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Ben & Jerry's loses bid to stop ice cream sales in Israeli-occupied West Bank

Israel-Ben & Jerry's
Posted at 1:52 PM, Aug 22, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-22 16:02:58-04

A judge in the U.S. refused to halt Unilever, the parent company for Ben & Jerry's, from continuing sales of its ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Ben & Jerry's has said that the occupation undermines the company's values, Reuters reported.

New York Judge Andrew Carter said in the ruling that Ben & Jerry's didn't offer enough evidence on their side of the case.

Earlier this month, the independent board for the iconic ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's said their parent company Unilever Plc, froze the salaries of its directors in July as a way to put pressure on the company as it entered into mediation regarding a dispute over the sale of the company's Israeli business.

As Reuters reported, the company has shown great success with Ben & Jerry's managing to become one of Unilever's top 13 brands that surpassed the $1 billion sales mark last year.

Last year, leadership at Ben & Jerry's said the company did not want to sell its products in the occupied West Bank, citing inconsistencies with the company's values which led to the decision by Unilever to sell that portion of the business.

Anuradha Mittal, a board chairperson, said, "This decision for us to go to court is because of Unilever's (UL) sale without our input, which is a clear violation of the letter and the spirit of our original acquisition agreement with Unilever,"

Mittal said, "If Unilever is willing to so blatantly violate the agreement that has governed the parties' conduct for over two decades, then we believe it won't stop with this issue," Reuters and CNN reported.