Ben & Jerry's Get Hit With Divestments From Multiple States Over Anti-Israel Decision

(Ben & Jerry’s via AP)

Ben & Jerry’s is very proud of its hard-left stance on any given subject but now its latest virtue signal has resulted in some serious financial setbacks.

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As RedState reported back in July, the ice cream company decided it would no longer do business in what it called “Occupied Palestinian Territory” or as it’s more commonly known, “Israel.” The move was supposed to signal the company’s dedication to protesting in favor of the oppressed but behind the scenes, their Board chair was actually signaling their support for the terrorist group Hezbollah.

Not long after, states began looking into divesting from Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company Unilever over its decision with Arizona being the first to do so. Unilever attempted damage control by specifically stating that it does not agree with the ice cream company’s decision in a letter to various Jewish organizations and distanced itself from the BDS movement, an anti-semitic movement meant to weaken Israel financially.

Now, Florida has added itself to the list of states removing their investments from Ben & Jerry’s with eight other states currently investigating whether anti-BDS laws are able to be used to divest from the company themselves, these being New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Maryland, and Rhode Island.

The amount of money being divested from the company isn’t small, either. Florida’s State Board of Administration withdrew $139 million while Arizona withdrew around the same at $140 million.

This news comes on the heels of a disastrous interview given by Ben & Jerry’s founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield with Axios. Reporter Alexi McCammond cornered the duo over their willingness to divest from Israeli settlements over their principles but not states such as Texas and Georgia. Cohen didn’t know how to answer the question and stammered around for an answer before admitting that he doesn’t know.

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(READ: Ben & Jerry’s Founder Turns Into Stammering Mess When Confronted on a Major Hypocrisy)

The answer he didn’t want to give was “money.” It’s easy to make a decision not to sell ice cream to 500,000 people living in a specific area, but much harder to withdraw your product from a place like Texas which sports a population of 29 million people.

But despite their willingness to pull out of states like Texas, Texas and others are more than willing to pull their money out of Ben & Jerry’s for what amounts to an anti-semitic decision to punish Israel for being Israel and defying the whims of the radical left.

If these states are able to withdraw their investments using anti-BDS legislation, it will be a sizeable hole in the ice cream company’s accounts, and then we’ll see how principled the company actually is and whether it will continue to virtue signal itself into more financial losses.

 

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