Ben & Jerry’s has filed a lawsuit against its parent company Unilever in an effort to block the sale of its Israeli business. It is the latest move in the company’s year-long effort to end sales in the occupied West Bank.
In July 2021 the ice cream manufacturer announced that it would stop selling its product in illegal Israeli settlements. “We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region,” it read. “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.”
However, last month Unilever sold its Israeli business to Avi Zinger, the owner American Quality Products. The ice cream will now continue to be sold throughout illegally occupied territories. Israeli lawmakers and pro-Israel groups celebrated the announcement as a victory against BDS and proof that Ben & Jerry’s had been pressured to back down. Even Zinger himself embraced the narrative. “There is no place for discrimination in the commercial sale of ice cream,” he said. “BDS lost. I now have the right to sell Ben & Jerry’s using its Hebrew and Arabic name… forever. This is a victory for those who seek cooperation and coexistence, and a resounding defeat for discrimination.”
At the time of the sale Unilever said it had “used the opportunity of the past year to listen to perspectives on this complex and sensitive matter and believes this is the best outcome for Ben & Jerry’s in Israel.”
But Ben & Jerry’s put out a statement expressing their opposition to the sale. “We continue to believe it is inconsistent with Ben & Jerry’s values for our ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” it read.
Today Ben & Jerry’s echoed those sentiments while filing a complaint at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. They claim that the sale undermines the “social integrity Ben & Jerry’s has spent decades building.” According to the company its board voted 5-2 to sue Unilever.
The group Vermonters for Justice in Palestine (VTJP) had been carrying out a campaign targeting Ben & Jerry’s for over a decade when the company finally announced it would pull its business out of illegal settlements. The group, along with other Palestine activists, had been calling for Ben & Jerry’s to stop its business in Israel altogether and have continued to push that demand. Not only did Ben & Jerry’s say they would continue to sell ice cream in Israel, they also made it very clear that they weren’t embracing the BDS movement in any way.
Ben & Jerry’s caveats didn’t stop pro-Israel forces from attacking the company or BDS. The now former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the decision “a moral mistake.” Israeli Economy Minister Orna Barbivay posted a video of her throwing away a pint of half-eaten Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Multiple states have divested from Unilever over the move.
“If this half-baked statement from Ben & Jerry’s is going to make all these leaders talk about it for more than 48 hours, that means they are not as strong and steadfast as they think, or as strong as the image they like to project to their public,” VTJP’s Wafic Faour told Mondoweiss at the time. “We should take advantage of that. If they’re going to attack BDS in the United States and interfere with Freedom of Speech, bring it on. It’s a lemon but let’s make lemonade out of it.”
Article published in Mondoweiss by Michael Arria.
