A coalition of attorney generals is urging Ben & Jerry’s to sell its ice cream in the illegally-occupied West Bank once again.
The group sent a letter to Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever calling for action. Signatories include the chief legal officers of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
“We, the attorneys general of our respective states, write today to express our grave concerns about Unilever’s decision to engage in a boycott of the State of Israel. Not only is Israel one of our nation’s closest and most reliable allies, but it is also the only democratic nation in the region and has long been a force for peace and stability,” reads the letter.
Despite this assertion, the company has never actually embraced an Israel boycott or the BDS movement. Ben & Jerry’s announced that it was pulling out of occupied West Bank territories in July, but made it clear that they would continue to do business in other parts of the country.
The boycott falsehood was echoed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt in a statement announcing the letter. “Today I was proud to lead a 12 state coalition in calling on Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s to reverse their ill-advised boycott of the State of Israel. Israel is a strong ally of the United States and remains the only democratic nation in the region,” said Schmitt. “Further, if Unilever is so interested in virtue-signaling, why not announce a boycott of countries like China, Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or especially Iran, who has promised the complete destruction of Israel? Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s should reverse their boycott immediately.”
Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, and Texas have all announced that they are divesting their holdings in Unilever over the Ben & Jerry’s decision. Earlier this month New York Governor Kathy Hochul said that the state might go a step further and add Unilever to blacklist that would block them from any further state investment.
While state governments look to punish Unilever financially, the pro-Israel group StandWithUs has launched a $500,000 ad campaign attacking the company. It includes billboards that say, “Don’t Let Antisemitism Melt Your Brand.”
Activists have been pressuring Ben & Jerry’s to pull its business out of Israel for years and in 2015 it became a target of the BDS movement.
“When we started this campaign we were targeting Ben & Jerry’s because their social mission talks about equality, human rights, protecting refugees, protecting the environment, Black Lives Matter, police brutality,” Vermonters for Justice in Palestine’s Wafic Faour told Mondoweiss in July. “We’re talking about Israel because it’s still an apartheid state and the Palestinians who are living over there as Israeli citizens, Israeli Arabs..they are living under different rules and they are facing discrimination on housing, on education, healthcare, police protection. Just name it.”
“or especially Iran, who has promised the complete destruction of Israel”
They are still running with this. This is the tactic the *media owners hammer in: Even when your lie is disproven, just keep running with it year after year. The original issue is forgotten, only your claim remains because you control the media.
What the lie is based on is the false translation of a speech by President Ahmadinejad. He was quoting a speech from many years before, where the Ayatollah said that the regime in Israel, like the Soviet regime in Moscow, would “vanish from the pages of time”. This the media falsely translated as Israel being destroyed, and they claimed it “proved” that Iran was planning to bomb Israel with nukes.
Maybe someone should tell Missouri AG Eric Schmidt that US corporations don’t need to boycott the nations he lists, because our government ALREADY does its job in terms of holding them accountable, for their belligerent behavior and gross abuses of human rights, by sanctioning them is some shape or form. Maybe if our leaders and government did its fucking job and did the same with Israel, Ben & Jerry’s wouldn’t have to do it for them.
Israel keeps bleating on about how it’s always treated differently, so let’s go right ahead treat them EXACTLY like we treat Russia, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan et al. I’m sure a series of sanctions, embargoes, travel restrictions, and divestment would be a great start. Maybe park an aircraft carrier off the coast of Ashdod and Eilat and have a warship or two patrolling the Gaza coast? Ya know? Seeing as we’re talking about being fair and treating everyone the same?
As for that sellout Kathy Hochul, I hope she tries to blacklist Unilever. In fact I double dog dare her to. It’s long past time we had this out in the open. Unilever needs to sue the state for damages and take this right up the chain to the SCOTUS and universally end this state-sponsored bullying and muzzling of free speech in the US in the sole interests of a foreign nation.
The notion that citizens acting through their elected representatives can “inscribe” in state law a requirement that foreign Subjects recognize third party sovereignty over foreign territories is preposterous. For starters it violates the Article I, Section 10, Clause 1.1 prohibition against States engaging in their own foreign policy.
Judges in State Courts are still explicitly mentioned in the text of the Supremacy Clause and of course are bound to abide by all of the prohibitions contained in the Constitution.
How typical of defenders of the indefensible! Why x? Why not a,b,c…..
Why NOT x, if x is guilty of wrongdoing? There are also reasons why Israel SHOULD be held to account above other rogue nations:
“China, Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or especially Iran”
Because the United States does not subsidise them with billions of dollars for armaments to continue their crimes. (It sells to Saudi Arabia, and of course when the Shah ruled Iran he was a great friend.) It does not defend them at the UN. It does not proclaim eternal friendship with them. They are not called “the only democracy in … wherever.”
This is whataboutism. A colleague of mine will respond to “What about Syria? Tibet? Iran?” with, “That’s a great cause. What are you doing about it?”