‘Genocide-free’ cola makes a splash in the United Kingdom

Cola Gaza offers its drinkers an ‘apartheid-free’ alternative as they boycott big-name brands.

London, UK – On a sunny autumn day, the Hiba Express – a fast food chain in Holborn, a bustling central London neighbourhood packed with restaurants, bookstores and shops – is full of diners. Above Hiba is Palestine House, a multistorey gathering place for Palestinians and their supporters, built in the style of a traditional Arabic house with stone walls and a central courtyard with a fountain.

Osama Qashoo, a charismatic man who wears his hair pulled back in a bun and a thick beard and moustache ending in impressive curls, runs both establishments in the six-storey building.

At the Hiba Express, his team serves up Palestinian and Lebanese dishes made from his family recipes. Inside the space, which is decorated in warm colours and with tree branches and placards with slogans such as “From the river to the sea”, patrons move halloumi cheese, chickpeas and falafel around their plates. At the eatery’s entrance, a doll dressed in a black-and-white keffiyeh scarf sits on a table with a sign above written in blood-coloured ink: “Save the children,” referring to the thousands of Palestinian children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past year.

On several tables sit cherry-red soda cans decorated with the black, white and green stripes of the Palestinian flag and Arabic artwork, and bordered by a pattern from the keffiyeh. “Cola Gaza” is written in Arabic calligraphy – in a script similar to that of a popular brand of cola.

It’s a beverage with a message and a mission.