Tesco has removed beloved items like Marmite spread and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream from its online platform. — AP
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's accused its parent company, Unilever, of stifling its efforts to express support for Palestinian refugees and threatening to dissolve its board and sue its members over the matter. This legal action highlights the ongoing tensions between Ben & Jerry's and Unilever, which came to a head in 2021 when Ben & Jerry's decided to halt sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, citing a conflict with its values. This decision prompted some investors to divest from Unilever.
Ben & Jerry's subsequently sued Unilever for selling its Israeli business to a local licensee, allowing sales to continue in both Israel and the West Bank. This lawsuit was resolved in 2022. The new lawsuit alleges that Unilever has violated the terms of the 2022 settlement, which remains confidential. According to the lawsuit, the agreement required Unilever to "respect and acknowledge the Ben & Jerry's independent board's primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry's social mission."
The lawsuit claims that Ben & Jerry's has tried to publicly support peace and human rights on four occasions, but each attempt was suppressed by Unilever. Unilever did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ben & Jerry's stated in the lawsuit that it attempted to call for a ceasefire, support the safe passage of Palestinian refugees to Britain, back students protesting civilian deaths in Gaza, and advocate for an end to US military aid to Israel, all of which were blocked by Unilever.
The independent board addressed some of these issues separately, but the company's voice was muted. According to the lawsuit, Peter ter Kulve, Unilever's head of ice cream, expressed concern about the "continued perception of anti-Semitism" related to Ben & Jerry's stance on Gazan refugees. Under the settlement agreement, Unilever was required to make $5 million in payments to Ben & Jerry's for donations to human rights groups of its choice. Ben & Jerry's selected organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Unilever objected to these selections in August, stating that Jewish Voice for Peace was "too critical of the Israeli government." Ben & Jerry's has long positioned itself as socially conscious, a mission it maintained after being acquired by Unilever in 2000. In March, Unilever announced plans to spin off its ice cream business, including Ben & Jerry's, by the end of 2025 to streamline its operations. Unilever's extensive product line includes Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Knorr bouillon cubes, Surf detergent, and Vaseline petroleum jelly.
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