Ben & Jerry’s files lawsuit against Unilever over sale of Israeli operations
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh July 5, 2022
Ben & Jerry’s filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against its parent Unilever for the international conglomerate’s intention to sell its Israeli operations to a company that plans to produce and sell the ice cream brand in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Ben & Jerry’s asserts in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, that Unilever’s decision was made without the consent of the ice cream maker’s board of directors. It said blocking the sale to American Quality Products, an Israeli company, is essential to “preserve the status quo and protect the brand and social integrity Ben & Jerry’s has spent decades building” over human rights concerns.
Unilever announced that it had reached an agreement to sell Ben & Jerry’s in Israel to a local franchisee, Avi Zinger. The sale comes a year after the Vermont-based ice cream company declared that it would stop sales in West Bank settlements, saying that selling in occupied territory “is inconsistent with our values.” Supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel celebrated the move. But it also set off a backlash against Unilever. At least eight states have since taken steps to halt or withdraw investments in the conglomerate.
Unilever has maintained that Ben & Jerry’s decision to pull out of the West Bank was made by the ice cream maker’s independent social-mission board. Unilever itself expressed its opposition to BDS in a letter to Jewish groups last year, and again last month.
In a Twitter thread last week, Ben & Jerry’s wrote on its official account that it disagreed with its parent company’s move: “We continue to believe it is inconsistent with Ben & Jerry’s values for our ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” On Friday, its board voted 5-2 to sue Unilever. The dissenters were directors appointed by Unilever.
Unilever said in a statement to Bloomberg, “The deal has already closed.”
Attorney Alyza Lewin, who represents Zinger, said in a statement: “Unilever chose the morally correct, socially just and principled path when it ensured that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream would always continue to be produced and sold in Israel and the West Bank. Avi Zinger stands arm in arm with Unilever and commends Unilever’s decision to forcefully defend its agreement with him.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
