Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories has enraged Israeli officials as well as pro-Israel lawmakers in the United States. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) went as far as calling for his state of Oklahoma to outright ban Ben & Jerry’s products.
“#Benandjerrys has now decided they know more about Jerusalem than the Israelis. If Ben & Jerry’s wants to have a meltdown & boycott Israel, OK is ready to respond. Oklahoma has an anti-boycott of Israel law in place,” Lankford wrote on Twitter.
“We should immediately block the sale of all #Benandjerrys in the state and in any state-operated facility to align with our law,” he added.
Over 30 US states have laws on the books against the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls to hold Israel accountable for its occupation through global boycotts. The laws deny state funds to any person or entity that boycotts Israel. Oklahoma’s law exempts state contracts that are under $100,000, a minimum set by several states following First Amendment challenges to the clearly unconstitutional laws.
In comments to The Hill, Oklahoma state Rep. Mark McBride (R) explained that the state’s anti-BDS law could not be used to ban Ben & Jerry’s. “If Ben & Jerry’s was a vendor [of the state], then we would not do business, but they are not a vendor of Oklahoma,” he said.
On Tuesday, Israeli Ambassador to the US Gilad Erdan sent a letter to the governors of the 35 US states urging them to enforce anti-BDS laws against Ben & Jerry’s. Twelve states BDS laws require state employees to disinvest their pensions from companies that boycott Israel. This could have an impact on Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, whose CEO received a call from Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett over the matter.
Disclosure: Antiwar.com has received donations in the past from Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s
Is this going to be the end of Ben & Jerry’s or of the end of Israel’s ability to force Americans to condone the bad behavior of her No.1 Welfare Queen who gets billions of our hard earned dollars every year. Some of which, extorted from US is used to conduct a brutal occupation that constantly uses deadly force to enforce it’s apartheid strictures on their defenseless victims. If our government is too bought off to see the brutal reality. Then it falls to morally alert individuals and organizations to step in and cut off the flow of money enabling this travesty to continue unimpeded.
There is no morality left in the American ‘government’. We now have a POS apartheid entity thousands of miles away from small town USA dictating not only federal , state but local freedom of speech. Talk about infiltration, Great job Zionists. The Russians should be proud of you.
Bingo…!!!!! Just us here it seems. Oh the frustration 2C how they co-opt our political leaders. They’ll say it’s G-d’s work, but to me it’s the devils amusements…
Best solution is everyone go out buy B&E products. Not just once but order them for the whole year.
Yup, don’t normally buy their pricey dessert, but I’ll try to force down a couple pints this year.
“Welfare Queen” is a very appropriate description.
Senator Lankford is a republican Senator in conservative Oklahoma. He may be surprised that almost 15% of his constituency is of Irish decent and many have not forgotten Rachel Corrie, the twenty-three year-old woman of Irish decent who was accidentally crushed by a bulldozer as she attempted to save a Palestinian home from destruction. An Israeli soldier was driving the bulldozer that accidentally crushed Rachel..
Rachel Corrie was born and raised in Olympia Washington and graduated from Evergreen State College. Many first generation Irish in Oklahoma were active in the socialist party. The day is coming when right wing conservatives seeking a wider middle east war and supporting Israel will simply be voted out of the old United States government as it evolves to a newer and more modern form of democracy that does not practice genocide, apartheid and eternal war.
Garrett, I am 50% Irish and U can SMD!! 🙂
Jay, I’m 100% Irish, and this is not a hookup site.
“accidentally” sure.
I’m guessing sarcasm. actually, I’d bet my house on it.
And compare that Israeli soldier to the tank driver who refused to run over that demonstrator at Tiananmen square. One is from a country that we send $3.8 billion of our tax dollars and veto any atrocity they might commit at the UN and the other is from a country that we are doing our best to goad them into war.
Let’s be fair, I’d be shocked if fifteen percent of Senator Lankford’s constituents could name Rachel Corrie or tell us anything about how she died.
That doesn’t mean that Senator Lankford is not an ass, and that his priorities do not reflect this.
When I’m on a witch hunt for anti-Semites, the first names I get suspicious of are Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.
Much of Israel’s support now comes from Christian Evangelicals. They started supporting Israel after Begin invaded Lebanon in 1982 and supported the Phalangists.
hilarious irony that nobody over in israel has even the fainest idea where oklahoma is.
“WTF is a okluhoma?”
….. Shmuel Steinbergstein
Senator who???
“… occupied Palestinian territories …”
“Illegally” … occupied?
“Illegal” … occupation?
dennis hanna
Too bad that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is so expensive – I’d damn sure eat more of it in their support.
Found on internet: “I imagine Mr. Senator from Oklahoma would probably have been arguing for the right of businesses not to serve certain people not so long ago.”
Still would if he could. Just guessing though.
Get this Israel-firster out of office … what a piece of shit !
Someone should tell him that Israel doesn’t consider Palestine to be part of Israel.
I live in Oklahoma and I just bought my first tub of Ben&Jerry’s – ‘Americone Dream’ it’s called.
For Ben & Jerry’s, a Jewish owned company, to boycott Zionist Jews in occupied territories speaks volumes about the company’s ethics. For Oklahoma’s Senator Lankford to call for a ban of Ben & Jerry’s in Oklahoma speaks volumes about his morality – or lack thereof.
Perhaps the rest of the states should ban products coming out of Oklahoma. After all, all those products are available from other states. States who might have a problem with the state sanctioned apartheid coming out of Jerusalem.