“Millions are marching around the world but the corporate world has been silent,” the company’s board chair said.
The board of ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s is calling for a “permanent and immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, potentially becoming the largest multinational corporation to do so as the Palestinian death toll amid Israel’s assault nears 25,000.
“Peace is a core value of Ben & Jerry’s,” Ben & Jerry’s board chair Anuradha Mittal told the Financial Times in an article published this week. “From Iraq to Ukraine [the company] has consistently stood up for these principles. Today is no different as we call for peace and a permanent and immediate ceasefire.”
Mittal went on to say that international business leaders’ failure to speak out on the issue is glaring. “It is stunning that millions are marching around the world but the corporate world has been silent,” Mittal said.
Ben & Jerry’s has a long history of advocacy concerning progressive issues, and in 2021 announced that it was ending sales in the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem — a move that the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement said was one of their largest victories. The move created swift backlash from Zionists and Israeli leaders, who criticized Ben & Jerry’s and accused the company of being antisemitic, in spite of the fact that both the company and advocates for Palestine made it clear that it is dangerous to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
The company also faced pressure from pro-Palestine groups who said that Ben & Jerry’s should go further and stop selling its products in Israel as well. However, at the same time, Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever swiftly moved to force the company to continue to do business with the Israeli occupation, selling its Israeli operation to a local businessman.
read more: https://truthout.org/articles/ben-jerrys-calls-for-permanent-and-immediate-ceasefire-in-gaza/
But will they pull their ice cream in protest?
They basically did.
Unilever is a supporter of genocide. Even Ukraine agrees.
Doesn't that just hurt the people who are being occupied?
I mean it does prevent them from accessing the product, but on the other hand even products sold in the occupied territories help the Israeli economy.
Considering you can’t get a bag of rice in Gaza right now…
...So they need ice cream?
I’m guessing if they can’t get rice they can’t get ice cream, whether B&J condone it or not.
“However”
They sold out to the man. :(
Yeah that's Unilever's fault, and a reason to boycott their products, but not Ben and Jerry's. They were prevented from doing it by an outside force.
But BJ is Unilever now.
*is OWNED BY Unilever
This is all the same thing to me. Unilever can just replace anyone there.
Don’t get me wrong, good for B&J, but that protest ended pretty quickly.
Didn't they get back after that?
They already have, "ending sales in the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem".
So you can get it Israel.
As far as Gaza… are there even supermarkets left in Gaza?
But I assume this means the US company “Ben & Jerrys” doesn’t benefit from these sales any more. Unilever still benefits, but Ben & Jerrys as it stands does not. It’s just the name being used in Israel occupied territory.
Probably there are but they should all be empty and/or closed by now.