Axios’ Alexi McCammond stumped Ben & Jerry’s co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield when she asked them why they will boycott Israel, but not states with laws they do not like.
McCammond asked the two progressive old men: “You guys are big proponents of voting rights. Why do you still sell ice cream in Georgia? Texas – abortion bans. Why are you still selling there?”
*silence* *crickets*
Cohen: “I don’t know.”
Cohen and Greenfield do not control the company. However, the two men “retained their right to be its social conscience.”
Ben & Jerry’s decided to boycott “occupied Palestinian territory,” including the ancient Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. It means no one in the West Bank and East Jerusalem can buy the overrated ice cream:
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.We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region. We have been working to change this, and so we have informed our licensee that we will not renew the license agreement when it expires at the end of next year.
Ben & Jerry’s “will stay in Israel through a different arrangement.”
Well, only parts of Israel.
So why not Texas or Georgia? How about other states? Man, Cohen should have stopped at, “I don’t know” (emphasis mine):
- “I don’t know,” Ben Cohen said with a laugh. “It’s an interesting question. I don’t know what that would accomplish. We’re working on those issues, of voting rights. … I think you ask a really good question. And I think I’d have to sit down and think about it for a bit.”
- When pressed on the Texas limits on women’s access to abortion, Cohen said: “By that reasoning, we should not sell any ice cream anywhere. I’ve got issues with what’s being done in almost every state and country.”
Greenfield piped in: “One thing that’s different is that what Israel is doing is considered illegal by international law. And so I think that’s a consideration.”
When I hear anyone invoke “international law,” especially with Israel, I think of law professor Eugene Kontorovich. He had a great thread in February 2020 about international law prohibiting doing business in occupied or disputed territories. He also had a podcast in 2019 discussing why the Israeli communities in the West Bank do not violate international law.
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