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Ben & Jerry’s announced Monday that it will no longer allow the sale of its ice cream in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a decision that comes after a wave of online criticism targeted the company’s sales in those areas and kept it silent on its social media for about two months.
The Vermont-based company, known for its progressive messages in advertising and the ice cream brand, said in a statement Monday that “we believe it is inconsistent with our values that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream be sold in stores. Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). “
“We also hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners,” he added.
The company said it would end a deal with a licensee that makes and sells the iconic ice cream in Israel and elsewhere in the region.
For the past three decades, Ben & Jerry’s has licensed a factory in Israel, which produces and distributes ice cream in the country and also sells and supplies Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Ben and Jerry’s said on Monday that it would not renew its agreement with the licensee, but would continue to sell its ice cream in Israel “through a different agreement.”
In a statement, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “a very complex and sensitive situation” and said it remained “fully committed to our presence in Israel.” Unilever has acknowledged that as part of its 2000 acquisition agreement, Ben & Jerry’s retained oversight of the Israeli license.
The Unilever statement continues: “We also welcome the fact that Ben & Jerry’s will remain in Israel. “
Almost a tenth of Israel’s Jewish citizens live in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. International law considers them illegal, but the Israeli government has maintained that it has historical and religious rights to the land.
A group called Vermonters for Justice in Palestine has a long history of criticized the business arrangement – born out of a friendship between Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen and Israeli businessman Avi Zinger in the 1980s. The 20-year-old advocacy group argues that the involvement of the enterprise in the occupied territories goes against the mission of social justice from which it benefits.
Earlier this year, as the Israeli government launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and Hamas and other militant groups fired rockets at Israel, the arrangement took on new visibility and many sympathetic militants to the Palestinian cause began to campaign for Ben & Jerry’s to cease sales.
Hanna Krueger of Globe staff contributed.
Christina Prignano can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @cprignano.
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