Georgia Gilholy: We should all shop at Gail’s. It’s a beverage and pastry based counter-protest

Georgia L Gilholy is a journalist.

It is often said that “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”.

Funnily enough, this quote itself is often falsely attributed to George Orwell. But regardless of who did or did not coin it, this memeified phrase strikes at something important. Indeed, sometimes as little as buying an overpriced iced matcha latte can feel revolutionary in deeply conformist London. This is especially true if one is doing so, not merely to lap up some delicious green caffeine, but to prove a point.

It is for this reason, I have henceforth decided to take a detour en route to my local tube station, in order to pick up something from Gail’s Bakery.

Yes, this is indeed a divisive thing to do, given that the chain’s newest branch in Archway, North London, has been vandalised twice in the same week. Aside from the usual string of anti-Israel slogans scribbled across the cafe, one simply read “Support Local businesses”. Is it not presumably better to support such businesses by offering them your custom, rather than ordering graffiti spray off Amazon and dousing rival eateries with it?

That numerous of photographed placards and graffiti also omit a vital apostrophe of possession should tell you all you need to know about these charlatans.

Luke Johnson, who masterminded Gail’s expansion and sale to Boston-based Bain Capital, and remains an investor, was a Brexit supporter and high-profile critic of the government’s tyrannical COVID-19 policies. He has also slammed net-zero zealotry. This is unusually gutsy for today’s typical high-profile businessman, who generally seeks to keep their head down and succumb to the whinging bien pensant, who have increasingly directed their ire toward Israel.

Johnson has also courageously bucked the trend on the matter of the Middle East, praising the so-called “Start-Up Nation’s” entrepreneurial grit, and slamming “the deranged defence of Hamas” in academia. While Johnson is not Jewish or Israeli, Gail’s founder, the baker Yael Mejia is both. The chain is therefore named, not after Coronation Street’s chaotic matriarch, but using the anglicised version of Yael: Gail. Although Mejia is no longer financially linked to the chain which calls her its namesake, Bain Capital reportedly has some investments in private companies based in Israel.

Is Israel committing a “genocide” as these anti-Gail’s goons claim in their messy graffiti? No, it is engaged in a war of self-defence.

Is Gail’s an Israeli company? No.

Even if it were an Israeli company, would that make it automatically complicit or approving of any and all actions ever taken by the Israeli government or military? No, especially given that Israel, unlike China, Russia, Iran and Qatar (who have far more business interests in London than the Jewish State) is a free market economy with a free press and free and fair elections.

The reality is that none of these obvious facts matter to those who have decided that any and all connection with Israel and its culture, however vague, is a grave moral offence.

It is not only Gail’s that has been subject to these nonsensical attacks for years, but Marks and Spencer, Tesco, or indeed any company that the anti-Israel mob deem inadequately anti-Israel. Just this week, ‘activists’ tweeted photographs of themselves sticking fingers inside Israeli avocados, and moving them inside supermarket freezers to render them inedible. In 1985, one person was killed when suspected Palestinian terrorists detonated a bomb inside a Paris branch of Marks and Spencer.

No better is the brainrot of this set exemplified than by Rachida Benamar, who describes herself as a “qualified Career & Life Coach”.

Benamar posted a viral X post reading: “Boycott Gail’s bakery. Gail’s was founded by Israeli entrepreneur Gail Mejia and Ran Avidan. The current owner Luke Johnson’s stances are disgusting and what he said about Gaza is horrific. Please share widely” One response noted: “What did he say? Would be helpful to put it up if you can.” Naturally, she did not. Why? Because Johnson made no such “horrific” comments about Gaza. But to those of Benamar’s persuasion, any remarks about Israel or Gaza that do not include a complete surrender to those that would see the Jewish State wiped from the map, qualify as “horrific”.

The Gail’s fiasco was never about protesting injustice, but about ensuring that anything and everyone Jewish, Israeli (or perceived as such) is driven out of public life.

We should all do our small part to avoid this evil coming to pass, one chilled beverage at a time!