Ben & Jerry’s Cofounder Departs Company Amid Dispute With Unilever Over Gaza Genocide
London (Quds News Network)- Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Jerry Greenfield has retired after nearly 50 years, accusing the UK-based parent company Unilever of silencing the ice cream brand’s social mission, particularly regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
In an open letter addressing the Ben & Jerry community that was shared by his business partner Ben Cohen on X on Wednesday, Greenfield called it one of the “hardest and most painful decisions” he had ever made.
“It is profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone,” he said. “If the company couldn’t stand up for the things we believed, then it wasn’t worth being a company at all.”
After 47 years, Jerry has made the difficult decision to step down from the company we built together. I’m sharing his words as he resigns from Ben & Jerry’s. His legacy deserves to be true to our values, not silenced by @MagnumGlobal #FreeBenAndJerrys pic.twitter.com/EZXGRjs76a
— Ben Cohen (@YoBenCohen) September 17, 2025
Greenfield’s resignation is the latest development of the dispute since Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed since 2021, when the Vermont-based company said it would stop sales in the occupied West Bank as doing so was “inconsistent with our values”.
Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed since 2021, when the Vermont-based company said it would stop sales in the occupied West Bank as doing so was inconsistent with our values”.
The brand has since sued its parent company over efforts to silence it and described Israel’s war on Gaza as “genocide”.
Last year, Ben & Jerry’s launched a legal action against Unilever, accusing it of threatening to dismantle the board and sue directors over their public statements in support of Palestinians in Gaza
Cohen and Greenfield are well known for their progressive activism, including opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and policies in the occupied West Bank.
Cohen was arrested in May for disrupting a US Senate hearing to protest Washington’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Over 64,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its assault.
“Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the US,” Cohen said as he was escorted away by police.
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Cohen, who is Jewish, said the US had a “strange relationship” with Israel that involved Washington “supplying weapons for its genocide”.
