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Tubs of ice-cream are seen as a laborer works at Ben & Jerry’s manufacturing facility in Be’er Tuvia, Israel July 20, 2021.
Ronen Zvulun | Reuters
Unilever’s CEO, Alan Jope, informed traders throughout a convention name Thursday that the corporate stays dedicated to its companies in Israel after its subsidiary, Ben & Jerry’s, introduced earlier this week that it’ll cease the sale of its ice cream within the occupied Palestinian territories.
The ice cream maker, recognized for its left-leaning political stances, made the transfer after dealing with backlash on-line for its enterprise within the occupied territories. Unilever’s CEO sought to distance the mother or father firm from the choice, saying it was made independently by Ben & Jerry’s.
“Unilever stays absolutely dedicated to our enterprise in Israel,” Jope stated. “This was a call that was taken by Ben & Jerry’s and its unbiased board in step with an acquisition settlement that we signed 20 years in the past.”
“I can guarantee you it’s not our intent to recurrently go to issues of this, the place sensitivity has been a long-standing situation for Ben & Jerry’s,” Jope stated.
“We have been conscious of this choice by its model – by the model and its unbiased board, however definitely [it’s] not our intention that each quarter we’ll have one fairly as fiery as this one,” Jope stated.
Ben & Jerry’s introduced on Monday it is not going to renew its partnership with its licensee, which manufactures and distributes the corporate’s ice cream in Israel within the area, when the partnership settlement expires on the finish of subsequent yr.
Nonetheless, Ben & Jerry’s plans to stay in Israel via one other association that the corporate has not but introduced.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has vowed to behave aggressively towards Ben & Jerry’s choice, telling Unilever’s CEO the transfer would have “severe penalties, authorized and in any other case.”
In response to Ben & Jerry’s transfer, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma known as for a block of all Ben & Jerry’s gross sales in his dwelling state in step with state legal guidelines.
Oklahoma handed an anti-boycott of Israel legislation in 2020, which acknowledges Israel as a distinguished buying and selling accomplice and prevents the state from doing enterprise with any firm that’s engaged in a boycott of Israel.
Ben & Jerry’s isn’t the primary firm to search out itself tangled in controversy over enterprise within the occupied Palestinian territories. In 2018, the holiday rental web site Airbnb stated it was banning listings of Israeli property within the West Financial institution, territory Palestinians declare ought to be a part of their state.
— The Related Press contributed to this report.
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