New Branch of Pret a Manger Hit By Pro-Palestinian Graffiti
Messages urge boycott of company due to Israel investment
Grafitti on the front of the Pret store. Picture: Chris Longhurst
April 5, 2024
The new branch of Pret a Manger due to open in the Brentford Project has had pro-Palestinian graffiti scrawled on the hoardings covering the branch. It is demanded that the shop is shut down even before it has started trading.
The writing refers to JAB Holding Company (JAB), a company of German origins based in Luxembourg, which owns Pret. It is suggested that it is complicit in war crimes being carried out in Gaza due to its investment in Israel.
The company was the subject of controversy in 2019 when newspaper reports highlighted the support of its founder Albert Reimann Sr and his son Albert Jr. for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party even before they took power.
However, shortly afterwards the descendants of Albert Reimann Jr revealed that their mother, although a Catholic-convert, had a Jewish father who died in a concentration camp. The company makes substantial donations to fund projects that honour the victims of the Holocaust and Nazism.
Other Pret branches have been targeted across the country since a UK-based pro-Palestinian group called Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) started a campaign against it.
JAB has announced plans to open 40 Pret shops in Israel over the next decade in a joint-venture with Israeli fashion chain Fox-Wizel and restaurant group Yarzin Sella.
FOA asked its supporters to email Pret’s CEO to ask that the deal, which was due to complete in March, be abandoned.
Shamiul Joarder, head of public affairs at FOA said, “Pret claims that being ethical is one of its ‘core values’ but supporting a state that repeatedly violates international law and targets and kills children isn’t ethical.
“On every sandwich, Pret has a sticker asking for feedback … hundreds of people have now given them feedback and asked them not to support apartheid — where is their response?”
We have contacted Pret for comment.
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