Israel-Palestine Conflict and the 'Scoop Out' of Ben & Jerry Ice-cream

The recent violence between Israel and Palestine in the Middle-East has had repercussions on both the nations and then some. Apart from the very obvious loss of lives, livelihood and a semblance of life for many, people from the affected areas are also paying the price in many other ways due to the violence-hit state of affairs. On July 19, Ben & Jerry, a famed ice-cream brand from Vermont in US, dropped a notice stating it will stop selling ice cream in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The notice read as “We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). We also hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners”.

In reaction to this, Israel’s new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned the brand about the consequences that can follow after Ben & Jerry’s current business decision was seen as an anti-Israel step. In reply to Bennett and other Israeli politicians’ reactions to the ice cream brand’s notice, the latter although ‘Ben & Jerry’s will no longer be sold in the OPT, we will stay in Israel through a different arrangement’. “We will share an update on this as soon as we’re ready," the brand tweeted.

Israel seized the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the war of 1967 and has been promoting Jewish settlements in the territory after it. The residents of both countries have mostly faced such dire situations for the past several decades.

The stance by the ice-cream brand has enraged the Israeli supporters even as pro-Palestinian supporters also reacted to the news.

Ben & Jerry has had a track record of voicing out on social and environmental causes. Earlier in America they voiced supported the Black Lives Matter Movement, pro-LGBTQ among others. They had also earlier stood up against the oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

News18 spoke to Herb Keinon, author and a senior journalist with the Jerusalem Post on the same. “It doesn’t matter if Ben & Jerry have always been a part of progressive causes. That’s irrelevant here. What matters is this is an unfair decision as they are punishing people of only one side. It is ridiculous that only side is blamed completely, yet the other side has not exactly acted like Mother Teresa over the years. But it is absolved of any culpability. It is like looking at this complex issue from a binary lens that’s bended to only one side.”

Elaborating further on whether this might lead to some other companies pulling out from investing in India as well, Keinon said, “This B&J’s move is a part of a bigger thing called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) which started in 2001. Israel’s estimated GDP stood at 138.8 billion dollars then and today it is about 447 billion dollars. This is even when this BDS has been trying to get companies like Ben &Jerry over the years to do exactly what they are doing."

In 2000, UK giant Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry but the agreement allowed the brand to have a liberal board that can make independent decisions to speak for various social and environmental issues. Depriving OPT’s people of the ice creams is one of the decisions coming from this liberal board.

Professor Shalva Weil, a visiting scholar at University of Cambridge and a senior researcher at Hebrew University of Jerusalem has a slightly different view of the situation. “Personally, as an Israeli citizen, the B&J issue has been blown out of proportion. B&J can still buy and sell in Israel. East and West Jerusalem are divided by a few hundred meters so even if someone wants to buy this particular brand of ice cream, can freely do so in a west Jerusalem supermarket where Arabs and Jews mingle freely.”

She adds, “There is no apartheid in Israel. Of course the decision is fueled by politics but it may be ill-conceived. When the same happened to Soda Stream, they increased sales and made an exit of millions. This B&J decision may even encourage investment in a competing ice-cream brand.”

The Vermont-based ice-cream brand has been a favourite of dessert lovers as well as activists in the US and they have recently come out to voice their protests against Israel in the conflict between the two nations.

A former Ambassador of India to Jordan, Libya and Malta, Ambassador Anil Trigunayat, who is also a distinguished fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi explains further. “Naturally the reaction both in Israel and the US and elsewhere has been quite acute and extensive. A brand’s exit does have short and long-term repercussions and brings into focus the underlying problem between Israel and Palestine much to the chagrin of Tel Aviv and Jewish lobbies in the US. Since it’s also symbolic the issue may not die down without fight for sullying the image or retrieving the image on both sides. BDS may have just got a lifeline.”

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