Outrage at Guardian article calling retailer opening of Jewish-founded Gail’s an ‘act of heavy-handed high-street aggression’ towards Palestinians

The Guardian has been accused of using antisemitic tropes to describe the opening of a Gail’s as an ‘act of heavy-handed high-street aggression’ against Palestinians.

The opinion piece has prompted furious backlash from critics, who said the newspaper had published ‘centuries-old stereotypes’ about Jews. 

It suggested the presence of a new Gail’s bakery near an independent Palestinian cafe was ‘symbolic’ of the war in Gaza because the Israeli-founded ‘luxury’ brand’s parent company allegedly ‘invests heavily in military technology, including Israeli security companies’. 

However the article has created a social media storm with accusations that ‘the simple establishment of a Jewish businesses is now seen as a hostile act’. 

The Israeli embassy’s spokesperson in the UK, Alex Gandler, said the piece, published on Saturday, was ‘an astonishing exercise in bigotry disguised as moral commentary’. 

‘Beneath its surface lies a familiar and ugly trope: the re-packaging of antisemitic prejudice in fashionable political language. One cannot help but wonder what Palestinian intellectual Edward Said would have made of this curious revival of the “noble savage” narrative,’ he said.

The article features an interview with the Palestinian owners of Cafe Metro, Faten and Mahmoud, in Archway, north London where a new branch of Gail’s was recently established. 

Mahmoud said that ‘we compete with them (Gail’s) legally’, and went on to say they had nothing to do with the attack on Gail’s before it opened. 

Faten and Mahmoud had themselves been the target of violence by pro-Israeli activists previously. 

Gail’s was founded by Israeli baker Gail Mejia in the 1990s before being rapidly expanded by Israeli entrepreneur Ran Avidan from 2005 – but both are no longer linked to the company. 

In 2021 Boston-based private investment fund Bain Capital acquired a majority stake in the business – which now had dozens of shops across the capital and its outskirts.

A string of Gail’s branches – including its new Archway cafe – have recently been targeted by anti-Israel activists who claim it has close connections to the Middle Eastern country.

The business says it has ‘no links with any country or government outside the UK’ and its chief executive has branded the campaign against it ‘completely unacceptable’. 

In this weekend’s feature, Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew described the arrival of Gail’s 20 metres away from Palestinian-owned Cafe Metro as ‘symbolic’ and ‘an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression’.

Mr Liew wrote: ‘Critics accuse (Gail’s) of accelerating gentrification and squeezing out smaller outlets. Campaigners point out that its parent company, Bain Capital, invests heavily in military technology, including Israeli security companies.’

He added: ‘And so even though Gail’s describes itself as “a British business with no specific connections to any country or government outside the UK”, its very presence 20 metres away from a small independent Palestinian cafe feels quietly symbolic, an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression.’ 

In response to the article Mr Gandler said: ‘The piece romanticises one group while casting another as shadowy outsiders, manipulating local life from behind the scenes. That framework is not insightful social commentary. 

‘It is a very old prejudice wearing new clothes. (Jonathan) Liew, a sports writer, attempts to turn North London cafes and shopfronts into a symbolic battlefield of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

‘In doing so, he falls into a trope that has echoed through centuries of European discourse: the insinuation that Jewish success or presence represents some form of encroachment by powerful “global” forces.’

‘This is not sophisticated political analysis. It is a caricature. What emerges from the column is a narrative in which local shopkeepers are implicitly cast as victims of vaguely defined “Zionist” or “global” influence. 

‘That framing has a long and deeply troubling history. It has been used repeatedly to stigmatise Jewish communities as alien economic actors rather than ordinary members of society.’

Mr Gandler said the ‘rhetoric’ used by The Guardian is ‘deeply disappointing’, adding: ‘Opinion pages should encourage debate and scrutiny. They should not revive centuries-old stereotypes under the guise of social commentary.’ 

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis said: ‘We complained to @guardian about Jonathan Liew’s column, asking them if his support of a spate of vandalism targeting Gail’s Cafe due to its Jewish/Israeli roots, which the Met Police are investigating as hate crimes, is in line with their “editorial standards”.

‘We know the answer, but are nonetheless hoping to see how they justify Liew’s latest defence of antisemitism.’

The new branch of Gail’s was last month targeted for a second time by pro-Palestine vandals who smashed windows and painted anti-Zionist graffiti.

The coffee shop’s windows were smashed and anti-Zionist messages were sprayed onto the front. 

Mr Liew explained that Cafe Metro has also been targeted by protesters, who attached stickers onto its windows reading, ‘Stop killing people’ and ‘One of these days you’ll thank us’.

He added: ‘And so somehow these two north London cafes, from two entirely separate worlds, with what we have to assume are two almost entirely separate clienteles, have found themselves on the frontline of a war. 

‘A deeply asymmetric war, defined by gross imbalances in power and resources and platforms, but a war nonetheless, and one that simultaneously feels more distant and more local than ever.’

He added that attacks on the shop were ‘simply the nature of an increasingly disenfranchised age and that ‘some people direct their ire’ at Gail’s due to a lack of alternative opportunities to influence the ongoing conflict. 

Times columnist Hadley Freeman reacted to the article on X, writing: ‘So let me get this straight:

‘1. Petty activism against a Palestinian-owned cafe is bad (agreed!)

‘2. But *violent* activism against a cafe that people associate (wrongly!) with Israel is justified and understandable.

‘Update your rule book accordingly.’

Journalist Giles Coren said: ‘Wow, this is some mad f***ing antisemitism from @guardian – and a truly honking piece of restaurant writing into the bargain.’

Comedian Graham Linehan wrote: ‘New Guardian definition of “Jewish aggression” just dropped.’

And Mail On Sunday commentator Dan Hodges added: ‘In Britain, in 2026, the simple establishment of a Jewish businesses is now seen as a hostile act.’

The Campaign Against Antisemitism said the article portrays a ‘warped view of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict’ and encourages ‘anti-Israeli sentiment’. 

A spokesperson for the charity said: ‘You’ve got to hand it to the Guardian. This article manages to portray something as trivial as the opening of a Gail’s in north London as a microcosm of the newspaper’s warped view of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

‘It’s little more than repackaged Soviet antisemitism, where rapacious, capitalist, colonialist Jews are quietly victimising innocent, charitable Arabs who, the article ludicrously implies, are somehow indigenous to Archway. 

‘This is The Guardian opinion page in its comfort zone: quietly and subtly encouraging anti-Israeli sentiment among its readers. But the newspaper has been found out, and online commentators are having none of it.’  

A Guardian spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘Complaints about Guardian journalism are considered by the internally independent readers’ editor under the Guardian’s editorial code and guidance.’

The Daily Mail has also approached Jonathan Liew for comment.

In response to the most recent attacks on the Archway branch of Gail’s, Tom Molnar, co-founder and chief executive of the business, said the ‘repeated attempts’ to ‘intimidate and endanger’ were ‘completely unacceptable’.

He said: ‘We remain focused on playing a positive and meaningful role in feeding people better and attempts to disrupt our commitments to the communities we serve are primarily unkind and ill-informed.

‘Our immediate priority is to work closely with the relevant authorities to help ensure this does not happen again and provide reassurance to our bakery teams.

‘As we have previously made clear, we are a British business with no links to any country or government outside the UK.’ 

In a statement, the Met Police said: ‘It is believed the offences were committed at around 1.12am, when several windows were smashed and paint sprayed at the business.

‘Officers have attended the cafe and spoken to staff. Enquiries are ongoing to establish whether the latest incident is linked to a similar incident of criminal damage on Wednesday, February 18, when officers attended the business within minutes of it being reported to the police.’

The previous attack on the Archway branch took place just hours before it opened to the public.

A small crowd of protesters arrived as the shop doors opened. Some held signs calling for people to support local businesses rather than the bakery retailer, which now operates in more than 170 locations across the UK.

But others held up signs suggesting Gail’s was ‘funded by investors in apartheid’.

One held a sign saying: ‘Boycott Israel for genocide and war crimes in Gaza.’

Bain was among 500 other venture capital firms that signed a letter in support of Israel following the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, and it has investments in Israel, including in AI, cybersecurity and software companies.

The owners have previously hit back at claims that the company ‘funds Israel’ and says calls to boycott the chain are derived from misinformation.

A spokesperson told The Guardian in 2024: ‘Gail’s is a UK-based business with no specific connections to any country or government outside of the UK and does not fund Israel.’