Ben & Jerry’s Won’t Be Sold in Israeli Settlements in Palestine | Eater
"After public pushback and renewed attention to the BDS movement and recent violence in Gaza, the company announced it will stop selling its ice cream in Israel-occupied Palestinian territories by declining to renew its regional licensing agreement when it expires at the end of next year. The move was justified as consistent with its social-values mission, even as the company said it will remain in Israel under a different arrangement. Critics argued that operating a factory and distributing product in settlements contradicted the brand’s outspoken progressive activism — including a 1978 founding by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, ownership by Unilever since 2000, a Bernie Sanders–inspired flavor, public support for Black Lives Matter, and other social-justice campaigns — and noted the company’s relative silence after recent attacks on Gaza. The decision prompted commercial and political backlash (some kosher U.S. stores stopped carrying the product and Israeli officials vowed to respond), and exposed internal conflict between the independent board — whose chair Anuradha Mittal said the released statement did not reflect the board’s position — and Unilever leadership, with the board asserting that continued sales in Israel would require its approval." - Jaya Saxena
