I guess we’ll never get that Mintifada flavor now.
Jerry has quit Ben & Jerry’s.
The announcement by Jerry Greenfield, shared by his longtime business partner Ben Cohen, claims that under Unilever — which bought the company in 2000, 22 years after its 1978 founding — “Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power,” and so he could no longer “in good conscience” stay with the company. On what issue has he been silenced? Greenfield’s statement says that “it’s happening at a time when our country’s current administration is attacking civil rights, voting rights, the rights of immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ community.” (Emphasis added.) But what he’s actually been fighting about with Unilever is Israel:
Ben & Jerry’s has been outspoken on the treatment of Palestinians for years, and in 2021 it withdrew sales from Israeli settlements in what it called “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Ben & Jerry’s sued Unilever five months ago, accusing it of firing its chief executive, David Stever, over his support for the brand’s political activism. In November, Ben & Jerry’s filed another lawsuit accusing Unilever of silencing its public statements in support of Palestinian refugees.
Ben & Jerry’s said in the lawsuit it has tried to call for a ceasefire, support the safe passage of Palestinian refugees to Britain, back students protesting at U.S. colleges against civilian deaths in Gaza, and advocate for a halt in U.S. military aid to Israel, but has been blocked by Unilever. . . . Ben & Jerry’s said that Peter ter Kulve, Unilever’s head of ice cream, said he was concerned about the “continued perception of anti-Semitism” regarding the ice cream brand voicing its opinions on Gazan refugees, according to the lawsuit.
There was also a dispute about how to use the parent company’s money:
Unilever was also required under the settlement agreement to make a total of $5 million in payments to Ben & Jerry’s for the brand to make donations to human rights groups of its choosing, according to the lawsuit.
Ben & Jerry’s selected the left-leaning Jewish Voice for Peace and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, among others, the filing says.
Unilever in August objected to the selections, saying that Jewish Voice for Peace was “too critical of the Israeli government,” according to the lawsuit.
Notice that all of this happened during the Biden administration, so it’s disingenuous for Greenfield to cast this as somehow about the Trump administration’s policies in unrelated areas (although with Unilever planning an impending spinoff of its ice cream business, regulatory approvals will be needed — but then, the impending spinoff also gives leverage to Greenfield in suing the company). It’s also telling that he doesn’t have the courage of his convictions to say out loud that this is about anti-Israel activism.
I guess we’ll never get that Mintifada flavor now.