A Jewish journalist at The Guardian has shared photos of his purchases from a branch of Gail’s bakery amid the unfolding row over a colleague’s article about the chain.
Jacob Steinberg, a football reporter for the central London-based paper, posted pictures of a challah loaf from Gail’s to his X profile on Monday.
The picture was captioned with a loaf of bread emoji and came just days after fellow Guardian writer Jonathan Liew was heavily criticised for an article suggesting that the presence of the bakery in Archway next to a Palestinian-run café was “an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression”.
Liew’s column was referring to the vandalism of the Archway branch of Gail’s, which he called “small acts of petty symbolism”, by pro-Palestine activists objecting to the reported investments of its parent company, Bain Capital, in Israeli firms.
It drew condemnation from several prominent Jewish figures, as well as Opposition Leader Kemi Badenoch, who, in an interview with the JC, called the piece “disgusting”.
“I mean, to be honest, The Guardian has previous on this, that article, which was pretending to be about Israel… was just yet another cover for antisemitism,” she said.
“The people in this country tend not to care who owns which shop. They just care whether the food is good or not. And I think it's absolutely disgusting that people are starting to bring in the heritage and the ownership of businesses. I think that it is what is leading to the kind of violence and intimidation tactics that we're seeing in many places, including at Gail’s bakeries.
"I think that is also disgusting, and I don't think any newspaper should be doing things that increase the intimidation of any community in our country.”
The Guardian has since published a correction note on Liew’s article, which reads: “This article was amended on 17 March 2026. A reference to the arrival of Gail’s feeling like “an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression” has been repositioned to clarify it meant to refer to the described fears about the chain’s impact on small traders.
"Also, a comment contrasting activism that is capable of influencing global events with “small acts of petty symbolism”, which was not intended to minimise local vandalism but rather to suggest its misdirected futility, has been removed to avoid misunderstanding."
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