Hundreds of people have signed a petition against a new Gails in a wealthy east London neighbourhood, with several citing the bakery’s “Zionist” credentials as a reason for their opposition to the popular bakery moving in.

Over 400 people have signed the petition, which claims Walthamstow Village high street "faces a threat to its uniqueness with the prospect of Gails, a large-scale bakery chain, setting up shop on it.”

Signatories say they are “protecting the unique identity of our community [and] safeguarding the soul of a beloved neighbourhood”.

However, comments on the petition suggest that the bakery’s Israeli roots are behind several signatories' objections.

Nia Davies, who signed the petition last week, wrote: “Love local independent bakeries and hate Zionist moguls.”

Another local resident said: “If you came out to the counter protest in Walthamstow but you back Gail’s in Walthamstow then you’re a huge hypocrite. We do not want them in our borough.”

Staff at several local businesses echoed these comments, with several telling The Times that their resistance against the bakery was due to its chairman, Johnson, who is pro-Brexit and has criticised “wokeness” at universities.

In a 2015 column, Johnson described Israel as “an astonishing country, buzzing with energy and confidence, a magnet for talent and investment - a cauldron of innovation.”

Last week, Walthamstow hosted the largest counter-protest against the riots in the UK. After social media posts, locals suspected anti-immigration attacks might erupt in the east London borough, and up to 10,000 anti-fascist protesters crowded the streets. One former Labour councillor who attended the rally was arrested for allegedly calling for the rioters' throats to be cut. 

The Labour-run Waltham Forest recently voted to divest from Israeli arms firms after local campaign group, Waltham Forest for a Free Palestine (WF4FP), petitioned for the borough to withdraw money invested in arms from its pension fund. The council said the decision to withdraw from firms was in line with its “ethical investment policy”.

Gail’s was founded in the 1990s by Israeli baker Gail Mejia and businessman Ran Avidan, who opened its first bakery in Hampstead in 2005. The business was acquired by Bread Holdings, chaired by Johnson, in 2011. It has expanded to over 130 shops across London, southern England and Manchester.

The chain became synonymous with middle-class families in up-scale areas, with the store’s arrival linked to higher house prices. The Liberal Democrats even created an election strategy around the bakery, dubbed the “challah bread wall”, with a spokesperson for the party telling the JC: “[It] became shorthand for our strategy as we observed that many leafy commuter belt areas where people were turning to the Liberal Democrats had a branch of the bakery chain.”

Gails and Luke Johnson have been contacted for comment.