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Ben & Jerry’s Becomes One of the First Major Companies to Call for Gaza Ceasefire (truthout.org)

submitted 10 months ago by tree@lemmy.zip to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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“Millions are marching around the world but the corporate world has been silent,” the company’s board chair said.

The board of ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s is calling for a “permanent and immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, potentially becoming the largest multinational corporation to do so as the Palestinian death toll amid Israel’s assault nears 25,000.

“Peace is a core value of Ben & Jerry’s,” Ben & Jerry’s board chair Anuradha Mittal told the Financial Times in an article published this week. “From Iraq to Ukraine [the company] has consistently stood up for these principles. Today is no different as we call for peace and a permanent and immediate ceasefire.”

Mittal went on to say that international business leaders’ failure to speak out on the issue is glaring. “It is stunning that millions are marching around the world but the corporate world has been silent,” Mittal said.

Ben & Jerry’s has a long history of advocacy concerning progressive issues, and in 2021 announced that it was ending sales in the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem — a move that the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement said was one of their largest victories. The move created swift backlash from Zionists and Israeli leaders, who criticized Ben & Jerry’s and accused the company of being antisemitic, in spite of the fact that both the company and advocates for Palestine made it clear that it is dangerous to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

The company also faced pressure from pro-Palestine groups who said that Ben & Jerry’s should go further and stop selling its products in Israel as well. However, at the same time, Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever swiftly moved to force the company to continue to do business with the Israeli occupation, selling its Israeli operation to a local businessman.

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[-] noorbeast@lemmy.zip 100 points 10 months ago

Irrespective of what anyone thinks of Ben & Jerry’s position, pro peace is not antisemitic, particularly when consistently applied to a range of entities and mirrored in actions, rather than just words.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 17 points 10 months ago

But will they pull their ice cream in protest?

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 59 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

and in 2021 announced that it was ending sales in the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem

The company also faced pressure from pro-Palestine groups who said that Ben & Jerry’s should go further and stop selling its products in Israel as well. However, at the same time, Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever swiftly moved to force the company to continue to do business with the Israeli occupation, selling its Israeli operation to a local businessman.

They basically did.

[-] intelshill@lemmy.ca 25 points 10 months ago

Unilever is a supporter of genocide. Even Ukraine agrees.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Doesn't that just hurt the people who are being occupied?

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago

I mean it does prevent them from accessing the product, but on the other hand even products sold in the occupied territories help the Israeli economy.

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Considering you can’t get a bag of rice in Gaza right now…

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

...So they need ice cream?

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I’m guessing if they can’t get rice they can’t get ice cream, whether B&J condone it or not.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

“However”

[-] ivanafterall@kbin.social 11 points 10 months ago

Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever

They sold out to the man. :(

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

Yeah that's Unilever's fault, and a reason to boycott their products, but not Ben and Jerry's. They were prevented from doing it by an outside force.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

But BJ is Unilever now.

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

*is OWNED BY Unilever

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

This is all the same thing to me. Unilever can just replace anyone there.

Don’t get me wrong, good for B&J, but that protest ended pretty quickly.

[-] iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Didn't they get back after that?

[-] noorbeast@lemmy.zip 5 points 10 months ago

They already have, "ending sales in the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem".

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months ago

However, at the same time, Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever swiftly moved to force the company to continue to do business with the Israeli occupation, selling its Israeli operation to a local businessman.

So you can get it Israel.

As far as Gaza… are there even supermarkets left in Gaza?

[-] poppy@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

selling its Israeli operation to a local businessman

But I assume this means the US company “Ben & Jerrys” doesn’t benefit from these sales any more. Unilever still benefits, but Ben & Jerrys as it stands does not. It’s just the name being used in Israel occupied territory.

[-] filister@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Probably there are but they should all be empty and/or closed by now.

[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 10 months ago

I like how MSM is showing exactly what's going on in Gaza now pretty much constantly, albeit with the unofficial undertone of being "pro-Israel", and the huge corpos are still promoting the lie that Israel is merely defending itself, but other than the absolute head-in-the-sand idiots who can't be bothered to follow current events, there's never been a bigger divide ideologically between the people and the corpos.

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Their ice cream is so good, but man it seems to be $1 more expensive every time I see it at the store. Shit is like $9+ for a pint these days.

[-] FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

I'm in Ireland and I swear the products are smaller now than they were before Covid. I'd like to think that they are forced into doing that shit by their parent company, but I'm probably wrong.

I mean the smaller size isn't the worst thing, I wasn't able to finish it before. But what does suck is that even over here, it's been getting stupidly expensive. It's just not worth it anymore.