The founders of Ben and Jerry’s are safeguarding their company’s choice to put the freeze on selling ice cream in the West Bank, calling it “the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Despite the fact that Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield presently don’t have control of their namesake company — British food monster Unilever possesses it — they supported its choice on Thursday, in spite of the reality it has drawn anger from Israelis and New Yorkers the same.
“We are the founders of Ben and Jerry’s. We are additionally proud Jews. It’s essential for what our identity is and how we’ve recognized ourselves for our entire lives,” the founders wrote in a commentary in the news Thursday.
“As our company extended internationally, Israel was one of our first abroad business sectors. We were then, at that point, and remain today, allies of the State of Israel.”
The couple added that it is “feasible to help Israel and go against a portion of its approaches” similarly as they’ve “went against strategies in the US government.” The men said they “unequivocally support the choice of the company to end business in the occupied territories, which a greater part of the international community,” including the US, “has considered an illegal occupation.”
As of late, the company’s choice has been called out as anti-Semitic by pundits, including Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who compromised Unilever CEO Alan Jope with ramifications for the company because of the business boycott.
Public officials in the US have likewise reprimanded the move, with various states, including New York, that have received purported anti-boycott laws taking steps to strip their pension funds from Unilever.
Unilever has attempted to separate itself from the contention.
In a letter Tuesday to a few Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, Unilever’s Jope said the company “dismisses totally and disavows unequivocally any types of discrimination or intolerance.”
“Anti-Semitism is not welcome in any society,” he added, clarifying that when Unilever purchased Ben and Jerry’s in 2000, it consented to leave control over the auxiliary’s image and social justice mission in the possession of a free load up, which is driven by Anuradha Mittal.
In their Thursday opinion piece, Cohen and Greenfield said they “marked an interesting administration structure in the procurement concurrence with Unilever” in 2000, which is the “enchantment” behind Ben and Jerry’s “image respectability” and “social mission.”
By and by, Ben and Jerry’s choice to pull out of the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” infuriated Unilever’s own Jewish employees just as different supermarket chains around the country.