Florida has announced that it will add Ben & Jerry’s parent company to a list that will restrict state investment in the firm over the ice cream company’s decision to stop selling its product in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The UK-based company Unilever will be added to Florida’s “Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel” list, which prohibits state investments and contracts with the company. Unilever will be added to the list on October 26th unless Ben & Jerry’s reverses its decision, which is not expected.
The state of Florida has about $139 million invested in Unilever and its subsidiaries. Under Florida’s restrictions, the state is not required to sell its current Unilever holdings but is prohibited from investing further in the company.
Other states have moved to divest entirely from Unilever on behalf of Israel, including New Jersey and Arizona. The states claim Ben & Jerry’s is boycotting Israel, but the ban only applies to ice cream sales in illegal settlements, and the product will still be sold in Israel.
US states are able to punish foreign companies at the behest of Israel due to laws against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for international boycotts to put pressure on Israel over its crimes against the Palestinians. Over 30 US states have anti-BDS laws on the books. Besides prohibiting investments in companies that “boycott Israel,” the laws also require contractors doing business with the state to sign what is essentially a loyalty oath to Israel.
After Ben & Jerry’s made the announcement in July, Israel launched a “maximum pressure” campaign to influence the US and urge states to use the anti-BDS laws to punish the ice cream company, and many governors were eager to comply.
Disclosure: Antiwar.com has received donations in the past from Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s
Well, being consistent, I guess it is their right to divest. The motivation, to defend the terrorist state of Israel, is a pretty shitty one, of course.
Supporting war crimes in the Occupied Territories. Doesn’t this make the states of Florida, New Jersey and Arizona war criminals?
Boycott anything from Florida ..
It is laughable. Ben and Jerry’s is not selling ice cream in occupied territories, specifically in the settlements. Sales goes on in Israel proper.
It is a righteous move and I applaud it.
Never in my born days did I ever expect to see such an insanely over-the-top reaction to ice cream.
Ohhhhh, almost forgot: this is do-no-wrong ISRA-HELL we’re talking about!
A government sponsored boycott of a private company in retaliation for political views expressed by that company is unconstitutional. It is unfortunate that no corporation has mounted an effective challenge to the suite of state anti-BDS laws punishing corporations and individuals for exercising their constitutional rights as private parties not not do business for political reasons.
First Amendment: Congress shall make no law prohibiting the exercise of freedom of speech. (includes corporations)
Fifth Amendment: No person (or corporation) may be deprived of property without due process of law.
Fourteenth Amendment: Makes the First and Fifth Amendments apply to the states.
Hopefully Unilever or maybe Ben & Jerry’s will successfully challenge Florida’s unconstitutional anti-boycott law.
After Marshall’s decision effectively legitimizing the Yazoo land grab, Jefferson commented to the effect that his cousin, the Chief Justice, “could sophisticate” black into white; and, since then, the art of sophisticating law and the Constitution is achieved byzantine exquisiteness. If we’ve learned anything over the period of The War on Terror, it’s that the law is a pitiful thin reed under the foot of the power elite.