Rabbis condemn efforts to target Ben & Jerry’s over ending sales in OPT
New York, (QNN)- A rabbinic human rights organization that represents over 2,000 rabbis and cantors and their communities in North America has condemned efforts targeting Ben & Jerry’s over decision to end sales in Israeli-Occupied Palestinian territories.
T’ruah said in a statement that Israeli officials’ assertion that Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop sales in the occupied territories is “antisemitic” is a deliberate attempt to distract from the significant human rights violations faced by Palestinians every day.
T’ruah previously filed amicus briefs in several states, most recently in support of a challenge to Arkansas’s anti-BDS law, and has spoken out against previous attempts to invoke anti-BDS laws.
The Well-known American firm announced last week that it will no longer sell its products for illegal settlements in the West Bank and the eastern part of Jerusalem.
Ben & Jerry’s will end sales of our ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Read our full statement: https://t.co/2mGWYGN4GA pic.twitter.com/kFeu7aXOf3
— Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) July 19, 2021
The company said in a statement on its website “it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).”
Israel’s Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan has sent letters to the governors of 35 American states that have anti-BDS laws, asking them to act against Ben & Jerry’s decision.
“I urged them to act against Ben & Jerry’s decision to not sell its products in the eastern part of Jerusalem and Judea & Samaria. We will make clear to Ben & Jerry’s that its antisemitic decision will have consequences,” Erdan tweeted.
In coordination w/ @yairlapid, I sent a letter to 35 Governors of US states that have legislation against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/tGW720oRZL
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) July 20, 2021
On Monday, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also vowed to ask the American states to take legal action against the ice cream company.
“Over 30 states in the United States have passed anti-BDS legislation in recent years”, Lapid tweeted. “I plan on asking each of them to enforce these laws against Ben & Jerry’s. They will not treat the State of Israel like this without a response.”
Over 30 states in the United States have passed anti-BDS legislation in recent years. I plan on asking each of them to enforce these laws against Ben & Jerry's. They will not treat the State of Israel like this without a response.
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid🟠 (@yairlapid) July 19, 2021
Lapid also called Ben & Jerry’s decision as a “shameful surrender to antisemitism, to BDS and to all that is wrong with the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish discourse.
Israel’s new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also spoke with the head of Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s, and asked him to take a “very serious view of the decision by Ben & Jerry’s to boycott Israel.”
“Israeli officials’ assertion that Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop sales in the occupied territories is antisemitic is a deliberate attempt to distract from the significant human rights violations faced by Palestinians every day,” Rabbi Les Bronstein, board co-chair of T’ruah, said in the statement.
He continued, “Falsely painting any attempt to hold Israel to the same human rights obligations as other countries as antisemitic only makes it harder to counter actual acts of antisemitism when they happen.”
The organization stressed that asking the U.S. to target the company under unconstitutional anti-BDS laws is “political gamesmanship with very real consequences.”
T’ruah also called on American officials to reject the request to penalize Ben & Jerry’s under anti-BDS laws, “which violate the First Amendment and open the door to much broader government control of public discourse while doing nothing to protect Israel or Jews.”
