Coca-Cola is among the top global plastic polluters, with a water-intensive supply chain and ties to occupied land. Palestinian sodas claim to offer a more just, sustainable future—and they’re selling fast.
In a video that circulated on social media last month, a British Airways flight attendant is seen holding two cans of Coca-Cola in his outstretched hands toward passengers, one of whom is filming. “No, that’s Cola. We boycott [it] because we are Palestinians,” responds a voice from the unseen narrator. “Next time, you should get British Airways to bring Gaza Cola.”
Gaza Cola. Palestine Cola. Chat Cola. All three are Palestinian-owned soft drink brands that market themselves as alternatives to Coca-Cola, which was added last November to a boycott list for its connections to the Israeli apartheid state. That list is maintained by Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, a global nonviolent movement advocating for various forms of pressure against Israel in a bid to end the country’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
The campaign marked a convergence of political and environmental concerns. For many, Coca-Cola has become a symbol of complicity with Israeli apartheid and a wider model of extractive capitalism, one that profits from occupation and pollution.
Coca-Cola’s role in environmental degradation is deeply entwined with climate injustice. The company repeatedly ranks as the world’s top plastic polluter, producing more than 3 million tons of plastic packaging annually—much of which ends up in landfills and oceans in the Global South. In addition to its massive carbon footprint, Coke has previously come under fire for water extraction practices that deplete local resources in already-vulnerable regions. Within the occupied Palestinian territories, its Israeli franchisee The Central Bottling Company—otherwise known as Coca-Cola Israel—operates in an industrial settlement that is illegal under international law, where the company benefits from land and water access denied to Palestinians.
Coca-Cola did not respond to a request for comment from Atmos on this story.
For many activists, the brand’s environmental track record has made it emblematic of a broader system of corporate impunity and a logical target for economic pressure. Even before BDS officially named Coke as a company to boycott, many in support of Palestinian liberation had long ceased buying from the brand in protest.
Coca-Cola’s operations in occupied territories have been a persistent political flashpoint.
Coke operates as a franchise world-wide, relying on local partners to license, produce, and distribute its products. In Israel the Central Beverage Company, which has rights to the brand Coca-Cola, is headquartered in the Atarot Settlement Industrial Zone in occupied East Jerusalem. “As Israeli settlements—on occupied Palestinian and Syrian land—are considered war crimes under international law, Coke is complicit in a war crime,” Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, responded by email.
Deepening the anger directed at the beverage company, Israeli Defense Force soldiers have been photographed sipping cans of Coke while Israel has been accused by organizations such as Human Rights Watch of wielding access to food and water as a tool of war, besieging the Gaza strip and starving 2.1 million people. At the time of writing, Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 Gazans queuing for food at Israeli and United States-controlled aid distribution sites, according to data from the United Nations human rights office. Other estimates are much higher.
On Sunday, Israel said it would begin a daily humanitarian pause in three densely populated areas of Gaza following growing international pressure on Israel to stop starving the territory. Officials also said they would resume airdrops of aid and open humanitarian corridors to allow UN aid deliveries.
The most recent round of Coca-Cola boycotts—Al Jazeera reporting shows 53% of consumers in the Middle East and North Africa are boycotting certain brands as a result of recent conflicts—isn’t the first time the company has seen a reaction from the Arab and Muslim world. “We have boycotted Coke for years,” said Palestinian chef, author, and hotelier Fadi Kattan.
Notably, the 13-nation Arab League boycotted the beverage brand from 1966-1991 for its complicity with the Israeli occupation. “Coke was not allowed to establish any sales or any products in these countries because of the relations between Palestine and the United States and Israel in this conflict,” said Mohamed Kiswani, General Manager and Ambassador of Palestine Drinks.
Anger directed at Coke in the Muslim world mounted when Coca-Cola launched marketing campaigns downplaying links between Israeli occupation and Coke. In Bangladesh, where the soda brand’s sales were down 23%, Coke recruited a popular South Asian TV star for a commercial emphasizing the soft drink’s global reach. “Even Palestine has a Coke Factory,” quips one of the characters, failing to mention it’s owned by an Israeli company and situated on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The blowback was immediate, and Coke issued a rare apology in a comment to the Washington Post, noting “that the recent video missed the mark.”
With its cans lining shelves across the world, it was the brand’s omnipresence that first inspired the Hassoun brothers, a family of Palestinian descent based in Sweden, to launch the soft drink brand Palestine Drinks, which includes a cola.
“They thought: Why not put Palestine as a logo on the cans, so on every table, on every shelf we create awareness and encourage discussions—be it around the coffee table, at the restaurant, or in the stores and supermarkets,” said Kiswani.
The company sells between 3 to 4 million keffiyeh- and olive-tree-emblazoned cans of soda per month, including their cola. “We’ve had strong demand from day one, especially in Europe, but in the last four months demand has risen in the United States,” said Kiswani, noting that sales increased 20-25% each quarter for the last year. With 100% of profits going directly to the charity Safad Foundation, also operated by the Hassoun family, the stable growth in sales means more money is going directly toward humanitarian aid for Palestinians.
Satisfying the demand for a cola product within the occupied West Bank is Chat Cola, created by Fahed Arar in 2020. Chat Cola, the logo for which bears a striking resemblance to Coca-Cola’s cursive script, has become a staple in the West Bank. “We’ve reached a point where many customers at cafes and restaurants expect to see Chat Cola on the menu, and businesses that don’t offer it often face criticism or pressure from their clientele,” said Ahmad Hammad, PR and marketing manager at Chat Cola. “It’s a clear sign of the shift happening in consumer behavior.”
Hammad added that Chat Cola’s availability as a Coke alternative is necessary to provide a more ethical soft drink option within the occupied territories but also to keep funds local. “Supporting Palestinian products creates real economic opportunity… When demand for local products rises, it helps us employ more people and build toward true economic resilience,” said Hammad. Chat Cola employs about 150 individuals.
“We have to keep talking about Palestine, keep writing about it, and keep being proud of anything to do with the country, including fizzy drinks.”
Sami Tamimi
chef
Gaza Cola, the brand asked for by name in the video taken on a British Airways flight, is another Palestinian-owned soft drink company. West Bank native Osama Qashoo launched the U.K.-based brand in August 2024 to offer an “apartheid-free” Coke alternative as well as to raise money to rebuild the Al-Karama Hospital in Northern Gaza.
Today Gaza Cola is well-stocked in more than 100,000 shops across the United Kingdom, including at Holland Bazaar, Safa Food, Aytac Food, AH Empire, and more. Elsewhere, Coop Allanza 3.0, one of Italy’s largest supermarket chains, shared a statement in June repeating its stance of not “remain[ing] indifferent to the violence underway in the Gaza Strip,” and announcing plans to remove Israeli products from its stores. The chain further declared its commitment to initiatives offering “concrete help to the civilian populations of the Gaza Strip,” including Gaza Cola, which Coop Allanza 3.0 now sells online.
Palestinian-owned cola alternatives such as Palestine Drinks, Chat Cola, and Gaza Soda offer a clear alternative to Coca-Cola on human rights grounds while also challenging the extractive, high-emissions supply chains that dominate the global beverage industry.
Unlike multinational beverage corporations that rely on globalized, carbon-intensive distribution networks, these Palestinian brands operate on a smaller, localized scale, reducing transport emissions, supporting regional economies, and aligning more closely with principles of climate justice. “We are exclusively using aluminum cans and follow the deposit system rules that are being implemented in all countries,” Kiswani said of Palestine Drink’s sustainability practices.
For those supporting Palestinian liberation, even everyday purchases become opportunities to resist: small acts of consumer defiance that help build economic power and global solidarity. “It’s not really a matter of Pepsi or Coca-Cola,” said Kiswani. “It’s a matter of Palestinian ownership and symbolic support, but also [to deny] the monetary contributions and the donations that are made from these companies to an occupation.”
Supporting Palestinian-owned brands is a simple way individuals can meaningfully demonstrate their solidarity, said Sami Tamimi, chef and author of the recently released cookbook Boustany, an homage to the Palestinian garden. “People want to feel like they’re doing something… and it helps people feel like they are a part of the movement. We have to keep talking about Palestine, keep writing about it, and keep being proud of anything to do with the country, including fizzy drinks.”
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