Ben & Jerry’s is back in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem
Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s corporate parent, announced that the ice-cream brand has been sold to an Israeli licensee, reversing a ban on selling the product in annexed East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. The situation had spurred controversy in
Israel and abroad.
The Vermont-based icecream brand, which has protested Israel’s policies toward Palestinians, said on Twitter that it did not agree with the sale and that it still views its operations in those disputed areas, considered to be illegally controlled by Israel according to international law, as “inconsistent with Ben & Jerry’s values.”
As part of the new agreement, the ice cream will remain the same but will feature labeling only in Hebrew and Arabic, rather than English, Unilever said Wednesday.
In Israel, the move has been hailed as a win over the BDS movement (boycott, divestment, sanctions), which seeks to punish Israel economically for its treatment of Palestinians.
“Ben & Jerry’s factory in Israel is a microcosm of the diversity of Israeli society,” tweeted Israeli Foreign
Minister Yair Lapid, who called the agreement a “victory ... for partnership and dialogue, and against discrimination and hate.”
Ben & Jerry’s employs some 2,000 people at its four Israeli factories.
“Ice cream will still be sold in all of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, without restriction or discrimination,” said Avi Zinger, the Israeli licensee who has been distributing the ice cream in the region for years, using the biblical name for the West Bank — a land that Palestinians envision as part of a future state.
In July 2021, after pressure from pro-Palestinian
campaigners, Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would not renew its license for sales in the disputed territories at the end of 2022, citing its support for “human rights, and economic and social justice.”
But the Ben & Jerry’s announcement last year has caused business woes for Unilever, which acquired the ice-cream maker in 2000 for $326 million but
promised that the company would retain authority on decisions regarding its social mission. At least six U.S. states divested their pension funds from Unilever. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned Unilever Chief Executive Alan Jope in a call that cutting off the West Bank and East Jerusalem would have “severe consequences.”