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WASHINGTON – Following in Arizona’s footsteps, the state of New Jersey announced on Tuesday that it could divest funds from Ben & Jerry’s, as well as its parent company, Unilever, following the cream company’s decision frozen to cease sales in Israeli settlements, becoming the second US state to do so.
The director of the New Jersey investments division wrote a letter to Unilever CEO Alan Jope earlier this month, advising him that the state’s review of the Ben & Jerry’s boycott decision in July had found that the company had violated local laws requiring divestment from boycotting companies. Israel.
As Ben & Jerry’s sought to differentiate between Israel, where it has expressed a desire to continue operating, and the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” that it said it would boycott, the New Jersey study determined that the latter position was akin to a boycott of Israel under State law.
Reaching only a preliminary conclusion, New Jersey officials gave Unilever 90 days to convince Ben & Jerry’s to reverse the announcement before the state proceeded with divesting the assets of the pension funds.
Those pension funds stand at $ 90 billion in New Jersey, although it was not immediately clear what percentage is currently invested in Unilever, which is headquartered in the state.
North American Jewish Federations President and CEO Eric Fingerhut welcomed the announcement, saying it “sends a strong message that boycotts and discrimination against America’s staunch ally , Israel, are unacceptable and only serve to undermine the cause of peace ”.
In this March 23, 2010 file photo, ice cream moves along the production line at Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, in Waterbury, Vt. (AP Photo / Toby Talbot, File)
Earlier this month, Arizona became the first state to pull the trigger to divest itself of Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s in response to its settlement boycott.
Arizona’s investments in Unilever were reduced from $ 143 million as of June 30 to just $ 50 million last week, and September 21 will drop to zero, State Treasurer Kimberly Yee said in a statement.
There are 34 states in total that require their governments to stop doing business with companies that boycott Israel – and 21 of them, like Arizona, include the boycott of West Bank settlements in their definitions.
Eight states so far are known to have triggered similar reviews that could result in the divestiture of Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever. Besides Arizona and New Jersey, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Maryland and Rhode Island have initiated formal proceedings.
There has been a furious backlash against the ice cream company over its decision, announced in July, to stop selling its products in what it called the “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” presumably the West Bank and Jerusalem. East. Ben & Jerry’s has announced that it will sever ties with its Israeli manufacturer and distributor and end sales on the Green Line from the end of 2022.
Unilever said he hopes to continue doing business in Israel proper and opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, while Ben & Jerry’s founders have said they do not approve of BDS but opposed the “illegal occupation” of Israel. However, it is not clear whether Ben and Jerry’s will continue to be available in Israel when the ban goes into effect at the end of next year, as Israeli law prohibits discrimination against Israeli citizens in the territories.
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