Motivated By An Outraged Sense of Justice?

"It is my belief that Ben & Jerry’s brazen refusal to do business in Israel will result in your placement on the Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel List."

"[The state would then] be prohibited from investing in Ben & Jerry’s or its parent company, Unilever."

Florida state CFO Jimmy Patroni

 

"I’ve directed my staff to determine whether any specific action has been taken by Ben & Jerry’s or Unilever would trigger a listing under Chapter 808 of the Texas Government Code [the law passed in 2017]."

Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar

 

"This is an action that has severe consequences, including legal, and it [Israel] will take strong action against any boycott directed against its citizens."

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett

 

"We remain fully committed to our presence in Israel, where we have invested in our people, brands and business for several decades."

Unilever 

"I can’t stop thinking that this is what happens when you have a board with all women and people of color who have been pushing to do the right thing."

Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board Chair Anuradha Mittal  

A view of the entrance of the ice-cream shop inside the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Be’er Tuvia in southern Israel, on July 21, 2021.   Emmanuel Dunand | AFP | Getty Images

Quite the unique arrangement that is; a large corporation buys out an exclusive brand whose founders are dedicated to 'social justice' so part of the sales agreement is that the original owner/founder's board of directors will engineer social policy with respect to the brand, while the buyer, a huge international conglomerate under whose name a wide spectrum of products reach the consumer market is to focus solely on production and corporate sales. Or ... something in that order.

In this instance, it is the product known as "Ben & Jerry's" ice cream, which Unilever bought out in 2000. With a condition of sale that an independent board would manage social-justice branding for the product. A product known for its 'social conscience', thus attracting the attention of BDS activists who lobby and apply the pressure of social conscience to persuade the board to issue a declaration that it will no longer sell the product in the West Bank 'illegal settlements' of 'Apartheid' Israel occupiers.

Shock and horror, what presumption! An enterprise founded by two Jews of hippie-era consciousness launch a product in a typical capitalistic style, cynical to the core. Advertising a superior product with pure whole ingredients in small containers at outrageously high prices that some would call pretentious. Citing the product to be 'packed by hand'; which is to say, what? Those small containers not automatically on a production line mechanically filled; instead humans scoop the product into the boxes.

And this equates with quality for which a premium price is demanded. But the name and its Jewish precedents and presumptions resonate with Jewish consumers; and the public relations and advertising persuades other consumers as well that premium quality can be had and the product is popularized. In Israel a franchisee has a contract to produce the ice cream and employs scads of Palestinian workers. The Ben & Jerry's board decides it can no longer abide the insult to their sensibilities and declare a principled sanction of Israel.

The fallout of indignant disbelief is immediate and damaging to the brand whose 'progressive' values are tainted by the obvious fact that it is not the 'Palestinian cause' that has motivated it to act against the supposedly express interests of Unilever which in true capitalist style wants to be all things to all people through ongoing, undisturbed sales, but plain old ugly anti-Semitism. The BDS movement itself is spurred by that same rancid motivation.

Boycott, Divestment and Sanction is expressively and venomously engineered to discredit, disadvantage, economically destabilize, slander and delegitimize Israel and with it Jews themselves collectively, individually. A psycho-social war of diminishing returns as it happens, since though its purpose is to cripple Israel financially, the movement has succeeded in bringing together the legions of Jew-haters while doing little to impact Israel's reputational integrity and allure in the global economy.

It is but another assault and insult to the sensibilities of Jews both in Israel and the diaspora, but for those Jews of the liberal-left who group themselves as critics aligned with those disparaging Jewishness in a rage of hate. The epitome of which is expressed by Ben & Jerry's current chair of their independent board, Anuradha Mittal, a dyed-in-the-wool anti-Semite purple with rage that Unilever's chief executive sputters the company's unwillingness to support the board's position.

If this is all about a brand of ice cream who cares? It goes a little deeper; it's a knife-wound from within, and Jews are truly sick and tired of constant harassment because they are Jews and because there are so many enraged Jew-haters who feel free to ventilate the depth of their anti-Semitism, feeling it a legitimate outlet to attack a nation of Jews as representative of all that is wrong in the world.

And so, 35 letters were sent off, signed by Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Gilad Erdan, addressed to state governors where anti-BDS legislation has been formally passed. Leading Unilever to fully comprehend that it, by default, has pulled a tiger's tail quite careless to the offence taken by the tiger. Should only several of the 35 states see fit to disengage from Unilever in reflection of their legislation it would be a few too many for the corporation's reputation, sales and stock market standing.

An Israeli franchisee manufactures Ben & Jerry's ice cream in Israel and distributes it    Reuters