When a Gaza Boycott Turned Into Storefront Damage
Protesters broke coffee shop windows in Istanbul. There is no published total for the chain’s losses.
In November 2023, some Gaza solidarity actions in Türkiye targeted coffee shops that activists associated with Israel. A 2025 study in Cogent Social Sciences catalogues incidents at coffeehouse chains, including stones thrown through store windows during an anti-Israel protest.
BBC Monitoring also traces reporting of an Istanbul Starbucks branch whose windows were broken while customers were inside. That is a specific instance of property damage. The study uses reported cases to analyse boycott narratives and does not provide an audited total for repairs, closures or lost sales.
Police and transport records by country
Local records on effects outside campus
TRT reported that Istanbul closed Galata Bridge and nearby roads for a January 1, 2025 Palestine solidarity rally. Several approaches closed from 05:00. The report identified alternative routes and service arrangements on two tram lines. It did not give a final reopening time, measured passenger delays or operator losses.
Figures and sources
The retail case documents a direct channel of harm outside the university sector. A broken storefront can generate replacement and security costs, and a closure can cause missed sales. The published study is based on documented incidents and analysis of narratives. Without chain-level accounts or a comparison group, it cannot establish total losses across Turkish retail or isolate losses due to the boycott from other changes in demand.
Turkey population and public costs · Public costs and national research