What the Ben & Jerry’s Decision Reveals About Israel
No company does progressive politics quite like Ben & Jerry’s. The Vermont-based ice-cream maker has a reputation for corporate activism, owing to its support for a wide array of left-wing causes, including marriage equality, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter. But when the company announced this week that it will no longer sell its products in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, it faced an outcome that every ice-cream maker fears most: a meltdown.
The matter of Israel’s settlements, which the international community regards as illegal under international law but which the Trump administration said will need to be resolved through a political and not a judicial process, has long been a thorny issue in Israel. (The Biden administration has yet to articulate its own.” His centrist coalition partner, Yair Lapid, called the move a “.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog of the center-left, who once Israeli settlements in the West Bank, called Ben & Jerry’s decision to shun them “.” The newly minted opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, that Israelis should boycott the brand. One centrist cabinet minister dutifully posted of herself chucking a pint of what looked like Dulce de Leche into the trash.
