Woke Ben & Jerry’s Called Out for ‘Occupying’ Native Land in Vermont

Israeli students spoke out after the company’s political-legal action.

QUICK FACTS:

• 1,000 Israeli students called out Ben & Jerry’s “hypocrisy,” accusing the company of “occupying” native land in Vermont.
• The students, all of whom were involved in higher education and academics, sent a letter to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream calling out the ice cream seller’s hypocrisy for objecting to the sale of ice cream in Israeli West Bank settlements.
• The students were part of a newly-launched ‘Students for Justice’ in America and claimed that Ben & Jerry’s was holding a double standard by taking their parent company, Unilever, to court.
• “We have concluded that your company’s occupation of the Abenaki lands is illegal and we believe it is wholly inconsistent with the stated values that Ben & Jerry’s purports to maintain,” the letter, addressed to the chair of the ice cream maker’s board, Anuradha Mittal, reads. 

If Ben & Jerry’s has the moral high ground for boycotting Judea and Samaria on the allegation of “occupying land”,

We demand that they evacuate their HQ in Vermont for occupying tribal land in Vermont. #Israel pic.twitter.com/1KVWVIpWyq

— Shurat HaDin – שורת הדין (@ShuratHaDin) August 10, 2022

BEN & JERRY’S LAWSUIT AGAINST UNILEVER OVER ISRAELI SALES OF PRODUCTS:

• Earlier in the week, Ben & Jerry’s took its parent company to federal court in New York for a hearing to request that a court force the multinational brand from allowing its goods to be franchised by Israeli licensee, Avi Zinger.
• An investor who has been actively opposing the Ben & Jerry’s boycott, Michael Ashner, recently claimed that the company’s decision to stop selling ice cream in some areas of Israel constituted an “existential threat.”
• “[We] saw it was an existential threat to Israel,” Ashner said. “If a multinational corporation can be pressured into divesting assets in the State of Israel, it’s the start of a slippery slope. We could not allow that to proceed.”

BACKGROUND:

• The suit was announced almost a year after the company said they would stop the sale of ice cream in Jewish settlements in the West Bank because doing so would be “inconsistent” with company values.
• Unilever reversed course on the original boycott and revealed a sale to Zinger. Legal sources cited in the Wall Street Journal said it is almost unheard of for Ben & Jerry’s to respond by suing Unilever as its subsidiary.