Genocide-free Coke becomes popular in UK | Israeli-Palestinian conflict

On a sunny autumn day in London, England, fast food chain Hiba Express is packed with diners in Holborn, a busy area of ​​central London filled with restaurants, bookstores and shops. Above Khiva stands Palestine House, a multi-story gathering place for Palestinians and their supporters, built in the style of a traditional Arab house with stone walls and a central courtyard with a fountain.

Osama Qashoo, a charismatic man with slicked-back hair and a thick beard and mustache that ends in impressive curls, runs both stores in the six-story building.

At Hiba Express, his team serves Palestinian and Lebanese dishes made from his family recipes. The space, decorated in warm colors, is decorated with tree branches and banners with the slogan “From the River to the Sea,” and customers move halloumi cheese, chickpeas, and falafel around the plates. At the entrance to the restaurant, a doll wearing a black-and-white keffiyeh scarf sits on a table with the words “Save the Children” written in blood-red ink, referring to the thousands of Palestinian children who died in Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip. yesteryear.

Several tables are lined with cherry-colored soda cans decorated with the black, white and green stripes of the Palestinian flag and Arab artwork and bordered by a keffiyeh pattern. Gaza Cola is written in Arabic calligraphy with characters similar to the popular brand Cola.

It is a drink with a message and mission.

Qashoo, 43, is quick to point out that the drink, which is made with typical cola ingredients and has a similar sweet and sour taste to Coca-Cola, is nothing like how Coke is used. He does not reveal where or how the recipe originated, but he will assert that he created Gaza Cola in November 2023.

Osama Qashoo, founder of Gaja Cola, is handing out cans and leaflets in the Holborn area of ​​London, England, as part of the beverage's soft launch event last September. [Courtesy of Gaza Cola]
A true taste of freedom

Ninke Brett, 53, from Hackney, east London, discovered Gaza Cola while attending a cultural event at Palestine House. It's not as carbonated as cola. It's softer and more comfortable on the palate, she says. And it's even more delicious because you support Palestine.

Qashoo said he created Gaza Cola for several reasons, but the first and foremost was to boycott companies that support and fuel the Israeli military and support the genocide in Gaza. Another reason is to find a taste that is guilt-free and non-genocidal. A true taste of freedom.

It may sound like a marketing tagline, but freedom for Palestine is close to Kashu's heart. In 2001, he co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an organization that uses nonviolent direct action to challenge and resist Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands. This organization laid the foundation for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement four years later, Qashoo explains. BDS boycotts companies and products that it claims play a direct role in Israel's oppression of Palestinians.

Kashu was forced to flee Palestine in 2003 after organizing peaceful protests against the apartheid wall in the West Bank. He arrived in Britain as a refugee, became a film student, and decided to tell the story of Palestine through filmmaking. His trilogy, A Palestinian Journey, won the Al Jazeera New Horizon Award in 2006.

In 2007, Qashoo co-founded the Free Gaza Movement, which aims to break the illegal siege on Gaza. Three years later, in 2010, he helped organize the Gaza Freedom Flotilla mission to provide humanitarian aid from Turkey to Gaza by sea. In May 2010, one of the flotillas, the Mavi Marmara, was attacked and Qashoo lost cameramen and filming equipment. He was later arrested and detained and tortured along with about 700 other people. His family went on hunger strike until he was safe.

After settling in England, Qashoo continued to work, but found it difficult to make a living from films. He then became a restaurateur. But he never expected to become a soda seller. I didn't even think about this until late last year, Qashoo explains. He added that he also wanted to create a product that was an example of trade, not aid.

George Shaw, an analyst at GlobalData, told Al Jazeera that 53% of consumers in the Middle East and North Africa are boycotting products from certain brands due to recent wars and conflicts.

Hitting the companies fueling these genocides where it matters most – their revenue streams – will certainly make a difference and make them think, Qashoo says. He added that Gaza Cola would launch a boycott that would hurt Coca-Cola financially.

Coca-Cola, which operates facilities in Israel's Atarot industrial settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, has faced a new boycott since October 7 last year.

The family was also instrumental in helping Qashoo launch Gaza Cola. Currently, he does not know the whereabouts of his 17-year-old son, whom he adopted from the West Bank, who was shot in the head last June. Qashoo says he has families in Gaza who were massacred. I have friends, but I don't know where they are.

A banner advertising Gaza Cola hangs on scaffolding in front of Palestine House in Holborn, London, England. [Courtesy of Gaza Cola]
Not willing to compromise

Although it was only a year in the making, Qashoo says making Gajah Cola was a challenge. Qashoo says that creating Qashoo was a very difficult and painful process because I am not an expert in the beverage industry. All potential partners offered compromises. Compromising on colours, fonts, names and flags. And we said we would not compromise on any of this.

Creating a beverage logo was tricky. How do you create a brand that is very clear and not over-the-top? Kashu said with sparkling eyes and a cheeky smile. Gaza Cola is straightforward and straightforward with an honest and clear message.

But the problem was finding a place to store the drinks, which were produced in Poland and imported into the UK to save money. Obviously, we can't tap into big markets because of the politics behind it, says Qashoo.

He started by stocking Gaza Cola in three of his London restaurants, where half a million cans have been sold since it was launched in early August. The cola is also sold in Muslim retailers such as Manchester-based Al Aqsa, which recently sold out, store manager Mohammed Hussain said.

Gaza Cola is also available online, with a six-pack selling for £12 ($15). For comparison, a six-pack of Coke sells for around £4.70 ($6).

Qashoo said all proceeds from the drink are being donated to rebuilding the maternity ward at Al Karama Hospital, northwest of Gaza City.

Boycott ranks

Gaza Cola is one of the other brands raising awareness about Palestine and boycotting popular colas operating in Israel. Palestinian Drinks, a Swedish company launched in February, sells an average of 3 to 4 million cans of soft drinks (one can of cola) a month, co-founder Mohamed Kiswani told Al Jazeera. reported to. Matrix Cola, which was created in Jordan in 2008 as a local alternative to Coca-Cola and Pepsi (which operates a major SodaStream plant in the Israeli-occupied West Bank), reported in January that production had doubled in recent months. And Spiro Spathis, Egypt's oldest soda company, saw a huge surge in sales during its 100% Made in Egypt campaign last year.

Sales of Spiro Spathis, Egypt's oldest soda brand, have increased as a result of a nationwide boycott campaign targeting Western brands. [Yasmin Shabana/Al Jazeera]

Jeff Handmaker, associate professor of law and sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, said consumer boycotts seek to hold companies and countries accused of atrocities accountable, but they also call for awareness and accountability of companies or institutions' complicity in atrocities. It is said to be a tactic that causes. Crime is not an end in itself.

That's not their goal, but rather to raise awareness, and in this respect the Coca-Cola boycott campaign has clearly been successful, adds Handmaker.

Qashoo is currently developing the next version of the more carbonated Gaja Cola. At the same time, he hopes to remind people of the plight of Palestine every time they take a sip of Gaza Coke.

He says we must remind generations of this terrible massacre. It's happening and it's been happening for 75 years.

By the way, enjoy your drink, a small, gentle reminder like a greeting in Palestine will do.

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