Scottish Jews Back Coca-Cola Boycott After Charity Regulator Dismisses Complaint

In an open letter, 50 Jewish artists, academics and community members voiced support for the peaceful and lawful Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and applauded Unite Hospitality’s successful campaign to remove Coca-Cola products from the venue.

“We are Jews from Glasgow and across Scotland who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Coca-Cola and who applaud Unite’s campaign to have its products removed from the Glasgow Film Theatre,” the letter begins.

Responding directly to claims in the press that “Glasgow’s Jewish community” opposes the boycott, the signatories challenged the notion that the Jewish community speaks with one voice. “There are many of us who support the Palestinian cause and who oppose genocide. We reject the idea that the interests of Israel and that of Jewish people everywhere in the world are aligned.”

The letter calls the BDS campaign “a peaceful and effective method of direct action” and stresses that support for it does not constitute antisemitism. “Coca-Cola is not Judaism! The discomfort felt by supporters of Israel when faced with solidarity with the Palestinian cause is a matter for their conscience, and not a consequence of their ethnicity or religion.”

The signatories also criticise those who conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, including “some of our communal leaders and Jewish newspapers.” They write, “The major fault in this matter lies with the national press and politicians who lazily or mendaciously conflate Judaism and Zionism.”

The letter concludes with a call for open dialogue: “Should those who will vote on the continued boycott of Coca-Cola products at the GFT wish to better understand the multiplicity of views within Glasgow’s Jewish communities on this matter, we would be happy to meet to discuss this further.”

This intervention follows OSCR’s dismissal of a complaint by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which claimed the boycott was unlawful and beyond GFT’s charitable remit. OSCR found that the complaint raised no regulatory issue and reaffirmed that Scottish charities have the legal discretion to take ethical stances.

The signatories to the letter are:

Matt Spitz Mahon, Beth Frieden, Edward Szekely, Sam Rutherford, Marion Hersh, Benjamin Franks, Ophira Gamliel, Ali Flebotte, Eliana Dunlap, Isabelle Darmon, Sore Sobol, Ruth Pearce, Henry Maitles, Henry Ivry, Raph Lehmann, Jade Eckhaus, Leo Kaminski, Alex Mayer, Mia Gubbay, Don Gluckstein, Daniel Power, Talitha Kearey, Adam Cohen, Joan Meyer, Ivan Clark, Mark Symonds, Asra Meiksin, Elena Silverstein, Lisa Barcan, Simon Caplan, Malik Al-Bahlani, Naomi Junnor, Gica Loening, Sue Bard, Maurice Naftalin, Daniel Fox, Nikki Barnett, Diana Jerome, Hamish Kallin, Isak Nesvitsky, Benjamin Brown, Andy Nordqvist, Stasa Morgan-Appel, Emily Finer, Itamar Kastner, Mina Baird, Aubrey Stillerman, Kai Quinn Allen, Wendy Maltinsky, and Giovanni Picker.

This collective voice from within Scotland’s Jewish communities affirms what many of us know: that standing against genocide and apartheid is not antisemitic. It is an essential act of solidarity.

We welcome and stand with these signatories in the call for justice and an end to what Amnesty International, UN Special Rapporteurs, human rights organisations, Holocaust scholars and survivors clearly insist is genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.