On Monday Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would stop selling ice cream in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. The move comes after years of pressure from activists in the company’s home state of Vermont.
“We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT),” reads a statement on the company’s website. “We also hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners.”
“We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region,” it continues. “We have been working to change this, and so we have informed our licensee that we will not renew the license agreement when it expires at the end of next year.”
The company also indicated that it would stay in Israel under a different arrangement and share details connected to that move soon. However, a statement put out by Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board of Directors claims that disclosure was made by its CEO Matthew McCarthy and parent company Unilever without first consulting the board.
“The statement released by Ben & Jerry’s regarding its operation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (the OPT) does not reflect the position of the Independent Board, nor was it approved by the Independent Board,” reads a press release put out by board chair Anuradha Mittal. “By taking a position and publishing a statement without the approval of the Independent Board on an issue directly related to Ben & Jerry’s social mission and brand integrity, Unilever and its CEO at Ben & Jerry’s are in violation of the spirit and the letter of the Acquisition Agreement.”
Activists celebrate
The group Vermonters for Justice in Palestine (VTJP) has been leading a campaign against Ben & Jerry’s for years and in 2015 the company became a target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). However, the effort had received increased attention after Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza. Activists have drawn attention to the fact that the company has been connected to progressive causes since it was founded in 1978, but its social mission hasn’t extended to Palestine.
“In response to apartheid Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the recent massacre in Gaza, celebrities, politicians, public figures and those who support justice and equality for all have expressed public support for Palestinian freedom,” declared BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti recently. “We urge Ben & Jerry’s to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and affirm the inclusiveness of their progressive, anti-racist values.”
Palestinian groups praised the decision while highlighting the need for further action.
“Ben & Jerry’s, a leading socially responsible international company, is finally bringing its policy on Israel’s regime of oppression against Palestinians in line with its progressive positions on Black Lives Matter and other justice struggles,” said The Palestinian BDS National Committee in a statement. “We hope Ben & Jerry’s has understood that, in harmony with its social justice commitments, there can be no business as usual with apartheid Israel.”
“Ben & Jerry’s will end ice cream sales in the occupied Palestinian territories,” tweeted the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. “This is an important victory & step forward. Since the Israeli state can’t be separated from its apartheid & occupation, the work continues.”
“This BDS win is because of our people power,” declared the Adalah Justice Project. Thank you Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, Movement for Black Lives, and all the organizers behind this win.”
“Our demand remains a complete disengagement from all business dealings with apartheid Israel,” it continued. “We applaud Ben & Jerry’s decision to end business in the settlements. Israel a settler colonial state from the river to the sea. We won’t rest.”
VTJP put out a statement declaring that Ben & Jerry’s intended moves fail to address their complicity in Israel’s human rights violations and continued occupation of Palestinian land. “By maintaining a presence in Israel, Ben & Jerry’s continues to be complicit in the killing, imprisonment and dispossession of Palestinian people and the flaunting of international law,” said VTJP member Kathy Shapiro. “Israel destroys lives and property in the lands it occupies by force.”
VTJP also reiterated their three demands to the company:
1. End the marketing, catering and sales of Ben & Jerry’s products in Israel and Jewish-only settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
2. Stop manufacturing ice cream in Israel.
3. Issue a statement (a) calling on Israel to end its occupation and settlement enterprise and (b) appealing directly to other socially responsible companies to do likewise and to cease business operations in Israel and its illegal settlements.
Pro-Israel response
While human rights organizations celebrated the victory, Israeli leadership, along with right-wing pundits and pro-Israel advocates, expressed disdain and some vowed to boycott the product.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the move was “a shameful surrender to antisemitism, to BDS and to all that is wrong with the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish discourse.” Lapid also said he would ask every state that passed BDS legislation to target the company. “They will not treat the State of Israel like this without a response,” he threatened.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett echoed Lapid’s sentiments.
Ben & Jerry’s decided to brand itself as anti-Israel ice cream,” said Bennett. “This is a moral mistake and I believe it will turn out to be a business mistake as well,” he said. “The boycott against Israel… reflects that they have totally lost their way. The boycott doesn’t work and won’t work and we will fight it with all our might.”
American Jewish Committee Managing Director of Public Affairs Avi Mayer tweeted, “Serious question: has Ben & Jerry’s ever refused to sell its products in any other disputed territory, anywhere in the world—or is this the only one? And another question: will Ben & Jerry’s refuse to sell their products to all the residents of the territory in question—or only to the Israeli Jews who live there?”
(The territory is of course not “disputed”, the consensus view of the international community is that the Israeli occupation is illegal and in violation of international law.)
“After years of paying tens of millions of dollars to BDS anti-Israel organizations and being subject to non-stop harassments and intimidation by the BDS movement, Jewish owned Ben & Jerry gives up and join the most antisemitic campaigns of the 21st century,” declared Israeli-American lobbyist Adam Milstein.
Shifting discourse
On Twitter some also pointed out how the decision shows the narrative around Israel is shifting within the United States, especially among liberals.
“Ben and Jerry’s discontinuing sales of products in Israeli settlements has more implications for the US debate than actual material implications in Israel-Palestine: It shows amongst liberals, there’s increasingly no appetite for complicity in the occupation,” tweeted journalist Alex Kane. “Ben and Jerry’s withstood pressure for eight years. The atrocities of May 2021 made that untenable. The result of a ton of different forces converging. Not to overstate the significance of it, but it’s one symbol of liberal views changing, driven by a Palestinian-led movement.”
That not selling to settlers is now considered acceptable liberal mainstream BDS-lite shows how far the narrative has shifted AND ALSO shows why it is so important to keep pushing for what Ben & Jerry’s independent board is committed to–pulling out of Israel entirely,” asserted activist Rebecca Vilkomerson.
Knowing how they like to project their image as wholesome and doing the right thing, we have to wonder why they took so long to make an easy decision like this. If any company is sincere in standing up for human rights, they have to put greed aside, and stop being intimidated by those supporting a nation that has the most UN resolutions against it.
File this under, “It’s about f**king time!!”
There was probably a good reason why Ben and Jerry’s never included PEPermint among its flavor selections!
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https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-bennett-on-ben-jerry-s-boycott-there-s-plenty-of-ice-cream-one-country-1.10013699
“Israel’s Bennett Slams Ben & Jerry’s Boycott: There’s Plenty of Ice Cream, but We Only Have One Country” by Jonathan Lis and Ben Samuels, Haaretz, July 19/21
“Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sharply rebuked a decision by the American ice-cream giant Ben & Jerry’s to halt sales in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Monday, saying that the company had decided to rebrand as an ‘anti-semitic ice cream.’
“‘There’s plenty of ice cream, but we only have one country,’ Bennett said.
“The Vermont-based ice-cream maker announced earlier on Monday that it will discontinue its contract with its Israeli licensee following ‘concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners.’
“‘Although Ben & Jerry’s will no longer be sold in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian territories], we will stay in Israel through a different arrangement. We will share an update on this as soon as we’re ready,’ it added.
“In his statement, Bennett called the company’s decision ‘morally wrong,’ and said that he believes it will also prove to be ‘financially wrong.’ Bennett added: ‘The boycott of Israel – a democracy surrounded by isles of terrorism – reflects a complete loss of direction.’
“‘The boycott isn’t working and it won’t work, and we will fight it with everything we’ve got,’ the prime minister said.
“Ben & Jerry’s, which launched in 1978, has long been associated with progressive values. But until now, Ben & Jerry’s had conspicuously refrained from weighing in on Israeli-Palestinian affairs. In June, the Ben & Jerry’s social media accounts were bombarded with criticism for licensing a factory in Israel which provides Israeli settlements with products, and the accounts had remained silent until today.
“In 1988, the company opened its first Israeli store on Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street. One year later, it opened a factory in Yavneh – which, surprisingly, was the company’s first production plant outside the United States. In 2009, the factory moved to Be’er Tuvia.
“In 2014, the company began using fair-trade ingredients at its plant here, just as it does in the United States, and four years ago, it began making vegan ice cream. (cont’d)
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“The Israeli Ben & Jerry’s, the brand’s only independent licensee, is widely popular. It has produced special flavors for holidays, such as haroset for Passover and ‘mixed-up’ for this spring’s national election, and last year held a Purim costume party whose prize was a six-month supply of ice cream.
“In its statement, Ben & Jerry’s also said: ‘We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region. We have been working to change this, and so we have informed our licensee that we will not renew the license agreement when it expires at the end of next year.'”
How cool is this! Minimal economic impact. Big political impact!