A recent column in leftist broadsheet The Guardian has provoked anger in the British Jewish community after appearing to rationalize attacks on a north London bakery founded by a Jew.
Guardian sports writer Jonathan Liew went after Gail’s bakery after it was recently vandalized, with windows smashed and red-paint daubed pro-Palestinian and antisemitic slogans.
Since the paper seemed to be making light of and even encouraging aggression against the bakery chain, demonstrators responded on Wednesday, March 18th. They staged a light-hearted looking but serious protest outside the newspaper’s London office, delivering Gail’s baked goods to its staff and editor.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned the earlier attacks, stating,
Targeting a business on the basis of alleged or perceived Israeli and/or Jewish connections reflects a very worrying trend.
Gail’s was co-founded in the early 1990s by British baker Yael Mejia (and has since repeatedly changed owners). This historic Jewish connection is central to the campaign against Gail’s; only later did campaigners throw in complaints about ‘gentrification.’
Liew’s column described the bakery’s expansion in Archway, north London near a Palestinian-owned café as a form of “aggression,” suggesting its presence was provocative and implying the attacks on it were legitimate.
A spokesperson for Gail’s emphasized that the chain is “a British business with no specific connections to any country or government outside the UK,” and stressed efforts to ensure staff safety.
Liew, like the vandals, also referenced Bain Capital, which now owns Gail’s. He both noted the firm’s alleged investment in Israeli security companies and argued that its proximity to the Palestinian café “feels quietly symbolic, an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression.” The article was subsequently amended.
The backlash against the column prompted a half-baked Guardian apology and the increasing anger of various journalists, Jewish and gentile—some with longstanding connections to the Farringdon-based newspaper. Likewise, actress Patricia Heaton wrote on X
Good grief—Gail’s is just a bakery! I had no idea it had any connection to Israel or the Jewish people. But now I want to support it even more.
Former Jewish Chronicle columnist Hadley Freeman criticized the apparent double standard, noting that minor protests against Palestinian-owned businesses are condemned, while violent acts against Israeli-founded ones are rationalized.
The controversy comes amid broader concerns about antisemitism in the UK. The Community Security Trust reported 204 school-related antisemitic incidents in 2025, a sharp increase since the October 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel.
Josh Howie, who co-organised Wednesday’s protest outside the Guardian offices, declared “I’m sick of the racism!”
