Pro-Palestinian cola brands to launch in Middle East

Alamy/Alex MacNaughton

• Reaction to Coke and Pepsi boycotts
• Plans for Middle East production
• Profits to help Gaza projects

Two pro-Palestine soft drinks brands launched this year as Coca-Cola and Pepsi alternatives are planning to debut in the Middle East in the coming months.

They are the latest to take advantage of a market that appears to be moving away from US brands that are perceived to support Israel in the Gaza conflict.

In large Muslim-majority countries, such as Egypt and Bangladesh, local soft drinks brands are enjoying an increase in business. 

Palestine Drinks, based in Sweden, and Gaza Cola donate 100 percent of their profit to projects in Gaza and the West Bank. 

Brothers Hussein, Mohammed and Ahmad Hassoun and Mohamed Kiswani, all of Palestinian descent and based in Malmö, Sweden, founded Palestinian Drinks to raise awareness about their parents’ homeland and support charities helping people affected by the conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.

The brand was very popular on social media and attracted global interest from retailers looking to stock their product. 

“We see people using this brand as their identity,” Kiswani says. “We are selling two and a half million cans a month on average now, and we are growing.”

The company expects to double its production, and Kiswani says it is negotiating with production facilities in the GCC, Egypt and Jordan.

The founders have set up the Swedish-registered charity Safad Foundation, and has made monthly donations to Palestine, mostly towards emergency aid projects. When the conflict ends Palestine Drinks plans to distribute its funds to rebuilding projects for health centres and houses for orphans, he says. 

Palestine Drinks

The Palestinian-led “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) movement has hit sales of US cola brands in the past year.

NielsenIQ says Western beverage brands have suffered a 7 percent drop in sales in the first half of the year in the Middle East, while others, such as the Egyptian brand V7, have flourished. 

Osama Qashoo, one of the original organisers of the BDS, spent several months developing and designing what is now Gaza Cola. 

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Qashoo says demand for Gaza Cola, launched initially in the UK, has been “crazy”, running through its first batch of 300,000 cans in less than three weeks.

It is now in its third production run and Qashoo plans to bring the brand to the Gulf, the US and Canada. 

“We have confirmed markets of Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. We’ve got lots of interest from Dubai,” Qashoo says. 

“We have to do special labelling, and each country has its own requirements. We are producing special batches for different countries.”

“We’re looking now to scale this up and I think the best agile market that would be able to accommodate would be Dubai,” Qashoo says. 

Qashoo says the company’s profits will go towards rebuilding hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip.