Gaza Cola launched by Palestinian activist to rebuild destroyed hospital
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Sales of fizzy drink from London hoped to raise money and send a message to big firms ‘investing in armed trade’. Gaza’s healthcare is on the brink of “total collapse”, according to the UN, because of the targeting of hospitals by Israel. While it is still impossible to say how much time and money it will take to rebuild, one Palestinian activist has plans to piece one small part of it back with the help of a soft drink.
Osama Qashoo, the creator of Gaza Cola, hopes to use profits from his Coca-Cola alternative, recently launched in London, to rebuild al Karama hospital, which used to stand in northern Gaza. “It’s been reduced to rubble for no just reason, like all of these hospitals in Gaza,” according to the 43-year-old film-maker, human rights advocate and, now, fizzy-drink maker.
Qashoo has chosen that hospital because, relatively speaking, “it’s small, it’s quite manageable, it doesn’t cost a lot of money”. He could not put a figure on how much that would mean, or when it might happen, but, he said, “we are allowed to have an imagination … we have to dream, otherwise we can’t live”.
He is already looking into the best medical equipment and the design, right down to the lighting, but for the time being they have built a field hospital in another location in Gaza using the parachutes left behind from aid airdrops for makeshift shelter.
