The meltdown over Ben & Jerry’s
Our kitchen is kosher. Sometimes a kosher supermarket in Westchester delivers our groceries, so I’m accustomed to receiving regular email from this supermarket regarding weekly promotions. When I received an email late Monday night, I opened it to see what I might order.
But it was not about food offerings. It was an announcement that the supermarket “stands with Israel.” Of course, was my first thought, why wouldn’t a kosher supermarket stand with Israel? And how was Israel relevant to their food business? Why this sudden announcement? As I continued to read the email, however, it began to make sense.
It informed customers that the supermarket “has removed all Ben and Jerry’s products from all its stores as a result of the ice cream maker’s decision to cease sales in parts of Israel. We stand with Israel. Always.”
Reading between the lines, I knew that the reference to “parts of Israel” meant the occupied West Bank, which is not part of Israel despite such claims. Monday night I had not known about Ben and Jerry’s action. What I did know was that Ben & Jerry’s has always taken progressive stands, so it made sense for it to take a principled stand in distinguishing between Israel and the Palestinian territory it occupies.
Now owned by Unilever, the Ben & Jerry’s company retains its own board of directors. Its stated social mission to meet human needs and eliminate injustices is still in force. This recent action raises awareness of an occupation that must end, not just for Palestinian well-being, but also for the well-being of Israel, indeed especially for Israel.
Good for Ben & Jerry’s, I thought, mentally applauding their action while reading the email. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who founded Ben & Jerry’s in 1978, are Jewish, and the principles of social justice they have promoted over the years are consistent with core Jewish values and the pursuit of tikkun olam, the repair of the world, that is a driving Jewish force.
The next day, I read coverage of Ben & Jerry’s action in the Jewish press and Jewish social media. I realized, to my horror, that the email from the kosher supermarket reflected an unimaginable, over-the-top, hysterical reaction to the Ben & Jerry’s announcement.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Ben & Jerry’s had “decided to brand itself as an anti-Israel ice cream.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called it a “shameful surrender to anti-Semitism.”
The right-wing Zionist Organization of America called for a boycott of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Israel’s new president Isaac
I realized, to my horror, that the email from the kosher supermarket reflected an unimaginable, over-the-top, hysterical reaction to the Ben & Jerry’s announcement.
Herzog referred to it as “a new kind of terrorism.”
Particularly disturbing for me, as an American Jew, was the letter Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, sent to the governors of 35 states that have laws against boycotting Israel. He called upon the states to implement these laws in the form of sanctions against Ben & Jerry’s.
These laws, recently enacted in so many states, are, for the most part, the result of Israeli coordinated lobbying to make the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions — the BDS movement — illegal. Although I oppose the BDS movement, I also oppose with every fiber of my being these Israeliinspired laws that violate our American First Amendment rights. The American Civil Liberties Union is on the front lines in this battle to have them struck down as unconstitutional. For Americans, Jewish or non-Jewish, this should not be about our views on Israel, but rather about protecting our First Amendment rights.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of pro-Israel, pro-peace J Street, referred to the Jewish hysteria over Ben & Jerry’s action as a “meltdown.”
“I’m blown away by the overreaction of those calling this decision ‘anti-Semitic’,” Ben-Ami wrote in an email to J Street supporters. “Anti-Semitism is brutal and real ... Calling this decision ‘anti-Semitic’... undermines and trivializes the critical fight against real anti-Semitism around the world.”
Israeli ambassador Erdan described the Ben & Jerry’s action as anti-Semitic and as advancing “the de-legitimization of the Jewish state and dehumanization of the Jewish people.”
Rather than attacking Ben and Jerry’s, Israel might better serve the Jewish people by confronting the reality of an occupation that dehumanizes Palestinians and harms us all.