The founders of Ben & Jerry's, who no longer run the ice cream company but remain members of an activist "social mission" board, are saying Unilever "usurped their authority" under their 2000 merger agreement.
"Unilever has usurped their authority and reversed the decision that was made and we can't allow that to happen," Ben Cohen told MSNBC. "We can't sit idly by while that happens because that's essentially saying the independent board doesn't matter and they want regarding the social mission but Unilever is going to just overturn it."
Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are both Jewish, but they sought to boycott the selling of their former brand in Israel because of the settlements in the West Bank. Unilever effectively blocked their boycott by selling the rights of the company in Israel so that the brand can still be served there, and now Cohen and Greenfield are suing to stop it.
"The decision by the company not to sell ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories is consistent with the values that the company has had throughout its history of fighting for human rights and dignity," Greenfield told MSNBC.
But activism to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel — aka the BDS movement — has been considered antisemitic, and Cohen and Greenfield have effectively fed into it because the company has never boycotted any other region of the world, The Times of Israel reported.
Cohen rejected allegations of being antisemitic by supporting BDS.
"If I care about the people in Palestine just as much as I care about the people in Israel, is that antisemitic?" Cohen asked MSNBC. "They're people. They're families, they're mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers in Israel I care about. I care about their human rights.
"And there's mother, fathers, sisters, brothers in Palestine that I care about. I care about their human rights."
Unilever bought Ben & Jerry's in 2000 but the merger agreement allowed an independent "social mission" board to continue to use the brand for activism.
"The independent board has authority over the social mission of the company and the essential integrity of the brand," Greenfield told MSNBC. "The company uses its power to address social and environmental problems around the world and that social mission is part and parcel to the success of the company."
But that activism was costing the U.K.-based Unilever money in Israel and it moved to work around the board by selling the brand name in Israel to another party, effectively cutting the board out of the ability to boycott Israel, the Times reported.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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