{"id":5067,"date":"2022-07-07T13:31:49","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T05:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/?p=5067"},"modified":"2023-07-12T14:00:05","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T06:00:05","slug":"ben-jerrys-sues-parent-company-says-west-bank-sales-undermine-its-social-integrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/ben-jerrys-sues-parent-company-says-west-bank-sales-undermine-its-social-integrity\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben & Jerry\u2019s sues parent company, says West Bank sales undermine its \u2018social integrity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ben & Jerry\u2019s 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\u2019s year-long effort to end sales in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

In July 2021 the ice cream manufacturer\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that it would stop selling its product in illegal Israeli settlements. \u201cWe have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry\u2019s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region,\u201d it read. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a0celebrated<\/a>\u00a0the announcement as a victory against BDS and proof that Ben & Jerry\u2019s had been pressured to back down. Even Zinger himself embraced the narrative. \u201cThere is no place for discrimination in the commercial sale of ice cream,\u201d he\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cBDS lost. I now have the right to sell Ben & Jerry\u2019s using its Hebrew and Arabic name\u2026 forever. This is a victory for those who seek cooperation and coexistence, and a resounding defeat for discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of the sale Unilever said it had \u201cused 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\u2019s in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Ben & Jerry\u2019s put out a statement expressing their opposition to the sale. \u201cWe continue to believe it is inconsistent with Ben & Jerry\u2019s values for our ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,\u201d it read.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ben & Jerry’s instagram post.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Today Ben & Jerry\u2019s echoed those sentiments while filing a complaint at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. They claim that the sale undermines the \u201csocial integrity Ben & Jerry\u2019s has spent decades building.\u201d\u00a0According to the company<\/a>\u00a0its board voted 5-2 to sue Unilever.<\/p>\n

The group\u00a0Vermonters for Justice in Palestine<\/a>\u00a0(VTJP) had been carrying out a campaign targeting Ben & Jerry\u2019s 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\u2019s to stop its business in Israel altogether and have continued to push that demand. Not only did Ben & Jerry\u2019s say they would continue to sell ice cream in Israel, they also made it very clear that they weren\u2019t embracing the BDS movement in any way.<\/p>\n

Ben & Jerry\u2019s caveats didn\u2019t stop pro-Israel forces from attacking the company or BDS. The now former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the decision \u201ca moral mistake.\u201d Israeli Economy Minister Orna Barbivay posted a video of her throwing away a pint of half-eaten Ben & Jerry\u2019s ice cream. Multiple states have divested from Unilever over the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this half-baked statement from Ben & Jerry\u2019s 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,\u201d VTJP\u2019s Wafic Faour told\u00a0Mondoweiss<\/a><\/em>\u00a0at the time. \u201cWe should take advantage of that. If they\u2019re going to attack BDS in the United States and interfere with Freedom of Speech, bring it on. It\u2019s a lemon but let\u2019s make lemonade out of it.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Article published in Mondoweiss<\/a> by Michael Arria<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ben & Jerry\u2019s 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\u2019s 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… Read More »Ben & Jerry\u2019s sues parent company, says West Bank sales undermine its \u2018social integrity\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,29],"tags":[128,151,214,45,46,39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5067"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5088,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067\/revisions\/5088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}