Coca-Cola loses its fizz over connections with Israel

Aladdins's fast food restaurant in a west London suburb is packed with its usual throng of school children at 4pm, trying to cram in after-school snacks before reaching home.

On a June afternoon, alongside orders of chicken wings and chips, they ask for cans of Evoca. "It's a brand of cola, and we've been stocking it for a few months now instead of the Coca-Cola," restaurant manager Suleman Sarwar told TRT World.

He said the decision to stop selling the popular brand came almost "immediately" after the war in Gaza began in October, as boycott campaigns quickly zeroed in on companies with alleged ties to Israel and the US. Coca-Cola denies the claim.

"We wanted to take action, to do our part in not supporting the genocide that we saw unfolding before us," he added.

Sarwar said he and his team started looking into Coke alternatives and conducted feasibility studies which took a few months, before they were able to officially switch suppliers.

During this time, while still selling their existing stock of Coca-Cola, several irate customers vehemently questioned the restaurant's choice in stocking the well-known brand.

"It just shows we have discerning customers, critical thinkers who are politically aware and concerned about ethical consumerism. If brands have a perceived connection to Israel, consumers will search for alternatives. They want to make sure their spending aligns with their values," Sarwar said.

Solidarity boycott

Aladdin's isn't alone.

The owner of Meat & Eat restaurant in Wolverhampton, in central England posted: "Every time you drink it (Coca-Cola), it's like a bullet in a Palestinian. We're boycotting guys!"

Across the United Kingdom and Ireland, shops and restaurants have shown their solidarity by swapping Coca-Cola with brands that are deemed to have more conscientious values. And alternative cola companies are rising to meet this shift in demand.

There's the Sweden based Palestine Cola, launched by the Hassoun brothers who originally hail from Safad in occupied Palestine.

In March this year, the company said it sold a million cans in a week, with the owners rushing to produce more.

Then there's Salaam Cola which launched in May 2022, with dual headquarters in Türkiye and the UK, where it’s also sold. Founder Aykiz Shah, 26, told TRT World that her company now produces and sells six millions cans per month "and the demand is only increasing."

Shah added, Salaam Cola's mission is "to stand against brands associated with funding war crimes or profiting from stolen Palestinian land."

The soft drink company saw a spike in sales in December 2023 when the product first launched in the UK. "We have since expanded to 1.5 litre bottles and water also to give people a genocide free and a ethical option for all products," Shah said.

Why has cola fallen flat?

The United States-based Coca-Cola brand has been around since the late 1800s. It opened its first franchised soft drinks plant in Israel in the 1960s, and since then Coke has lost its symbolic sparkle, at least among some in the Middle East.

In 1966, the Arab League launched a boycott against Coke, continuing its official sporadic ban of Israeli companies and Israeli-made goods, which is only ambiguously enforced, since the founding of Israel in 1948.

More recently in November, just a month after the start of Israel's assault on Gaza, the Turkish parliament removed Coca-Cola bottles and Nestle instant coffee from its restaurants, with a parliamentary source citing a "public outcry" against the brands.

Nestle owns a controlling stake in Osem, an Israeli food manufacturer that operates in occupied Palestine. Nestle said it temporarily shut down one of its production plants in Israel in October as a "precaution," becoming the first consumer products giant to announce such a response during the war.

Egyptians too have expressed their outrage against the neighbouring war by boycotting Coke in lieu of public protests, which are generally discouraged in the country.

Though the economic impact on Israeli and US economies is questionable, the Coke boycott holds strong symbolic importance to all parties and has long been used to make a statement against Israel's occupation of Palestinian land.

Aisha Ijaz, an expert in brand management and consumer behaviour, explains one reason people boycott brands during times of war is a loss of trust in the government to effect change.

"People may feel powerless and see boycotting as a direct way to influence economic conditions in the offending countries, impacting their economies negatively.

"Psychologically, this act of boycotting allows individuals to express dissent and show solidarity with affected parties, giving them a sense of agency and participation in a global cause."

Cola revolution

Anti-Coke actions are often closely tied to current political events. In 2003, as a response to the US-led "war on terror," Mecca Cola was quick to offer a fizzy alternative, with its founder French-Tunisian Tawfik Mathlouthi, coining the catchphrase, "Don't drink stupid, drink with commitment."

Mathlouthi was said to be inspired by Iran's patchy ban of Coke, offering its own alternative Zamzam Cola that's been going strong since 1954. Originally a subsidiary of Pepsi Cola in Iran, it became an independent company after the 1979 Revolution, re-launching itself as the Muslim's cola.

Mecca Cola as a substitute for Coca-Cola was a "gesture against US imperialism and foreign policy," Mathlouthi once said. He clarified that he wasn’t against the US, but objected to "its foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East and towards the Zionist entity (Israel)".

In 2003, some 2 million 1.5 litre bottles of Mecca Cola were sold in the UK each month, with a purported 10 percent of the profits going to a Palestinian children's charity.

Then there was Qibla Cola, which was founded by two cousins living in Derby in the north of England, promising to "Liberate your taste." The company went bankrupt in the UK in 2005.

But Aykiz Shah of Salaam Cola said she believes her brand has staying power.

New generations, unlike ever before, have watched scenes of uncensored carnage unfold in Gaza on their social media feeds, fuelling them to take action, from participating in university encampments to supporting boycotts.

"Salaam Cola has become a household name. It's not going anywhere because we're transparent in the work we do. We provide monthly updates showing where our consumers' money is going, and that's become important," she said.

Are boycotts successful changemakers?

Since October, Coca-Cola boycotts in Bangladesh have caused sales to drop to the extent that the billion-dollar brand took desperate measures. Last month, it released an ill-conceived commercial that received attention for all the wrong reasons.

In it, Coca-Cola refers to Israel as a place that can't even be named, reinforcing the country's pariah state reputation in parts of the Muslim world. The ad also erroneously states that Coke is still enjoyed in Türkiye, ignoring the country's decision in November to stop supplying it within parliament and nationwide boycott calls.

The commercial then attempts to greenlight Coca-Cola by stating it has a factory in Palestine, but without explaining the details

Indeed, Gaza had been home to a Coca-Cola bottling plant since 1998, thanks to Jaffa-born Palestinian businessman Zahi Khouri. But it was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes years ago, in a 2021 assault on Gaza.

Other Coca-Cola facilities exist in the occupied territories, like the factory in Atarot, an illegal Israeli settlement built on stolen Palestinian land and considered illegal under international humanitarian law.

The Atarot factory has been protested before - Friends of Al Aqsa launched a #NotInMyFridge campaign in December 2014, calling for a boycott of Coca-Cola for "profiting from the illegal occupation."

In 2020, the Palestinian NGO Al Haq interviewed Palestinian families from Atarot about the hardships of living in the uninhabitable environment that fails to meet the minimum standards for the right to adequate housing.

Boycotts like this are part of the wider Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which since 2005 has been seeking to mobilise international pressure on Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Companies like coffee chain Starbucks and McDonalds are also on the boycott list with reports suggesting they too have taken a hit.

Early in March, McDonald's announced a $7 billion loss in sales across the Arab region due to the boycott, while in February Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan reported slower sales in the first month of 2024, causing a dip in its share price. "We saw a negative impact to our business in the Middle East… events in the Middle East also had an impact in the US, driven by misperceptions about our position," Narasimhan conceded.

According to UK-based non-profit Ethical Consumer, boycotts do work, by "contributing to progressive social change."

It cited the boycott of global security firm G4S as one example. BDS led a campaign against it in 2012, criticising the company for operating prisons at which Palestinian political prisoners were held without trial and subjected to torture.

G4S was also alleged to have provided equipment and services to illegal Israeli settlements. After companies began to divest from the firm, in June 2023, it announced it would sell all remaining business ventures in apartheid Israel.

Meanwhile, earlier in May 2022, General Mills, the parent company of Pillsbury, sold its stake in its joint venture in Israel following years of BDS pressure over its manufacturing of products in Atarot.

Speaking to TRT World, Ijaz added: "The effectiveness of boycotts, like those against G4S and General Mills, can depend on a variety of factors, like market exposure, consumer engagement, and alignment with the company's values and brand identity.

"Brands operating in regions with strong consumer activism, such as the Middle East, might be more inclined to respond to boycotts to avoid financial losses in those profitable markets".

Apart from minor hits in Bangladesh and some other Muslim majority countries, Coca-Cola has proven it's still guzzled by the gallon and has seen a boost in sales in the past year. With 2.1 billion consumers across 120 markets across, Coke is still a $390 billion in industry retail value.

Sarwar, all too aware that the boycott may not affect change in the UK government's support for Israel, remains happy with Aladdin's moral compass, pointing at the greater impact in forming public opinion.

"This genocide has sadly created awareness to some of the most horrific atrocities in the world, like never before. People do question where their drinks or other products come from, and will continue to make ethical choices. If that isn't change, then I don't know what is."