Ben & Jerry’s boycott of Israel has put pension funds for the brand’s parent company on ice.
The New York State Common Retirement Fund announced on Thursday it would pull $111 million in investments out of Unilever, the consumer goods company that owns Ben & Jerry’s. Tom DiNapoli, the retirement fund’s state comptroller, said it is pulling the investments over the ice cream brand’s boycott of Israel, according to the New York Post.
“After a thorough review, the New York State Common Retirement Fund will divest its equity holdings in Unilever PLC. Our review of the activities of the company, and its subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s, found they engaged in BDS activities under our pension fund’s policy,” DiNapoli told the outlet.
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BDS is a movement standing for boycott, divestment, and sanctions intended to inflict economic harm against Israel. DiNapoli’s director of corporate governance warned Unilever in July that Ben & Jerry was engaging in a BDS action against Israel, which would harm state pension fund’s investments in the Middle Eastern nation.
Ben & Jerry’s decision was also condemned by several Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett warned of “severe consequences” for Ben & Jerry’s, saying the country would “take strong action against any boycott directed against its citizens.”
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s, explained earlier this month the company stopped selling ice cream in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in July to protest Israeli “occupation.” When asked why the company is still selling ice cream in Georgia despite the state’s election law and in Texas despite its abortion ban, Cohen said, “I don’t know.”
“I don’t know what that would accomplish,” Cohen said, later adding, “By that reasoning, we should not sell any ice cream anywhere.”
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The New York State Common Retirement Fund invests more than $800 million in retirement funds in the country, the outlet reported.
The NYSCRF did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
