Free Republic

The founders learned this week they aren't getting their business back and their foundation is getting audited. There is a battle under way over the ownership and identity of the iconic ice cream brand Ben and Jerry's — and its radical leftist founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, appear to be losing badly. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal indicated that Cohen was trying to gather investors to buy back the brand that he and Greenfield sold to Unilever 25 years ago. This buyback initiative came just weeks after Unilever removed the company's anti-Trump CEO Dave Stever, allegedly on...

When culture warriors become literal corporate sell-outs, they shouldn’t be surprised when the laws of economics come and bite them in the ass. There’s a reason ‘go woke go broke’ has become axiomatic. Even institutions as big as Disney and Bud Light have learned they are not too big to feel the sting of a spurned public returning the favor. As for politics, there aren’t many corporate political attention whores louder than Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s sold their company to Unilever in 2000, with the expectation that they could continue their political grandstanding. It looks like,...

Several MAGA figures have called for a boycott of Ben & Jerry's after the company released a video defending its progressive activism. Newsweek has contacted Ben & Jerry's for comment via email. Why It Matters The ice cream company is refusing to back down from its political positions despite facing backlash from conservative consumers, who have launched several boycotts in recent years over companies' diversity, equity and inclusion policies. What To Know Ben & Jerry's recently posted a TikTok video in which it said, "We use our power, our privilege, our platform and our relationship with our fans to advocate...

A little-known network funded by the Rockefellers, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and top foundations is behind a disruptive climate activist group that is drawing the attention of law enforcement, according to tax records. Over the last year, an organization known as Climate Defiance has propelled itself into the national spotlight by deploying activists... Now, newly filed financial disclosures reveal how Climate Defiance, which aims to “make support for any fossil fuels as unacceptable on the Left as opposing abortion or gay marriage,” keeps its lights on...

Ben & Jerry’s says that the United States was built on stolen indigenous land and that it should be returned. The iconic ice cream company made this statement on July 4th across social media platforms and its own website. This was an obvious response to Independence Day. There are groups of people across the nation who refuse to celebrate July 4th because of the subjugation of native and black Americans. There is just one small problem with Ben & Jerry’s message. Their own headquarters sits on “stolen” land in Vermont. Shortly after their social media post, a Native tribe with...

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem laid into uber-woke ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's over the company's infamous July 4th tweet in which it called for Mount Rushmore to be returned to Native Americans. Noem, a Republican, called the Ben & Jerry's bosses a 'bunch of liberal Vermont businessmen' who 'haven't studied our history' and think that they 'know everything about this country,' during an interview with Fox News on Thursday. The governor went on to call Mount Rushmore 'the greatest symbol of our freedom.' Since sending out the message on Tuesday, Unilever, which has owned Ben & Jerry's since...

Looks like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream couldn’t stand up to the heat: Its misguided anti-Israel boycott is finally melting away, thanks to a new arrangement by B&J’s parent company Unilever. The leftist dessert brand will now be sold throughout Israel and the West Bank under its Hebrew and Arabic names — effectively ending the boycott the company imposed on Israeli towns in the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem in July 2021. That move prompted heavy criticism from American consumers and led several states to implement sanctions — with one stockholder even suing Unilever. Now, after consultations with...

An agreement signed with Unilever Global stipulates that Ben & Jerry's franchisee in Israel can continue to sell ice cream all over Israel, including in Judea and Samaria - Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Economy Minister Orna Barbibai welcomed the decision: "An important value victory against discrimination and anti-Semitism at the heart of the boycott campaign on Israel" - CEO of Israel Avi Singer:" It was a long and complex struggle, crossing borders and sectors."

Unilever distances itself from BDS, announces new deal to allow sale of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to Israelis in Judea and Samaria. British consumer goods giant Unilever announced Wednesday the end of an anti-Israel ice cream boycott that drew heavy criticism, triggered sanctions by some US states, and even provoked a lawsuit.

The narrator, an anti-Israel activist, counselled the company’s board last year ahead of its decision to stop selling its products in the “occupied territories.” By World Israel News Staff Ben & Jerry’s is requiring all new employees to watch four videos about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all of which appear to be biased against the Jewish state, the Jewish Insider reported. The videos are part of the company’s “Scooper Series: Social Mission” concerning the conflict as well as racism in the U.S., an employee told the Jewish Insider. Featured in one of the videos is anti-Israel activist Omar Shakir, Human Rights...

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. Biden’s ambassador to Israel appeared at a pro-BDS group’s webinar co-hosted by its CEO, who had described Israel as an “oppressive regime”, and told its audience that the real problem with the Palestinian Authority funding terrorism is that “it gives the ‘haters’ an excuse not to support the PA based on the argument that it is ‘paying for people who killed Jews.’” He also told the anti-Israel group which had cheered the Ben & Jerry’s boycott...

Jewish watchdog group has selected the chair of Ben & Jerry’s board of directors as its “Antisemite of the Year” for withdrawing the company’s ice cream from Israeli settlements. StopAntisemitism.org announced Monday that thousands of people had voted for Anuradha Mittal, the executive who announced in July that Ben & Jerry’s would boycott more than 140 Jewish communities in the occupied territories This woman seems to have an obsession with the Jewish nation,” said Liora Rez, who founded the advocacy group in 2018. “It’s nothing but an anti-Semitic ploy to vilify the Jewish nation and people.” Unilever, which owns Ben...

Ben & Jerry’s is very proud of its hard-left stance on any given subject but now its latest virtue signal has resulted in some serious financial setbacks.As RedState reported back in July, the ice cream company decided it would no longer do business in what it called “Occupied Palestinian Territory” or as it’s more commonly known, “Israel.” The move was supposed to signal the company’s dedication to protesting in favor of the oppressed but behind the scenes, their Board chair was actually signaling their support for the terrorist group Hezbollah.Not long after, states began looking into divesting from Ben &...

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has put Ben & Jerry’s and its British manufacturer Unilever on a state watch list for its decision to stop the sale of its products in “disputed territories” in and around Israel. The move to take a pro-Palestinian stance led DeSantis to send a letter on Thursday to the State Board of Administration to ask it to “immediately place Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever on the Continued Examination Companies that Boycott Israel List.” The list is part of a state law passed in 2016 that gives companies 90 days to “cease the boycott of Israel...

Ben & Jerry’s co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are under fire after they failed to come up with a reason why they refuse to sell their ice cream in parts of Israel over political disagreements but do business in areas of the United States where they disagree with laws and policies.

Anuradha Mittal, who was involved in orchestrating the ban on Ben and Jerry's sales in settlements, has been accused of funneling money from the company to her own personal non-profit organization. The head of the board of directors of Ben & Jerry's, Anuradha Mittal has been accused in a watchdog complaint to the US's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of self-dealing - funneling tens of thousands of dollars of profit from the company into funding her pro-Palestinian nonprofit group, according to the New York Post.The complaint, issued by the right-leaning nonprofit group, National Legal and Policy Center (NPLC), reads: "It is...

Ben & Jerry's defended its decision to restrict its sales in Israel on Monday, with the founder telling the anti-Israel activist group Americans for Peace Now that he was "proud" of the boycott. "We did it. We're proud of it," said Ben & Jerry's founder Ben Cohen on the Monday call, even as the company faces legal blowback from several U.S. states. "We consistently use our voice to stand up for justice, and the amazing thing that we discovered over the years is that the more we do that, the more ice cream we sell." At least eight U.S. states...

Human Rights Watch Israel-Palestine director Omar Shakir spoke directly to board A former longtime Ben & Jerry's employee said the company's decision to boycott Israel was based on advice from a BDS activist who was expelled from Israel for spearheading economic pressure campaigns against the Jewish state. Susannah Levin, who spent 21 years as a freelance graphic designer for Ben & Jerry's before resigning last month over the company's decision to halt its sales in the West Bank, said the company's board consulted with Human Rights Watch's Israel-Palestine director Omar Shakir, an advocate of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions...

Ben & Jerry’s brought in vocal Israel critic and anti-Zionist author Peter Beinart to talk to its store owners about Israel’s "illegal occupation" earlier this week, after franchisees raised concerns about the company’s boycott of the Jewish state. On the conference call with Ben & Jerry’s franchisees and store managers, Beinart argued that Israel is illegally occupying territory that it seized from Jordan in an offensive war in 1967 and claimed that the Jewish state sends soldiers into Palestinian villages to abduct minors, according to a source familiar with the content of the call. The company’s decision to invite Beinart—an...

Meet Ben & Jerry’s Board Chair: Anti-Israel Activist Has Published Defenses of Hezbollah, Hamas Anuradha Mittal founded nonprofit that accused Israel of human rights abuses and defended Hezbollah Ben and Jerry's board chairwoman Anuradha Mittal / oaklandinstitute.org Ben & Jerry's board chairwoman isn't your average corporate suit. A social justice warrior who's now under increased scrutiny in the wake of the company's announcement that it will boycott Israel's West Bank and East Jerusalem, she has a lengthy history of left-wing activism that includes publishing columns defending Hezbollah and supporting U.S. funding to Hamas. Anuradha Mittal, the leading force behind the...