Guardian man Liew wades into cafe culture war

Under the headline “A corner of north London where food has become a battleground in the Israel-Gaza war”, Liew writes of his love of Cafe Metro, a staple of Archway since the 1980s. Run by a Palestinian woman called Faten, “amid the chaotic bustle of north London, food is one of her links back, a marker of the Palestinian identity that Israel’s bombs and snipers are so intent on erasing”, he writes.

But alas – a “predator” has arrived. “A few weeks ago, on the site of the former corner shop two doors down, came a new branch of the upmarket bakery, Gail’s,” Liew writes. And Gail’s is no ordinary upmarket bakery.

“Campaigners point out that its parent company, Bain Capital, invests heavily in military technology, including Israeli security companies,” he says. “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.”

Maybe. Or maybe its presence may be more down to pretty much every High Street in North London getting a Gail’s (more than half of its 185 sites are within inner London)?

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Apparently not. “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.”

Noting that, the night before it was due to open, Gail’s was daubed with red paint, and that less than a week later all its windows were smashed in, with slogans including “reject corporate Zionism” written on its walls, Liew wrote: “Palestinian activism has arguably never been less capable of exerting a meaningful influence on global events, and so is increasingly defined by small acts of petty symbolism. 

“A smashed window. A provocative sticker. You can’t lay a glove on the US-Israeli military-industrial complex, and you can’t get your local council to boycott Israeli goods, and you couldn’t stand with Palestine Action and the protest march on Sunday has been banned by the Metropolitan police. So some people then direct their ire at the bakery with distant links to Israeli security funding.”

Unfortunately for Liew, the article has not gone down well with everybody, with Times columnist Giles Coren writing: “Wow, this is some mad fucking antisemitism from the Guardian – and a truly honking piece of restaurant writing into the bargain”. His colleague Sebastian Payne described it as “new contender for worst column of the year”.

Countdown’s Rachel Riley wrote, “I’ve been saying this for a couple of years now, our very existence is being viewed as a provocation”, while journalist Hadley Freeman added: “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.” 

Meanwhile, Simon Myerson KC wrote: “I see the Guardian is having an antisemitic moment. Sorry, another antisemitic moment.”

And this afternoon Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch waded in. Speaking to Jewish News as she joined party activists to campaign in Golders Green ahead of May’s local elections, Badenoch said: “I think it was an utterly ridiculous column… appalling, actually.

“It’s extraordinary that Gail’s bakeries are being attacked now, supposedly because they are Israeli-owned. This is just a cover; it’s antisemitism. It is disgusting. We need to stamp out this culture. We need more enforcement, more punishment for people who carry out these violent acts… they are trying to intimidate people.”

Maybe leave it to the comedians in future, Jonathan!