Ben & Jerry’s cofounder leaves firm amid dispute with Unilever over Gaza | Business and Economy News

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Jerry Greenfield says he may now not ‘in good conscience’ proceed working for an organization that had been ‘silenced’.

Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Jerry Greenfield has retired after almost 50 years, accusing the United Kingdom-based mother or father firm Unilever of silencing the ice cream model’s social mission, notably concerning Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, in accordance with his enterprise accomplice Ben Cohen.

In an open letter addressing the Ben & Jerry group that was shared by Cohen on social media platform X on Wednesday, Greenfield referred to as it one of many “hardest and most painful selections” he had ever made.

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Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed since 2021, when the Vermont-based firm mentioned it might stop sales in the occupied West Bank as doing so was “inconsistent with our values”.

The model has since sued its mother or father firm over alleged efforts to silence it and described Israel’s battle on Gaza as “genocide”, a uncommon stance for a giant US firm.

On the time, a Unilever spokesperson mentioned, “Our coronary heart goes out to all victims of the tragic occasions within the Center East. We reject the claims made by B&J’s social mission board, and we’ll defend our case very strongly. We’d not remark additional on this authorized matter.”

Greenfield mentioned he may now not “in good conscience” proceed working for an organization that had been “silenced” by Unilever, regardless of a merger settlement meant to safeguard the model’s social mission.

“That independence existed in no small half due to the distinctive merger settlement Ben and I negotiated with Unilever,” he wrote within the letter.

Each males are recognized for his or her progressive activism.

Cohen was arrested in May for disrupting a United States Senate listening to to protest Washington’s assist for Israel’s battle in Gaza. Almost 65,000 individuals have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its battle, following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 assaults on southern Israel.

A Magnum Ice Cream Firm spokesperson mentioned on Wednesday that it disagrees with Greenfield’s perspective and has sought to have interaction each cofounders in a constructive dialog on how you can strengthen Ben & Jerry’s highly effective values-based place on this planet. The spokesperson additionally mentioned it was grateful to Greenfield for his function in cofounding Ben & Jerry’s.

Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from the Reuters information company.

Final week, Cohen mentioned the model had tried to engineer a sale to traders at a good market worth between $1.5bn and $2.5bn amid tensions with Unilever, however the proposal was rejected.



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