US states continue to take action over Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories. The New York Post reported Friday that the main pension fund for New York state’s government workers warned that it might divest funds from Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s UK-based parent company.
Over 30 US states have passed legislation against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that advocates for global boycotts to pressure Israel for its occupation and war crimes against Palestinians. New York hasn’t passed BDS legislation, but in 2016 Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order requiring state agencies to divest from organizations and companies that boycott Israel. At the time, Cuomo said passing legislation was a “tedious affair” and that he wanted to take “immediate action” against BDS.
Liz Gordon, executive director of corporate governance of the $254.8 billion New York pension fund, sent a letter to Unilever CEO Alan Jope. According to the Post, the pension fund has $73 million invested in Unilever. Gordon said state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli “is troubled and concerned” by Ben & Jerry’s decision.
Gordon warned that the state pension fund has a policy of restricting investment in companies that participate in BDS. She said reports suggest “Ben & Jerry’s, a Unilever wholly-owned subsidiary, is involved in BDS activities.”
She wrote: “The Fund views BDS activities as a potential threat to Israel, its economy, and, as a result, the fund’s relevant investments. Further, a number of US states have acted or are considering actions to penalize companies that engage in such behavior. As a result, companies that engage in BDS activities may face legal, reputational and financial risks.”
Gordon gave Unilever 90 days to respond and “confirm or deny whether Unilever or its subsidiaries have undertaken any activities with the intent to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with, the State of Israel.”
Ben & Jerry’s said they would stop selling ice cream in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” after a contract with a distribution expires at the end of next year. The company said they would still sell products in Israel, so the ban only applies to illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
After the announcement, Israel urged the governors of the US states with anti-BDS laws on the books to enforce them against Ben & Jerry’s, and some seem happy to comply. So far, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois are considering action against the ice cream company.
Disclosure: Antiwar.com has received donations in the past from Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s
Let freedom ring from every hill … from Florida, Texas, New York …
The one thing we had going for us was a relative freedom compared to the rest of the world. How free are you if you can’t decide to not associate with a damn foreign country for heavens sake?
The facts are that So-Called Civilized but Actually Genocide Committer West European & North American Countries’ Administrations, Politicians, almost All Institutions, Media are also Occupied Slave Territories of Zionist Nazi Terrorist Apartheid State of Israel through DEEP POCKETS, so, The Slaves can Never Dare to tell The Master to stop Genocide or Crucifying of Palestinian Christians and Muslims. PERIOD.
The problem is empire and imperial thinking. That’s what creates the “in” for foreign interests. If we returned to our own hemisphere and minded our own business, the lobbies would lose their hold. But as long as mil-industrialism is the base of our economy, we will continue to make excuses.
Might be a good time to look at buying undervalued shares in Unilever!
What total BS. B&J should pull completely out of Israel, New York, Texas, and any other nation or state that presumes to tell it who it can and cannot do business with. The rank and total hypocrisy of these politicians and their owners and operators couldn’t get much obscene. Bunch of bloody Fascists.
For once I side with the Libertarians because this is a ridiculous if not alarming reach of government power.
Don’t worry, stupid Americans will always obey the commands of Israhell !!
Grocery shopping yesterday … mmmm, some B&J “Cherry Garcia” … very tasty!
In the new international rules of order the Zionist Mafia gets to set the rules for us as well. Still it appears their gene pool is getting pretty weak. This action will probably generate more loathing for Israel than the bulldozer that plowed over Rachel Corrie.
American legislators making it illegal for Americans to boycott in protest should be removed from Office.
Starting with Cuomo.
Unilever should respond with a ban on any of its products being sold in occupied Palestinian territory.
I like all this wind & furry coming from the Zionists who think that it’s OK to murder unarmed protestor for getting too close to their fence imprisoning them and even harmless children have all to often have been gunned down by their snipers!!!!! It’s a poinant reminder just how horribly corrupted they have become.
So, NY, from the governor down, is OK with apartheid, ethnic cleansing, illegal bulldozing of Palestinian homes, Israeli control of all resources (water, electricity, travel), building of illegal settlements?
If this comes from Cuomo. To h*ll with him. If this is his sick idea to retain his hold on his office, he is going to lose a lot of supporters.
It is well to remember that Israel is OCCUPYING Palestinian territories. As an OCCUPIER, Israel does not have the legal right to do what they are doing. Apparently Israeli officials forget the prescient words of Moshe Dayan, when he said that were Israel an occupier ten years hence (from 1967) it would be the end of the idea of Israel.
It is now 2021. Things have worsened. Israel has not reformed, and is bombing Libya, Syria, Lebanon, and G-d knows who else. A crazed entity.
I bought my first ice cream in three or four years. Ben and Jerry’s is good stuff.
Florida?! Texas?!
…but they are the righteous ones, the Constitutionalists that back We the People. I thought they would never be that one’s B*tch!
That truth is disgusting.
Demand more of your politicians.
If they can only put you first after some genocidal scum, they should not be working for you. Get them the fck out of office and off of the payroll.
Israel CLAIMS to be a Democracy. But the only way it survives is by outlawing Free Speech and Free Association. Two foundation blocks of Democracy.
It is RACIST BIGOTRY and violation of Equality in the Eyes of the Law to “outlaw” boycotting Israel and not equally outlaw ALL boycotts/”sanctions”.
(1) Government has no legitimacy interfering in Civilian Boycotts
(2) Boycotts are a Civil Right
(3) Boycotts are FREEDOM of SPEECH.
(4) Boycotts are FREEDOM of ASSOCIATION — DISassociation.
(5) Boycotts are VOTING with dollars.
(6) Boycotts PEACEFULLY withhold “power/energy” from those with whom one disagrees without engaging in violence.
(7) In “Capitalism”, the system we CLAIM to follow, where and with whom you spend your money is ENTIRELY up to YOU.
The Citizens United Supreme Court decision firmly established that the right to spend money is a form of free speech. That means that the right to NOT spend money is also a form of free speech. Organizing a boycott — an act of NOT spending money — is then protected free speech in the same way that soliciting campaign funds to spend on promoting a political candidate or partisan viewpoint is free speech. “Under our Constitution, people and legal entities have the right to express political views without fear of consequences.”
WE are not supposed to boycott Israel but Israel maintains an ARMED boycott of Concentration Camp GAZA.
US threatens ICC with ‘consequences’ if it acts on war crimes complaint against Israel filed by ‘fake’ Palestinian state.
We do believe the Palestinians qualify as a sovereign state, and they, therefore, are qualified to obtain full membership or participate as a state in international organizations, entities, or conferences, including the ICC.
Neither Israel or the US are signatories to the ICC, because it is understood by the governments of both countries, that they both commit war crimes, in their quests to obtain their geopolitical agendas.
NY State in the suffocating embrace of Zionism
I like guns but Ben & Jerry’s hate guns. So I don’t care for their ice cream. I don’t eat much ice cream anyways.