitchell.com/contact-us. Keep it brief and civil. A sample message appears below.
2. Spend your money elsewhere until the company acts. Central Ohio has hundreds of restaurants, including many Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim owned businesses.
3. Share this alert with your family, your masjid, and your community organizations.

SAMPLE MESSAGE 

Dear Cameron Mitchell and the Cameron Mitchell Restaurants Operating Board, 

I am a Central Ohio resident and a customer of your restaurants. I was disappointed to learn that Cameron Mitchell Restaurants sponsored a fundraiser for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Ohio and was publicly recognized as a Chief of Staff sponsor of that event. 

That organization raises money for soldiers of a foreign military. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders have all concluded that this military is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. I do not want my money going to a company that helps underwrite it. 

I am asking you to rescind that support, to refrain from sponsoring or promoting those activities in the future, and to donate to an organization providing medical or food relief to Palestinians in Gaza. 

Your company is known here for its commitment to this community and to children in particular. I am asking you to let that commitment mean the same thing for Palestinian children that it means for ours. 

Until then, I will be spending my money elsewhere, and telling my family and friends why. 

Sincerely, [Name], [City], Ohio 

Please keep this campaign directed at the company and its Operating Board. Restaurant employees did not make this sponsorship decision. The independent vendors and small businesses and are not the target of this effort. Do not contact, confront, or blame restaurant workers or Budd Dairy tenants. 

CONTACT: CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Khalid Turaani, (313) 888-1111, KTuraani@cair.com 

CAIR-Ohio, 4985 Cemetery Road, Hilliard, Ohio 43026. info@cair-ohio.com | cair-ohio.com