It is the extension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through ice cream. The American ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s has filed a complaint against its parent company, Unilever, in an attempt to block the official resumption of the sale of its products in the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Because for Ben & Jerry’s, this trade in the colonies, illegal under international law, undermines the integrity of the brand.
From our correspondent in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,
To understand this complaint, we must first go back a year. In July 2021, the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand – which is known for its progressive commitments such as environmental protection, respect for human rights or the issue of inequality – announced that it stopped distributing its ice cream in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, believing that it was not compatible with his ” values “.
This decision was then welcomed by the Palestinians who saw a commitment from the American brand on their side. It was also seen as a victory for the BDS movement, the international boycott campaign against Israeli products. And unsurprisingly, all of this was also strongly criticized by Israel, which accused the decision of being anti-Semitic.
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Turnaround situation
At the end of June this year, Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever decided to hand over its business interests in Israel to Avi Zinger, who is the Israeli licensee. This resale thus paves the way for the resumption of the sale of ice cream in the Israeli settlements.
Victory for the Israelis. ” BDS lost. I have the right to sell Ben & Jerry’s using its Hebrew and Arabic name, forever said Avi Zinger.
Lior Haidat, the spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted a video on Twitter in which he poses with these famous ice creams, where he specifies that “csome victories are tastier than others “.
Cold shower on the other hand for the Palestinians. But just a few days later, in federal court in Manhattan, Ben & Jerry’s filed a complaint against its parent company. The brand believes that the resumption of the sale of its ice cream in Israeli settlements threatens its integrity, a reputation it has taken decades to build.
We are aware of the Unilever announcement. While our parent company has made this decision, we do not agree with it.
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— Ben & Jerry’s (@benandjerrys) June 29, 2022
This controversy is causing a lot of talk, as it mostly highlights the challenges faced by mainstream brands that take a stand on Israel’s military occupation of Palestinians (such as San Francisco-based Airbnb, which in 2019 reversed its decision to remove Israeli settlements from the list). For while the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement seeks to pressure Israel to respect international law in its treatment of Palestinians, Israel still asserts that such boycotts are discriminatory and anti-Semitic.
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