On July 19, 2021, the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company announced plans to stop selling its products in the “occupied Palestinian territories” and its intention to end its licensing agreement with their Israeli franchisee in December 2022. (The local company criticized the decision.)

Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s international parent company, subsequently added, “We remain fully committed to our presence in Israel.” However, Ben & Jerry’s board chair Anuradha Mittal claimed that Unilever did not consult the board before releasing its statement and that the board had wanted to “release a different statement… that made no reference to continued sales in Israel.”

This announcement and change in policy is part of a broader NGO-led BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) agenda and follows 10 years of campaigning from pro-BDS NGOs, predominantly led by an otherwise insignificant group, Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel, as well as U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace.

Calls on Ben & Jerry’s to boycott Israel significantly increased during the May 2021 Israel-Gaza conflict, when pro-Palestinian activists swarmed the comments sections  of Ben & Jerry’s social media accounts, demanding the company boycott Israel and resulting in Ben & Jerry’s halting its social media activity for two months.

Notably, Mittal has a discernible history of anti-Israel bias. She supported calls for boycotting Pillsbury, and in June 2021 signed a petition to U.S. Secretary of State Blinken “demanding that he halt weapons sales to Israel.”

In 2019, she tweeted, “calling for Congress not to have allegiances to foreign countries (Israel) is not anti-semitic” (tagging the pro-BDS group CODEPINK). She is also the founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute, which has partnered in the past with radical NGOs that support BDS, including BADIL, ICAHD, Youth Against Settlements, and Hebron Rehabilitation Committee.

Under international law, there is no prohibition whatsoever for doing business or selling consumer products in either occupied territory or settlements.

🇮🇱 IF YOU LOVE ISRAEL - SHARE NEWSRAEL! 🇮🇱