BEN & JERRY’S ICE CREAM, founded by two anti-Israel Jews, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, long known for their far left-leaning politics created a firestorm on Monday morning with its announcement that it would no longer sell ice cream in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
JTA The Vermont-based company had gone dark on social media for two months since the recent outbreak of violence started by Hamas against Israel. The announcement broke that silence, simultaneously infuriating Israel advocates who said the decision was an unfair attack on Israel and disappointing pro-Palestinian advocates who said the company should have gone farther.
Israeli politicians, supermarkets in the US, various pundits and even Ben & Jerry’s current Israeli licensee went after the ice cream maker and its corporate parent, the British multinational Unilever, for its statement.
(As an avid ice cream eater, I am happy to say I have never eaten Ben & Jerry’s precisely because of their far left political agenda which they like to incorporate into their marketing as well as many of their ice cream flavor names)
Here are some of the reactions to the company’s freezing out of its business relations in Israel. Reactions from Israel’s leaders were harsh.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a longtime supporter of the settlements, called the decision a “boycott of Israel” and said Ben and Jerry’s “decided to brand itself as an anti-Israel ice cream.” His predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeted, “Now we Israelis know which ice cream NOT to buy.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, the architect of the current ruling coalition who is generally to Bennett’s left regarding the Palestinians, went even further, calling the decision a “shameful surrender to antisemitism, to BDS and to all that is wrong with the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish discourse.” He called on US states to take domestic action against Ben and Jerry’s based on state laws that prohibit government contracting with entities that boycott Israel.
Amichai Chikli, a lawmaker in Israel’s Knesset, tweeted, “Ben & Jerry’s You picked the wrong side” and posted an infamous photo from 2000 of a Palestinian who had just killed two Israeli soldiers displaying his hands through a window, covered in the soldiers’ blood.
Zionist Organization of America called for a boycott of the ice cream, proclaiming that Ben & Jerry’s is “bad for your moral and physical health.” The call was echoed by others such as the Jewish conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who said he would stop eating the brand.
In happier times for Ben & Jerry’s-Israel relations, the company had made a concentrated outreach to its customer base with original, Israel-exclusive flavors, including charoset and “Matzah Crunch” — both certified kosher for Passover.
Spiritual Person says
Who cares about Ben and Jerry ice cream anyway?; They put eggs in their ice cream.
Reader says
They are not “self-hating Jews”.
They love themselves!
They just don’t love other Jews.
BareNakedIslam says
Reader, I think you’re onto something there.
Az gal says
I never buy their overpriced ice cream anyway.
Steve S says
I wish these companies would stay out of politics and just make the products they are good for. Ben and Jerry’s makes good ice cream, at least some of their products are good. Just make ice cream and stay out of politics! Leave politics to the politicians. The same with other companies, make your product, and leave politics alone.
I rather like some of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavors, such as Chunky Monkey, which is banana ice cream with walnuts and chocolate pieces, and they have a couple of liquor ice creams that are pretty good, too.
Companies that get on political bandwagons aren’t really doing a great deal of social good and in fact, they often alienate customers in their markets. If a corporation wants to do social good, donate to local charities and organizations that help people that are in need right here at home in the USA. There are a lot of poor people and people in need right here in the USA. They would do far more good that way, than jumping on the latest political bandwagon. And I think that companies that do bandwagon stunts are doing it because they think it will improve their customer base and thereby increase sales and profits, but it often does the exact opposite by alienating their existing customer base. Most people don’t care about a business’s political views or social stances; they care about how good a product the company sells, and whether it will suit their needs and purposes.
For example, we have sports clothing companies that try to sell hijab and Islamic fundamentalist compliant clothing for women. But what they fail to realize is that Islamic fanatics don’t endorse women participating in most sports and the form fitting clothing is often just as revealing according to Islamic standards than if they just showed bare skin. To give a specific example, the sports burquini is all concealing in that it covers all the bare skin, but is often form fitting for aerodynamic movement, so it actually defeats the very purpose of Islamic rules of modesty for a woman that wants to engage in competitive swimming but wants to be Islamic compliant. It is the ultimate hypocrisy. You either follow the rules or you don’t, there is no half assing it, and Muslim fundamentalists don’t endorse women’s sports, because it is not supported in the Quran and Hadith.
Linda Rivera says
Bible: “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul”
Ben & Jerry:
No decent human being wants your nasty, detestable, disgusting ice cream.
You RABID GOD HATERS. You snakes. Your hearts are filled with Great Darkness.
You choose EVIL instead of choosing Good. Your money will rot with you in Hell.
You won’t be in God’s Glorious Kingdom. The HOLY ONE that you FIERCELY HATE. You’ll spend all eternity in FIERY HELL.
Who are the Palestinians? An Arab Invention. CBN.
Bikinis not Burkas says
In Australia Ben and Jerrys’ is Halal Certified!
You do know what that means don’t you?
Yes that’s right, they support the MURDEROUS IDEOLOGY of ISLAM!
BareNakedIslam says
Didn’t know that, but it figures. Ben and Jerry would have supported Hitler right up until they were marched into the gas chambers.
Harry says
Costco and Trader Joe’s “premium ice cream” is objectively better quality ice cream than B &J’s. So is Haggen Daz. The only thing that’s one can’t get by switching is punky funky chunky monkey and other bizarre flavors.
Speaking of Jews, they too come in different flavors from JINO (Jew in name only) to Reform to Conservative to Orthodox and everything in between and beyond. As a general rule, the JINOs and the Reforms and the non-traditional Conservatives are all bleeding heart liberals. The Traditional Conservatives tend to be a mixture across the political spectrum, and the Orthodox tend to be politically conservative. The JINOs and the Reform and the non-traditional conservatives are a dying breed. With each generation they become less and less as their children and children’s children leave the faith and intermarry. Only the orthodox seem to have a solid future.
So, objectively there are better quality (and less pricey) ice cream options in the market that (in my opinion) taste better. Switch from B&J to these other options and watch the faces of the execs at Unilever, when they realize that the tens of millions of dollars spent on advertising to make their brand popular went “poof” by their stupid decision to politicize their product and join the BDS movement.
Maybe they can get Linda Sarsour and her ilk to buy B&J branded products, but I do not think so. Many of those Moooslimes are lactose intolerant and would not consume any dairy.
hope says
Ben and Jerrys has never made it to our freezer and won’t. Not worth the money. Hey, and don’t forget they donated lots of money to Bernie, their buddy. Israel has my heart and always will.
Andrew Blackadder says
Ben and Jerry dont even own their own Ice Cream anymore 100%, but I guess they can dictate to the massive corporation on where it can be sold, or not sold, so I wonder what Unilever said about this and the new flavor of Resist.
I will not buy it anymore thats for sure and thats a shame because they had some really good flavors.
BareNakedIslam says
From what I read, Unilever has been silent on this issue.
lucratiamacevil says
Ben and Jerry’s latest flavor – ‘Boycott’ – tastes like apricot, but with added ingredients of bull$ hit and hypocrisy.
Dapto says
Ben & Jerry’s just more members of the soros 4th Reich and they to wont be happy until your all rounded up and sent to concentration camps for disposal. Sieg heil Ben and Jerry you Nazis.
John says
One more Terrorist Ideology supporting company to BLACK BAN for supporting the Ideology that had 26,000 Volunteers in a SS Waffen Division helping Hitlers Holocaust and the Mufti Leader Mentored Yasser Arafat on how to continue the Holocaust against the world from Palestine.
Martelson says
Me too Bonni. Never had and never will have the stuff in the house. Naturally, Ben & Jerry being the good anti-Jewish Jews are fully on the anti-Israel pose. You just can’t be an good leftist if you aren’t. It’s kinda like thinking that Austrian house-painter does have some really wonderful ideas..
BareNakedIslam says
That’s why I always say, Jews like that worship the cult of Leftism, not Judaism.
Martelson says
Indeed.