Gaza’s healthcare is on the brink of “total collapse”, according to the UN, because of the targeting of hospitals by Israel. While it is still impossible to say how much time and money it will take to rebuild, one Palestinian activist has plans to piece one small part of it back with the help of a soft drink.
Osama Qashoo, the creator of Gaza Cola, hopes to use profits from his Coca-Cola alternative, recently launched in London, to rebuild al Karama hospital, which used to stand in northern Gaza. “It’s been reduced to rubble for no just reason, like all of these hospitals in Gaza,” according to the 43-year-old film-maker, human rights advocate and, now, fizzy-drink maker.
Qashoo has chosen that hospital because, relatively speaking, “it’s small, it’s quite manageable, it doesn’t cost a lot of money”. He could not put a figure on how much that would mean, or when it might happen, but, he said, “we are allowed to have an imagination … we have to dream, otherwise we can’t live”.
He is already looking into the best medical equipment and the design, right down to the lighting, but for the time being they have built a field hospital in another location in Gaza using the parachutes left behind from aid airdrops for makeshift shelter.
Qashoo first had the idea for Gaza Cola in November 2023. The red can features the Palestinian flag, “Gaza Cola” written in Arabic calligraphy, and a pattern riffing on the Palestinian keffiyeh, the scarf often worn as a symbol of resistance.
Ironically not himself a fan of fizzy drinks, Qashoo identifies Gaza Cola as a vehicle for a message. It is, he said, “a statement to all these corporate companies who are investing in armed trade. To ask them the question of dignity. Do you see what your money’s doing? Because it is doing damage. It is destroying homes and our environment … they need to wake up and they need to understand that their money, their greed, is causing our genocide”.
Qashoo is an advocate of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In 2001, he co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and was involved in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in 2010. Originally from Nablus in the West Bank, he has been living in the UK since he was forced to flee Palestine more than 18 years ago – he was shot, imprisoned and tortured by occupation forces. Last year he opened Palestine House, a political and cultural hub in central London for Palestinians – where they can be “Palestinian unapologetically” – and their supporters.
Coca-Cola, which BDS calls to boycott, reportedly operates facilities in occupied East Jerusalem. Qashoo views the company as “representative of all the big corporations who actually don’t care about the human being”. It is not the first time Coca-Cola, along with other major western food and drinks companies, have been the target of calls for boycott – McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo were among the brands criticised for continuing to operate in Russia after it launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Boycotts of Coke and Pepsi in countries across the Middle East have already proved to be good news for local soft-drink brands, and Qashoo hopes people will get into the habit of drinking Gaza Cola instead of the big brands. “If you want to drink cola and you like it, what about this one? It’s an alternative.”
It had sold more than 500,000 by the end of last year – online, a 24-pack costs £30 and a six pack costs £12 – and is being bought wholesale and shipped all over the UK, as well as farther afield, including to Spain, Australia, South Africa and Kuwait. But Qashoo’s friends and family in Gaza and the West Bank, whom he says would love to try it, are, he says, unlikely to get the chance.
Coca-Cola did not respond to a request to comment.
