An East London café has announced that it will not serve various canned fizzy drinks because they are made by companies that are associated with a Jewish / Israeli country.

Shaketown café, which is in Leyton, East London has, as a result, been reported by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for breaching the Equality Act 2010.

On 19 November 2023 a video was posted on Shaketown’s Instagram account, which had a following of 6,000 people. In the video a manager or employee of the restaurant is seen leaning on the counter, holding a can of Coca Cola in one hand, and a can of Sprite/Fanta in the other, saying:

“Salam Aleykoum guys from BBQ Express in Shaketown. We just want to notify you we are no longer doing anything to do with Coca-Cola, Fanta, or Sprite in support of Gaza. All you guys are gonna make the effort, inshallah we get together. It’s a small thing but we do it together locally, nationally, and make a lot of difference with Coca-Cola and those sorts of companies that are associated with Jewish … umm … Jewish… um … Israeli country. Let’s all get together, let’s do it, it’s the least we can do.”

UKLFI reported Shaketown café to the EHRC, because the video expressed a clear intent to discriminate against Jews and Israelis, and had that effect, contrary to section 29 of the Equality Act 2010.  Jewish customers would not feel comfortable in this restaurant. 

A spokesperson for UKFLI commented: “Most Jewish people would feel uncomfortable in an environment where the staff of a café were discriminating against companies that were not even Jewish owned, but that had some involvement with Israel, however tenuous.  This is going further than a simple boycott of Israeli products.  It is an attempt to boycott any company that even sells products in Israel.”