Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with the head of Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s, and protested the conglomerate’s decision to no longer sell ice cream in Israeli settlements, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement Tuesday.
The conversation came after the ice cream giant announced Monday that it will no longer distribute its products in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” apparently referring to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It said the decision would take effect at the end of 2022, when its contract with the current Israeli manufacturer and distributor expires.
Bennett told Unilever CEO Alan Jope that he takes a “very serious view of the decision by Ben & Jerry’s to boycott Israel,” according to the statement.
The prime minister stressed to Jope that the Unilever-owned Ben and Jerry’s was taking a “clearly anti-Israeli step.”
Bennett stressed that Israel sees the measure as having “serious legal and other implications” and added that the Jewish state “will act vigorously against any act of boycott directed against its citizens,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the US Gilad Erdan sent letters Monday evening to the governors of 35 states that have laws against boycotting Israel, asking them to place sanctions on Ben and Jerry’s in accordance with their own legislation.
“We will make it clear to Ben and Jerry’s International that their despicable decision will have implications,” Erdan tweeted, along with a copy of his letter.
פניתי הלילה במכתב ל-35 מושלים של מדינות בארה”ב בהן קיימת חקיקה נגד החרמת ישראל וקראתי להם להפעיל כנגד בן אנד ג׳ריס סנקציות בהתאם לחוק במדינותיהם.
אנחנו נבהיר לבן אנד ג׳ריס העולמית שלהחלטה הבזויה שלהם תהיינה השלכות. pic.twitter.com/r9OuONRaeS
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) July 20, 2021
Erdan wrote in the letter that the “boycott of hundreds of thousands of citizens living in Judea and Samaria” is the “de facto adoption of antisemitic practices and advancement of the delegitimization of the Jewish state and dehumanization of the Jewish people.” He was using the biblical terms for the West Bank.
Erdan noted there were “legal ramifications” to the decisions based on state laws. He urged that “American companies with radical ideological agendas” not be allowed to operate against US policy. He also noted that since there are Palestinians who shop and work at the same West Bank supermarkets as Israelis in the West Bank, they too will be…
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