As Israel’s army has destroyed the majority of Gaza’s vital infrastructure, a Palestinian activist has created a Coca-Cola alternative to help rebuild al Karama hospital, located in northern Gaza.
Osama Qashoo, 43, is the creator of Gaza Cola. His plan is to use sales proceeds to help rebuild Gaza’s healthcare system, which is on the brink of “total collapse,” according to the United Nations.
“It’s been reduced to rubble for no just reason, like all of these hospitals in Gaza,” Qashoo told The Guardian. He chose the Al Karama Hospital specifically because it is relatively “small” and “quite manageable.”
Qashoo did not give out an exact measure of how much it would cost or when it might happen, but he remains hopeful. “We are allowed to have an imagination … We have to dream; otherwise we can’t live,” he said.
Qashoo is a human rights activist, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and founding member of the Free Gaza Movement, which aimed to break the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.
His contributions to Gaza date back to 2010 when he helped organize a mission to bring humanitarian aid to the Strip using a flotilla of ships.
Along with being actively involved in the hospitality industry since 2012, Qashoo co-founded several Palestinian eateries, including the renowned “Hiba restaurants” in London. He started a crowdfunding effort for the UK’s NHS in 2020 to provide thousands of free meals to frontline personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite not being a fizzy drink enjoyer, Qashoo described his venture into the industry as “a statement to all these corporate companies who are investing in armed trade,” he told The Guardian.
“To ask them the question of dignity. Do you see what your money’s doing? Because it is doing damage. It is destroying homes and our environment… They need to wake up, and they need to understand that their money, their greed, is causing our genocide,” he concluded.