Palestinian brewery Taybeh Brewing Co is to launch a new lager – Sun & Stone – that will be sold in the UK – despite mounting violence hitting its operations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The brewer has also defied water shortages to launch the beer that will be sold in 1,600 Co-op stores, with all profits going to aid disaster relief projects across the region – including the devastated Gaza Strip.
The family-owned firm has bypassed customs restrictions and increasing costs of ingredients locally by teaming up with Scottish firm Brewgooder to launch Sun & Stone – named after the region’s warm climate and rocky limestone terrain.
Brewed at zero profit by Brewgooder and Taybeh’s Madees Khoury –Palestine’s first and only female brewmaster – the beer is available from the Brewgooder website and will be stocked in Co-op stores from September 10th.
‘Things are getting worse, but we’re still here, still making beer. Because what else can we do but keep going?’ said Khoury.
‘Our brewery provides jobs and much-needed distraction. It tells a story – it shows a side of Palestine that people do not always see.’
The oldest microbrewery in the Middle East, Taybeh Brewing Co is named after the West Bank village where it was founded in 1994 by her father Nadim and his brother David.
All proceeds from sales of the drink will support Taybeh’s local community, as well as helping the Disasters Emergency Committee’s work in conflict-affected areas across the region.
Brewing Against Violence and Scarcity
‘This is the worst the situation has been for decades,’ she said. ‘Recently settlers set two cars on fire and spray-painted threats in Hebrew. They tried to jump the wall into people’s homes. If the houses had been empty, they would have burned them.’
She said the spring providing most of Tabyeh’s water had also been attacked by settlers ‘at least three times’ in July.
‘They’ve broken the computers. They’ve smashed the cameras. They’ve broken one of the main water pipelines,’ she said. ‘The water company in Palestine can’t go and fix those problems because Israeli settlers are residing at the spring and swimming in the water and just occupying the spring.’
The 39-year-old also said getting raw materials to brew beer is ‘challenging’.
She said: ‘Anything that goes in and out of the country has to go through Israel and just being a Palestinian company, Israelis do whatever they can in an indirect way or a direct way to make it difficult, challenging, frustrating, costly, whatever they can.
Khoury’s brother Canaan, who returned to the West Bank to help run the brewery after studying mechanical engineering at Harvard University, said life had descended into ‘total anarchy, adding ‘We are brewing in a state of complete uncertainty’.
Brewgooder’s involvement began after co-founder James Hughes read an article about the brewery two years ago, which led him to propose collaborating on a Mediterranean-style lager that could be brewed in the UK.
‘When we first read about Taybeh, we were completely moved by their resilience,’ he said.
‘They’re incredible people who deserve to have their story told and their beer enjoyed around the world.
‘We see this as a chance not just to stand by a brewery we admire, but to also share a perspective of Palestine that is not often seen, while helping to support humanitarian aid in Gaza and elsewhere where the suffering is unimaginably unjust.’
Co-op’s decision to stock the beer comes weeks after its members voted to end trade with Israeli businesses, and looked to find ways of increasing economic prospects for the Palestinian population.
Paul Gerrard, the store’s Director of Campaigns, Public Affairs and Policy, said: ‘We have a longstanding legacy of supporting communities and know the positive impact co-operation can have in fostering long term recovery in regions affected by conflict.’
