By Barry Shaw
NETANYA, Israel — Less than 24 hours after receiving the news that Ben & Jerry’s announced they would not allow their ice cream to be sold in Judea & Samaria, what they called “occupied Palestinian territory,” there has been a grassroots backlash against this company.
Both the Israeli TV and social media channels are reporting that Israelis are boycotting B&J’s ice cream.
The trending emoji in Israel today are photographs of cartons of B&J in trash cans, thrown out by protesting Israelis.
You boycott us. We boycott you, is the new Israeli motto.
This ice cream company achieved something that Israelis thought impossible following the recent fractious national election. Ben & Jerry succeeded in uniting Benjamin Netanyahu with his political rivals Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid in a coalition against this ice cream brand.
Following the announcement that they would remove their products from the territories, Bibi tweeted, “Now we Israelis know which ice cream NOT to buy.”
Yair Lapid called the decision, “a disgraceful capitulation to anti-Semitism and the BDS movement.”
Lapid, as Foreign Minister, said he would appeal to the 30+ US states that have anti-boycott laws to retaliate against the company.
Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, said, “the company had made a moral mistake that will turn out to be a business mistake as well.”
The company founded in 1978 by two Vermont Jews, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, was sold to Unilever, but the influence of the founders is still relevant in the company today. And their influence reflects the woke values that has pervaded many American Jews in recent years, values that have led them away from traditional and legitimate values such as those pursued by mainstream Jews and Israel.
Cohen and Greenfield echo the anti-Israel platform of the Vermont for Justice in Palestine organization which has accused Israel wrongly of “abuses of Palestinian human rights” while studiously ignoring the barbaric Palestinian “Pay to Slay” policy of rewarding Arabs who kill Jews, and the Palestinian authorities who, according to Human Rights Watch, abuse, arrest, torture, and kill Arabs who oppose their corrupt rule, both in Ramallah and in Gaza, while insisting that Israel withdraw from territory that was mutually agreed under the Oslo Accords must remain under Israeli administrative and security control until a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Cohen and Greenfield are wrong both on their business decision and their biased and mistaken politics.
Ben & Jerry’s announced that their political ban would start in another year and a half due to their signed commercial commitments.
It is highly likely that, by that time, this company, headed by these two American Jews, will not find Israel a viable place to do business.
Israelis like choice, but not one that leaves a nasty taste in their mouths.
In Israel today, their ice cream is confined to the trash can.
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Barry Shaw is Senior Associate for the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
Ben & Jerry’s, the most repulsive ice cream I’ve ever tasted. Now I understand why!
I’m sure that Häagen-Dazs ice cream will appreciate the extra business.
The End Jew Hatred organization commented:
Ben & Jerry’s has failed to melt us with its passion for Jew-hatred masquerading as politics. Its half-baked opinion on Jews living in Judea and Samaria is not only absurd coming from an ice cream company, but is offensive to Jews around the world.
Judea is the heartland of the Jewish civilization. The Jewish people come from, and are indigenous to, Judea. The Jewish presence in Israel is not a provocation, but an integral part of our ethnic and cultural identity, and a basic human right. Instead of “achieving equity, opportunity, and justice for communities across the globe that have been historically marginalized,” per its stated mission, Ben and Jerry’s decided to discriminate against Jews living in Judea and Samaria in a one-sided, bigoted, and ignorant way. Jewish people have every right to live in their homeland, and implementing rules aimed at creating a Judenrein so-called West Bank is a modern-day version of Nazi policy.
By falling prey to cheap platitudes and easy stunts, Ben and Jerry’s is reinforcing the pernicious “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” message that with enough pressure and aggression, Jews can be forced out of our homeland.
We will not tolerate any person or company saying that Jews have no right to live freely in our homeland.
We will end Jew-hatred in our lifetime.
I’m sure many of you have heard the shameful announcement from Ben & Jerry’s regarding its intent to terminate its business relationship with its Israeli distributor. This is very clearly the result of a hateful BDS pressure campaign.
The Lawfare Project is looking very closely at this issue, particularly as it relates to state anti-BDS laws. Most of the coverage thus far seems to overlook the impact on Unilever, Ben and Jerry’s parent company. Unilever does business everywhere and its stock is widely held by mutual funds and institutional investors, like public pension funds.
By virtue of its wayward subsidiary, Unilever—a massive international conglomerate—risks potentially crushing financial consequences in terms of its ability to receive investments from, or do business with, the majority of U.S. states.
We will keep you up to date as we continue to investigate this matter.
Brooke Goldstein
Executive Director, The Lawfare Project