Updated at 8:02 p.m.
One of Vermont’s iconic brands announced it will stop selling its ice cream in Palestinian territories occupied by Israel.
Ben & Jerry’s, the world-famous Waterbury-based ice cream maker, announced Monday that “it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” as the company calls the West Bank.
The company, a subsidiary of Unilever, said in a statement it recognizes the concerns of “fans and trusted partners.”
The announcement comes after a concerted campaign to get the brand to stop selling its ice cream in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine has tried to push Ben & Jerry’s to stop its distributor from selling its ice cream in Israeli settlements.
Wafic Faour of Richmond said the group has been working on this campaign for about 10 years. Throughout that time, he said, “they shut the door in our face.”
Faour said the group also wants Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling ice cream in East Jerusalem.
“You cannot take over a land and profit from it,” he said of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Faour said the group has been pressing Ben & Jerry’s to leave Israel altogether because it sees no way that the company can control where its ice cream made there is sold.
He said Palestinians exemplify the people that Ben & Jerry’s, with its progressive political messaging, has embraced.
“We are refugees,” he said. “We are migrants.”
Faour said the success of the campaign to pressure Ben & Jerry’s offers a warning to other businesses.
“It is a wake up for the other companies if they do business with Israel,” he said.
The company says it has a longstanding relationship with its licensee in Israel, which manufactures the ice cream and distributes it in the region. It announced Thursday that it will not renew the agreement when it expires at the end of next year.
Sean Greenwood, director of communications for Ben & Jerry’s, declined to comment beyond the statement.
Another group, Decolonize Burlington, has called for a boycott of Ben & Jerry’s until its distributor stops doing business in the settlements.
