Ben & Jerry's sues parent company for silencing it over Gaza stance

Ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's has said in a lawsuit that parent company Unilever has silenced its attempts to express support for Palestinian refugees and threatened to dismantle its board and sue its members over the issue.

The lawsuit filed on Wednesday is the latest sign of the long-simmering tensions between Ben & Jerry's and consumer products maker Unilever, which is planning to spin out its ice cream business next year.

The spinout would include the top-selling Vermont-based maker of Chubby Hubby, although experts on corporate governance said the brand's board, a centrepiece of the new lawsuit, could present challenges to the deal.

A rift first erupted between Ben & Jerry's and Unilever in 2021 after the ice cream maker said it would stop selling its products in the Israeli-occupied West Bank because it was inconsistent with its values, a move that led some investors to divest Unilever shares.

The ice cream maker then sued Unilever for selling its business in Israel to its licensee there, which allowed marketing in the West Bank and Israel to continue. That lawsuit was settled in 2022.

In its new lawsuit, Ben & Jerry's says that Unilever has breached the terms of the 2022 settlement, which has remained confidential. As part of the agreement, however, Unilever is required to "respect and acknowledge the Ben & Jerry's independent board's primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry's social mission," according to the lawsuit.

But, according to the lawsuit, "Ben & Jerry's has on four occasions attempted to publicly speak out in support of peace and human rights. Unilever has silenced each of these efforts."

In response to Reuters' story, Unilever said in an emailed statement: "Our heart goes out to all victims of the tragic events in the Middle East. We reject the claims made by B&J's social mission board, and we will defend our case very strongly."

'Too critical of Israel'

Ben & Jerry's said in the lawsuit it has tried to call for a ceasefire, support the safe passage of Palestinian refugees to Britain, back students protesting at US colleges against civilian deaths in Gaza, and advocate for a halt in US military aid to Israel, but has been blocked by Unilever.

The independent board separately spoke out on some of those topics, but the company was muzzled, the lawsuit says.

Ben & Jerry's said that Peter ter Kulve, Unilever's head of ice cream, said he was concerned about the "continued perception of anti-Semitism" regarding the ice cream brand voicing its opinions on Palestinian refugees in Gaza, according to the lawsuit.

Unilever was also required under the settlement agreement to make a total of $5 million in payments to Ben & Jerry's for the brand to make donations to human rights groups of its choosing, according to the lawsuit.

Ben & Jerry's selected the Jewish Voice for Peace and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, among others, the filing says.

Unilever in August objected to the selections, saying that Jewish Voice for Peace was "too critical of the Israeli government," according to the lawsuit.