Many kosher stores around the US will refrain from purchasing or distributing Ben & Jerry's
ice cream after the company announced it will stop selling products within the occupied
Palestinian territories.
Dani Secemski, the owner of the Teaneck, New Jersey-based Glatt Express, told CNN,
"I thought this was an anti-Semitic statement about the evil situation in the Middle East."
Despite the fact that the store still has $1,200 worth of Ben & Jerry's in storage,
he is holding out on selling.
"If they can reverse their decision, then we'll 100% carry them on our shelves again,
and I'll be the first person to tell other businesses to do the same thing."
Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in a phone call with Unilever, the multinational
that owns Ben & Jerry's, called this a, quote, "glaring anti-Israel measure," and stated
that there would be consequences and that he would fight the boycott.
He even asked the American government to impose anti-boycott laws.
U.S. officials noted that the Ben & Jerry's decision was "the actions of a private company"
and the current administration opposes boycott movements.
According to CNBC, The government of Texas has acted according to a law signed four years
ago by forcing pension funds to divest from companies boycotting Israel.
People who have been following the story might bring up that Ben & Jerry's only intended
to pull out of the occupied regions of Palestine, not Israel.
The company claimed in a statement,
"Although Ben & Jerry's will no longer be sold in the OPT, we will stay in Israel through
a different arrangement."
Unilever also released a statement supporting the decision to stay in Israel.
There are other groups out there who support Ben & Jerry’s Palestian pullout, with others
thinking it’s not enough.
On July 21st, A statement co-written by Adalah Justice Project, the Movement for Black Lives,
and U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, they see this as a sign that the tactics of
boycotts, divestments, and sanctions work, but reiterate that:
"[...]the unwavering fight for justice isn't over... until Ben & Jerry's ends all business
with apartheid Israel."
For them, the current state of Israel cannot be separated from the occupation of Palestinian
lands.
The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights declared in a later tweet that the boycott will continue
until Ben & Jerry's divests from the country entirely.
Obviously, Ben & Jerry's is in a bit of a pickle.
The situation has the added complexity by possibly putting the ice cream company in
a confrontational position with its owner Unilever.
That's because the board of Ben & Jerry's has stated that it has not decided what it
will do with regards to Israel.
According to NBC, the board originally wanted to send out a statement that lacked the explicit
commitment to staying in the country.
Anuradha Mittal, the chair of the board, said,
"I am saddened by the deceit of [Unilever].
This is not about Israel.
It is about the violation of the acquisition agreement that maintained the soul of the
company."
Their acquisition had a contract crafted specially to allow Ben & Jerry's to vocally pursue the
progressive vision of their founders.
For Unilever, however, allowing Ben & Jerry's to cease business with the Palestinian Occupied
Territories, let alone the entire country of Israel, could exacerbate their financial
difficulties.
On July 22nd, Markets Insider noted that Unilever's stock fell by 6%.
This was despite an increase in sales.
The company insisted that the issue was the rising price of commodities, but it took little
time before some protestors connected the political issue to the stock tank.
Michael Dickinson, the executive director of the pro-Israel organization Stand With
Us, commented on Twitter,
"And then you let your brand @benandjerrys announce a discriminatory boycott of the world's
only Jewish country."
The controversy is far from over.
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