Ben and Jerry’s Webinar with Americans for Peace Now — Transcript

Ben & Jerry's leaders discuss the company's decision to stop sales in occupied Palestinian territories, focusing on values and human rights.

Key Takeaways

Ben & Jerry's decision focuses on human rights and is not a boycott of Israel.
The company’s values drive its business decisions, emphasizing social responsibility.
Direct engagement with affected communities informed the decision.
Misinformation about the decision is widespread but the company stands firm on its values.
The webinar promotes dialogue and education on complex Israel-Palestine issues.

Summary

Ben Cohen and Anuradha Mittal from Ben & Jerry's explain the company's decision to halt sales in occupied Palestinian territories.
The decision aligns with Ben & Jerry's social values and is supported by both the board and management.
The webinar features insights from Peter Beinart, a journalist and Middle East expert, and Suhad Baba, a human rights activist.
The discussion clarifies that the decision is not a boycott of Israel but a stance against occupation.
Board members and leaders visited Israel and Palestinian territories to understand the situation firsthand.
They met with a diverse range of people including IDF soldiers, Palestinian families affected by demolitions, and activists.
The company emphasizes its commitment to human rights, social justice, and using business as a force for good.
The conversation addresses misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding the decision.
The webinar includes Q&A and plans to share the recording as a podcast for broader reach.
The speakers highlight the importance of independent storytelling and strategic engagement on Israel-Palestine issues.

Chapters

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

You know, it's August. I was going to start off, uh, for those of you who are regulars on our Zooms, you know, sometimes I like to start off with a joke. I was looking for ice cream jokes, but I realized I think in the last month or so we've pretty much heard all of the ice cream jokes.

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jokes but i realized i think in the last month month or so we've pretty much heard all of the ice cream jokes um and along with all the ice cream jokes i think we've heard a tremendous number of of opinions and takes from you

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And along with all the ice cream jokes, I think we've heard a tremendous number of opinions and takes from, you know, this supposed leader or another, and conjecture and conspiracy theories.

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and what was in their heart of hearts and i will tell you this having certainly read many of those uh pieces and heard many of those opinions uh myself you know i think the vast vast majority of the people who were sharing those

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And we've heard a lot, a lot of people tell us about the decision that Ben and Jerry's made, what they did, what they really meant, why they did it, and what was in their heart of hearts.

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these decisions and so i'm really really grateful and really really happy um to have with us today the people who can actually tell you what they did can actually tell you why they did it what it means for them and

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And I will tell you this, having certainly read many of those pieces and heard many of those opinions myself, you know, I think the vast, vast majority of the people who were sharing those were really sharing their own views, and they were not the people who made this decision.

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businessman an activist a philanthropist and of course the co-founder of ben and jerry's um with then i am really just thrilled to have here anuradha and is the chair of the board of ben jerry's um in her day job she is the founder and

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They were not the people who are part of this. They're not the people who built the company that lives its values and that made these decisions.

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most valuable thinker by the nation which i think is a very cool award to win um to be with us in conversation today with ben and with onavada we've invited two guests two friends um and i am thrilled

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And so I'm really, really grateful and really, really happy to have with us today the people who can actually tell you what they did, can actually tell you why they did it, what it means for them, and what this has been about.

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york times he is a non-resident fellow at the foundation for middle east peace and of course he now writes the binary notebook newsletter on substance and i think we are going to share a link to that in the chat so those of you who

Speaker A

So again, thank you all for joining. I am super excited to introduce our guests. I am going to start off with Ben Cohen.

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that gap on the media gap on israel-palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement which i love um she is producing their upcoming film boycott uh co-publishes the award-winning hebrew language site local call executive produced the feature length documentary uh nail out in the

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Ben, as you all know, is the better half of Ben and Jerry. He is a businessman, an activist, a philanthropist, and of course the co-founder of Ben and Jerry's.

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to submit questions for our guests you can do so through the q a function um we are recording this we will share the recording we will uh turn it into a podcast as well um but with that i will again say thank

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Then I am really just thrilled to have here Anuradha, who is the chair of the board of Ben & Jerry's. In her day job, she is the founder and the executive director of the Oakland Institute.

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um on ben and jerry's on this you know amazing company that uh you helped get to the world sure thanks a lot adar um well amazingly enough uh jerry and i were able to uh create a company that uh

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She's an internationally renowned expert on human rights, on development, on agriculture. She has a long list of awards that she's won, but I'm just going to highlight my favorite because she was named the most valuable thinker by The Nation, which I think is a very cool award to win.

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we were just trying to sell ice cream and and then as the business grew uh it became clear to us that business is really the most powerful force in our society that um you know originally the most powerful

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To be with us in conversation today with Ben and with Anuradha, we've invited two guests, two friends, and I am thrilled to introduce Peter Beinart.

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business is a part of our society and it needs to contribute to society and not just take from the society and and so uh we we tried to to create a company that that does have a set of social values

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Peter, as I'm sure you probably know, is professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York. He's the editor at large of Jewish Currents. You've seen him on CNN. You've read stuff in The New York Times.

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um [Music] you know it's not easy to to have uh you know a company that that has some very clear and deep uh social values in uh you know living living in a status quo of companies that essentially the only

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He is a non-resident fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace, and of course he now writes the Binary Notebook newsletter on Substack, and I think we are going to share a link to that in the chat, so those of you who want to follow Peter's writings, you can do so there.

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uh how israel and uh palestine uh hopefully will coexist um so yeah we're we're using our voice we're using our power uh to to take a stand on that on that situation which is essentially a stand in favor of human rights basic

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And then lastly, but most certainly not least, is Suhad Baba, who is the producer, publisher, human rights activist, and executive director and president of Just Vision, a really amazing organization that fills that gap, the media gap on Israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement, which I love.

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so many rumors and lies and myths that have been spread what is that decision um ben and jerry's decision is not against israel it is not about boycotting israel but the decision is that the sale of our ice cream in the

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She is producing their upcoming film Boycott, co-publishes the award-winning Hebrew language site Local Call, executive produced the feature-length documentary Nailah Out in the Uprising in 2017, and is an amazing partner and friend, and I'm glad to have all of you here with us.

Speaker A

they took multiple trips to the region we spent time in israel we spent time in west bank some of the board members even traveled to places like janine and kilkelia and hebron and other places we met and engaged with a wide range of

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Before I turn it over, I just want to go back to the housekeeping for a moment and say, as usual, if you'd like to submit questions for our guests, you can do so through the Q&A function.

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also met with idf soldiers who after this service feel that occupation is not beneficial for peace and and reconciliation either for the israelis or the palestinians we met with palestinian families whose homes have been demolished we met with

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We are recording this. We will share the recording. We will turn it into a podcast as well.

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so for a number of years we engaged thought leaders we thinkers and activists working on all political you know across the political spectrum on the issue of israel palestine occupation and this is how we came to the conclusion that continuing to do

Speaker A

But with that, I will again say thank you, thank you to all of you who have joined us, thank you to our guests, and I want to start it off by turning it over to Ben Cohen and saying, Ben, you know, share with us some opening thoughts on Ben and Jerry's, on this amazing company that you helped get to the world.

Speaker A

palestinian territory it is also very important to know that this was a decision that both the boat and the management were aligned on so there is no disagreement on that decision um and it is a ben and jerry's decision

Speaker A

Sure, thanks a lot, Hadar. Well, amazingly enough, Jerry and I were able to create a company that actually has a set of values and a mission and, um, I don't know, should I say a soul?

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palestinians or that bypass palestinian communities and they've been set up for the settlers according to ocha in 2018 there were over 700 permanent road obstacles uh to control palestinian movement within the west bank we saw the devastating impact

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It's a very interesting thing. You know, Jerry and I first started as a little homemade ice cream shop, and we were just trying to sell ice cream.

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west bank which according to the u.n security council are flagrant violations under the international law and 2019 and 2020 as construction of settlements has accelerated uh even though they're illegal under international law so it is all of these things that we spent time

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And then as the business grew, it became clear to us that business is really the most powerful force in our society.

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of this occupation they are not in a position to defend this occupation so they're spreading the lies about the company and um that we were trying to boycott the whole state of israel let me also end by saying that this was a

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You know, originally the most powerful force in our societies was religion, and then it came to be nation-states, and today it's business.

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into doing business in a way that is counter to our values as ben pointed out this is not just suddenly we have made this decision in a rich you know over 40 year history ben and jerry's has taken

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And we believe that business needs to use its voice, its most powerful tool, to stand up for justice, that business is a part of our society and it needs to contribute to society and not just take from the society.

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i want to turn to suhat now thank you so much and anaratha and ben it's wonderful to be in conversations today with you and with peter um i want to pick up anna radha where you left off and actually

Speaker A

And so we tried to create a company that does have a set of social values, and we're incredibly happy to see that the company continues to act on those social values, due in large part to the great work of the Ben & Jerry's board of directors, which is headed by Anuradha.

Speaker A

a little bit more about what is the board at ben and jerry's the independent board of ben and jerry's and what is its decision making guided by in terms of principles and values thank you for that question um

Speaker A

You know, it's not easy to have a company that has some very clear and deep social values, living in a status quo of companies that essentially the only value that they have is to maximize profits.

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jerry's to the business community in terms of having an impact a good impact of being a social justice company in this world at the time of acquisition um when the company was acquired by our parent company now unilever

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So it's been a really interesting journey, and I'm really glad that the company has taken on this very difficult issue of how Israel and Palestine hopefully will coexist.

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with the responsibility for social mission and brand integrity so our purpose is to ensure that we enhance and not just preserve the social mission and the brand integrity and to continue the purpose with which this business was created we're not just about making the

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So yeah, we're using our voice, we're using our power to take a stand on that situation, which is essentially a stand in favor of human rights, basic human rights.

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product in illegal israeli settlements or the occupied palestinian territories is a double standard can you share a little bit more about other decisions if any that you've made that follow a kind of framework or rubric around how you think about uh the

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And so we did it, we're proud of it, and happy to talk about it.

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working together we look at different stakeholders we look at different opinions to be able to find a place in terms of our own values anytime we talk about going to a new community you know a new country a new

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Great, thank you, Ben. Anuradha, share with us.

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with you know in this country some people have said well why would you be selling ice cream in the united states given human rights violations that we have but working together with partners we know that we can have an impact when we look

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Thank you, Hadar, and thank you, Ben. Well, just to be clear, because there have been so many rumors and lies and myths that have been spread, what is that decision?

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impact so and the company is always making decisions about how we expand our business is it you know expanding within the united states or in new countries uh and their decisions being made for instance we took a decision to no longer

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Ben & Jerry's decision is not against Israel. It is not about boycotting Israel, but the decision is that the sale of our ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territory is inconsistent with our values.

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different stakeholders looking at a three-part mission the management leading the way working together with the board and this is how this decision was made as well ben i wanted to uh to ask you um um there have been those who have called

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And that decision was made after many years of work and engagement on these issues.

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jews so i wanted to ask you you know what it felt like for you that for the company that you found it to be called anti-semitic and why you think this is in fact consistent with your with jewish

Speaker A

So let me share a little bit about how we got to this decision. Members of the management and the board took multiple trips to the region.

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you're anti-semitic uh i don't i don't agree with that uh i believe uh the patriotic thing to do when you when your country is doing something wrong is to criticize it uh i've certainly criticized the united states uh

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We spent time in Israel. We spent time in the West Bank. Some of the board members even traveled to places like Jenin and Kilkelia and Hebron and other places.

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some of its actions and one of its actions is uh oppressing a whole group of people in the uh occupied territories uh so you know impoverishing a whole group of people and causing uh unemployment rates that are above 40

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We met and engaged with a wide range of stakeholders on all sides of the issues.

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opposed to it but i i think it's uh i think it's inaccurate i think it's disingenuous to say that anybody who criticizes something that israel does is anti-semitic thanks and i want to go ahead and kind of talk

Speaker A

We met with government officials, folks from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. We met with the IDF soldiers who shared why they are, you know, the horrors they've experienced of facing bomb attacks.

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there then there's been an onslaught of reactions um certainly from um the israeli governments from u.s lawmakers from kind of right-wing voices in the political spectrum you've also gotten some support and folks who've been reaching out with gratitude for the

Speaker A

We also met with IDF soldiers who, after this service, feel that occupation is not beneficial for peace and reconciliation, either for the Israelis or the Palestinians.

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responses first of all i want to acknowledge on behalf of the company uh though i'm here uh not representing the company um thank you thank you for sending in your support and for understanding and giving us a right to be able to operate

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We met with Palestinian families whose homes have been demolished. We met with U.N. officials who are responsible for humanitarian affairs for the Palestinians.

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death threats to individuals in the board management there have been threats of course to the company of boycott that we will not eat your product uh as you mentioned there have been responses from the government of israel uh to put pressure uh

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We met with farmers whose livelihoods have been devastated because of occupation.

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before you know going further i would just actually say you know i respect those who have a different point of view and in the same way as the company took action which is rooted in its beliefs and values um i respect the right of

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We saw the impact of this occupation and this disastrous impact for both Israelis and the Palestinians.

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board and management i know have said it a few times and i might say it a few more times during the webinar there was never a discussion on a complete pull-out of israel or a divestment of from israel or a boycott of israel

Speaker A

So for a number of years, we engaged thought leaders, thinkers, and activists working on all political, you know, across the political spectrum on the issue of Israel-Palestine occupation.

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thing for us in terms of our values so what is really at stake right now when the threats come in is on one hand it's pretty shocking to see american democracy being under threat if it can have this

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And this is how we came to the conclusion that continuing to do business in the occupied Palestinian territory, where there's an occupation which is deemed illegal by the United Nations and the international community, is inconsistent with our values.

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in the u.s a fundamental right to protest is something which is enshrined in the u.s constitution so it's almost like saying if we are wrong in deciding that a product should not be sold in the opt it is saying that uh the

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Never, ever was there discussion on boycotting or divesting from the state of Israel. It was focused on the occupied Palestinian territory.

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this because one of the things that i find you know and that we've found to be a severe a point of clarification is that the anti-boycott laws which have now passed in several dozen states in the united states

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It is also very important to know that this was a dec...

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this means for ben and jerry's and and this piece about the right to protest well again as i said in terms of the our business the company we never even discussed boycott or diversity from israel we were focused on our product

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not being sold in the occupied palestinian territory for the reasons that i gave before and so the use and the threat of using bds laws against ben and jerry's is pretty ridiculous because we never talked about workouting israel the board and the

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management have been aligned around that decision i know they have been lot on social media spreading lies about me as the chair of the board promoting bds or pushing the company to do that that has never been on the table so what

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is really fundamental here is for ben and jerry's to be able to exercise its right to protest uh for us to be able to protest against a policy which is wrong which is the occupied palestinian territory and that is guaranteed by the

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u.s constitution it's a first amendment right god i want to jump in for just one second and note something you said something that i thought was really important about you know the influence of foreign governments and i know a lot

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of times when people say something like that then other people are saying wait she's inferring this or maybe that so i just want to share a little bit some you know something that we've been paying attention to over the last few weeks

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that i think probably not everyone has seen up here you know firsthand um that's not a theoretical that's not you know a phrase to imply that you know there's some something nefarious at work very specifically the ambassador of the

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israeli ambassador has been in washington on capitol hill talking to members of congress i have spoken with many of them who have shared their interactions directly urging them to take action on this urging them to speak to their governors urging them to

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push federal legislation so i want to be really clear that that wasn't some sort of like conspiracy theory that there are you know shady things happening out there it's really specifically the government of israel is doing this and

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they're not doing it privately they're not being shy about it um the the embassy of israel also urged the association of jewish state legislators to convene a meeting with a u.s government sorry an israeli government official an embassy official

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to specifically talk about this in which they again urge them to in their formal official capacity right to ben jerry's and unilever urged them to write to their governors and to have those governments implement these anti-boycott laws so i want to i want everyone to

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understand that that's not some you know that's not saying that there are dark forces out there or whatever else people like to put words into people's mouths this is a really specific thing that the government of israel is quite

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publicly intentionally doing so just wanted to add in that little detail um and with that i'm going to turn back i think to peter now right yes um uh ben i wanted to go to you but honorary you may have uh you may want to

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join in on this as well um um i imagine that over the years you know many business leaders have come to you for advice you know in how to run a a successful company maybe even how to run

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an ethical and successful company um and um uh i wonder you know what um and ben jerry's not the first company to consider doing this airbnb um uh uh also dipped its toe in in these waters i wonder what um what advice what

Speaker A

lesson you would have for other business leaders for considering taking this decision to to to not sell in in uh jewish-only settlements in a territory where jews have basic rights and palestinians don't you know i i think it's about

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using the power of your company to stand up for justice what's right um [Music] you know ben and jerry's uh developed a social mission and has taken stands on many many issues uh from the environment uh to refugee rights uh

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in europe uh to uh to the to the great barrier reef in uh in australia to marriage equality and um you know uh we we understand that uh it doesn't help to take a stand on an issue if everybody already agrees with

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you we understand that when we take a stand on an issue there's going to be people on the other side but we consistently use our voice to stand up for justice and the amazing thing that we discovered over the years

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is that the more we do that the more ice cream we uh you know i mean i believe that there is a spiritual aspect to business just as there is to the lives of individuals as you help others you're helped in

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return as your business supports the community the community supports your business and so you know i i i think it's i think it's i think it doesn't work unless you're sincere i think as long as your business is

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sincere in terms of the values that it has decided to stand up for the values that it it believes in our experience is that customers love it is that customers you know customers are normally buying from companies from corporations despite what

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the corporation stands for because usually all the corporation stands for is maximizing uh profits and their own narrow self-interest and my experience is that customers are delighted when they come across a company that's using its power not in its own narrow self-interest but in

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the interest of the community as a whole and that's what ben and jerry's has has tried to do and we understand uh you know people disagree that's that's fine but our experience is that if you want to build the strongest bond

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possible with your consumers building a bond based on shared values is pretty much the thing that you can the the thing that allows you to have that really really strong bond anurada do you want to jump in on this

Speaker A

and what advice you would give to a company that was considering this decision well i don't know if i have much to add to what ben said but i think i will say i think it's a moral an imperative today for a business to be

Speaker A

relevant to uh not just be focused on profit taking if it is a part of community it has to act like one and that requires again rather than this myopic short-term uh profit and loss view instead of that look at the

Speaker A

long-term strategy of how to be sustainable and that requires communities to be sustainable that requires this earth to be sustainable you know there's this issue of terrorism and uh you know so the united states started a whole war on terror

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which is an absurdity it's not possible to have a war on a tactic and uh yes there have been terrorists that have attacked israel and israel has every right to be concerned about that but the solution to terrorism

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is not impoverishing entire villages and bombing entire villages and bombing entire countries the solution to terrorism is based on human rights and we need to you know there are terrorists and terrorists are criminals criminals need to be tracked down and

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prosecuted that's finding individual terrorists and tracking down and prosecuting them it's not penalizing and impoverishing uh entire countries and communities thanks so much thank you ben and ana we've got now um i know a lot of folks have put questions in through the q a so

Speaker A

thank you again if you do have questions use the q a function not the hand raise not the chat the q a is where we are monitoring and collecting so we've got a bunch of them and i'm going to

Speaker A

turn to suhad to to ask the next one fantastic so some folks are getting into what this all means for palestinian communities in the west bank and the occupied palestinian territories um if you can speak a little bit about whether ben jerry's will be

Speaker A

sold to palestinian communities in occupied palestinian territories and if you're looking for a palestinian distributor to do that um and i think the bigger picture question there is you know regarding the decision to not renew the contract what are the implications

Speaker A

of that um if you can kind of spell that out a little bit further about who will be impacted by that decision well as of now we have to still figure out what we were clear on that a product

Speaker A

cannot be sold in the occupied palestinian territory and as i said before that there's been alignment and we have never discussed withdrawal from israel as a country as a whole or or being in the palestinian territories those are the details that

Speaker A

are to be worked out and unfortunately i'm not in a place to speak about them because i have no knowledge of those those are things that the management works on and brings to the board um i wanted to ask um a a question um about

Speaker A

the about the response to this maybe i'll start with you onorata but happy ben for you to join in if you'd like as well um um i imagine when you when you were thinking about this decision you you

Speaker A

thought about what the response might be like um uh i wonder what in response you anticipated how the actual response was similar or different from what you expected um and and just a little bit about what it's what it's been like

Speaker A

well you know we are not nervous we were not surprised by the kind of response we would have um you know the process in the way the information has been spread hasn't been perfect as i said before there have been

Speaker A

lots of rumors and myths and deliberate lies and accusations so all of that has been uh to be expected this is not the first time uh we have seen the situation has gotten so bad over the years that to be able to talk about human

Speaker A

rights you know raises instead of talking about the human rights violations you go into conversations about being a jew hater anti-semitic all of those things personally that have been called with big photos you know and newspapers uh and lies

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about about you know interpretation of your writing or what you stand for um but again none of that is surprising uh if it were that popular position to be taken we would not be dealing with the kind of human rights violations that i

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was referring to um you know if people were already understanding what is at stake in terms of human rights uh we would not have the kind of situation that exists in the west bank right now so we expected that

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what is disheartening is to see people's ability to respect another person's right to disagree politely the indecency the misogynistic and racist and intimidation including death threats that is not for any civilized society that is not the basis of any

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conversation around democracy you know you cannot even have a conversation we you and i can disagree we might have different perspectives and i'll respect as i said for another business do not follow ben and jerry's i will respect

Speaker A

um you know a shock to not carry ben and jerry it's never right to do that but to turn that into lies and to call names and false allegations and threats that people are forced to move from their homes that is

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not okay that does not reflect very well for any country or any religion or any individual thank you i am you know i want to jump in here and actually kind of flip the conversation and we're getting a lot of questions

Speaker A

here about how best to support ben and jerry's if for folks who agree with a values-based decision to not sell products in the occupied palestinian territories to align with your company with your values how are you looking for support right now

Speaker A

i think people need to speak up and speak up publicly uh you know i i think that it's much more effective for people that are not ben and jerry's uh to be defending ben and jerry's than it is for

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ben and jerry's to be defending itself it's much better for much more much more powerful for third parties individuals to find ways to to be public in their support and if i may add yes like we used our

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boys please use your voice and not just to support ben and jerry's but please support the parent company unilever the fact is the board and the management came to this decision together that a product cannot be in the occupied

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palestinian territory as a parent company has said that's not its position and it respected the acquisition agreement which calls for the independence of ben and jerry so use your voice to support the parent company unilever and please support

Speaker A

beneficiaries i want to just add something on that from an organizational perspective you know i think the same day maybe the next day after the announcement um certainly we came out in support of the decision that you made and you know tried to add our

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voice to clarify that what you were doing is you know frankly exactly exactly what we call for it's opposing the occupation it's opposing the settlement enterprise and you know differentiating that from from the state of israel right and

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saying these things are are not the same and i mean it's really been a moment where i think frankly a lot of people have told on themselves right people in the american jewish community people in the israeli knesset you know we saw many

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of you i'm sure saw 90 knesset members signed a letter that was very critical of the decision um that was the bad news the good news is that actually after we we and i'm sure others reached out to a number of them

Speaker A

we said what are you talking about they're doing exactly what you know your parties the labor party the merits parties stand for in opposing the occupation why would you object to that and they sort of sheepishly removed their names from that

Speaker A

what it shows is that i think all of us organizations companies individuals need to really be proactive on this we need to keep doing it you know putting out a statement once was not enough saying anything once is not enough

Speaker A

because we've seen the overwhelming avalanche that's coming from you know folks who are opposing this um so again i i will just you know add our thank you again and that we're going to continue to keep supporting this and continue to

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keep speaking out including to those members of congress and members of the uh you know the jewish state legislators association and others so i would just i could i mean there's also been over the years some very prominent

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israeli jews who have said that they would not uh uh perform for instance so the the writers david grossman almost azen ali fate yahushua perhaps three of israel's maybe israel's three most famous uh writers all saying that they

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would not perform along with a whole series of other artists uh in the settlement of of arielle so it seems to me if ben and jerry's is anti-semitic for doing this then so are israel's most you know leading uh leading novelists um

Speaker A

but i wanted to ask a question um go back to something you said earlier i i think just in my own personal experience i have seen again and again how people regardless of their political views including people from the jewish

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community who are quite you know far to the right in their political views have been impacted by seeing on the ground what life is like for palestinians without basic rights in the west bank what it means to live

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and not be a citizen of the country in which you live without without due process without free movement under a different law than your neighbor simply because you're of a different religion and ethnicity and i just wanted to give

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you an opportunity to talk a little bit in a little more detail about some of the things that you have seen uh while while traveling to the west well peter in my own personal capacity i have traveled to israel and west bank several

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times and um it's it's a very beautiful part of the world but also with the beauty is a lot of tragedy um you know i wouldn't know where to start but if you talk about you know starting with the settlements

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um you know as the settlements are increasing the demolitions are happening uh where you find palestinian families not able to build on their own land so they're forced into building without permits and then having to pay for those demolitions and with

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those demolitions come a lot of traumatic stress like i met this family in jerusalem whose home had been built and destroyed like six seven times the children waking up in the night to know that the bulldozers have come to

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bring their home down and now it is like a shrine to show what demolitions do are sitting in uh janine uh looking at the wall which had divided the field of the farmers uh farmers who cannot access most of the land because it is on the

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other side of the of the wall and so their livelihoods are gone uh or looking at the trees between 2000 and 2019 nearly a million productive trees of the palestinians have been destroyed by the occupation um but the worst was in hebron and nabi

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saleh where i met a young woman who said who wanted to be a journalist but the occupation meant that she had to be a lawyer to be able to defend her people um met young people and the parents

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who's you know parent of this child who had already been in military jail at the age of 10 and he said that it is not us who take away the childhood of our children but it's the occupation which is taking away

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childhood of our children or visiting ada refugee camp these are refugees since 1948. you know when we look at nearly 8 million palestinians who are refugees out of the 12 million they're displaced and and the numbers go starting from 1948 to 67 war so those

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refugees and then the ones who continue to stay in refugee camps um near bethlehem um bethlehem um in the ada refugee camp and in hebron to see the checkpoints i mean the restricted access that the palestinian families cannot walk on the

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street which which the front door opens to the fact you have to take a roundabout way to be able to get to your home to see the commerce the most important street for for the for the markets and the commerce shutdown uh

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that is in hebron and people living with tops above them because the settlers who are above are throwing feces and garbage on them and to see the inhumanity of it to see how communities have been dehumanized now that is not sustainable and that is

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not good for peace and stability in the region it is not good for israel it is not good for palestine you know i can say as i believe in on the state of israel's right to exist but we have to

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work towards ensuring that everyone can exist and that only happens when human rights of all are respected that is the basis for peace and security that is the base for human dignity and that is the basis for democracy in the

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region which a democratic country like israel actually should be doing to maintain peace and security and stability in the region i really appreciate your reflections on how important it is to be thinking about the rights of whom and making sure that

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all human beings are treated with equality and in a rights respecting reality i you know i wanted to take a minute because we've been talking a bit about israel palestine and i want to come back to this piece

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that ben talked about in his op-ed um then you you talked about the fact that this decision about israel palestine is not unique um you mentioned the peace pops um many decades ago you talked about ben and jerry's desire and

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opposition to um the persian gulf war um i know i've long been following ben and jerry's both as an avid consumer of many many pints of ice cream um but also in the really incredible positions you've taken at critical

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moments last year being just one of them as there were uprisings and protests across the united states calling for racial justice um can you speak a little bit about what those decisions have looked like in other examples um you know other

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values-based decisions that you've made um that could help us understand how israel palestine falls into context well i think you know you mentioned the the peace pops that was uh a product that we came out with before the end of the cold war

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and essentially what the company was saying was that our our country the united states ought to be dealing with the root causes uh of the cold war instead of just trying to deal with the symptoms by building up more and more military

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and more and more and purchasing more and more weapons uh essentially what we were saying was wouldn't it make sense for the people of the united states and the people of the soviet union to get together and spend some time

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together uh to build bridges of friendship instead of uh walls of fear and we were suggesting that we take one percent of the u.s defense department budget and use it for those peace through understanding activities and it it's it's kind of the idea that uh

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war does not create peace war creates more war and uh that's what and the you know in our opposition to the to the persian gulf war was you know based on that same idea that you you you can't

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bomb a country into peace and uh [Music] and it's the same thing with uh with palestine that you can't impoverish that country into peace you it's it's counterproductive uh you just end up creating more and more terrorists you end up creating more and

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more enemies so uh what it's uh it's kind of not popular it's governments like to make wars uh you know governments have huge military budgets they have huge militaries uh you know 50 of the u.s uh discretionary budget is spent on the

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pentagon so uh the 50 of the us milit of the u.s discretionary budget is not spent on peace through understanding activities it's not spent on meeting people's basic human needs i mean the it it was it was george bush who said

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that poverty is the breeding grounds of terrorism and if you want to create a more stable [Music] society a more stable world what you need to attack is poverty you you don't need to be bombing villages into non-existence and

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and impoverishing people so yeah it's been a very consistent stand that the company has taken i mean we've taken a stand in favor of shifting money out of nuclear weapons in the united states into education um so uh yeah it just it just

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flows from that deep history thank you pat um i got one last question i want to sneak in before we wrap up um which is a little different i was actually talking to some of our colleagues from from

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peace now from in israel this morning and uh they were were very excited to hear we were doing this and of course also supported of the company's decision but one of the questions that they actually asked was you know

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as part of this have you have you thought about trying to impact israeli public opinion right and um you know and is there any thoughts on on the part of you as individuals or as a company to think

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about speaking to that population because you know i think a lot of people here sit and look at israel and say oh well the government is very right-wing in the same way you could have certainly in the last administration looked at

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america and said well look at that government you know of course there are um a lot of people with broad political opinions including those that absolutely are supporting ben and jerry's decision around this in israel so i pose their question to

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you whether as individuals or as a more on the company level there's thoughts about really trying to impact the public opinion in israel i never thought about that yeah that's that's um that's very useful feedback um uh hadar i will mention i think in the

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course of reaching this decision over the years we did speak to uh many individuals uh organizations within israel as well including you know israeli human rights uh organizations and uh and many different actors but that's a very useful

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feedback right well i'll just you know close that little piece by saying um you know if you decide you want to do that at some point we've got lots of partners and friends and allies on the ground who

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want to be part of that conversation so um maybe just since on a lot of you were going i'll turn back to ben for a minute i don't know if you've got any closing thoughts you want to share

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in a minute or so and then on the right i'll come come bring it back to you closing thoughts um you know the situation in the in the middle east has been uh you know real really difficult uh

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to deal with you know i i certainly understand the need for a jewish homeland and i support israel uh i disagree with israel's stand on the situation and you know i i'm i'm i understand that uh you know at the end of world war ii

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these countries got together and said yes the jews should have a homeland yes i agree with that uh i i was on the impression at the time that uh there were not people living in that area but apparently there were

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uh and they didn't like the idea of a jewish homeland being established where they were living and i can i can certainly understand that but what i absolutely believe to the core of my being is that mothers in palestine

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have no desire to kill the children of other mothers in israel and that mothers in israel have absolutely no desire to kill the children of other mothers in palestine and i i do not believe that the majority of people

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anywhere want to kill other human beings uh i think it's governments that that get in the way and uh i i i believe strongly also to the core of my being that peace will never come to [Music] uh

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israelis and palestine and palestinians if we don't find a way to uh to create a situation where palestinians can have a decent life and right now they cannot have a decent life because of israel's uh actions and so i believe that

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israel's actions need to change in order for israel itself to benefit well first of all thank you to everyone who's been on this webinar and of course the panelists if i may speak just as dana radha not as

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the chair of the board of ben and jerry's um i'm going to request that please allow and respect the right of ben and jerry's to be able to make a decision to do its business in a way which is consistent with its values

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these are basic rights that we should be able to give to each other even if we disrespect those of you who feel that this is anti-israel that this is anti-semitic it is anti-this it is not entire anything in fact it is occupation which is

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anti-israel so this decision is really pro-humanity pro-human rights pro-israel and pro-palestine because it starts building peace and its occupation which is wrong so i think for all of us who care about humanity who want a decent world first

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of all we need to learn to disagree with each other this you know in a respectful fashion and secondly recognize a basic freedoms a basic human rights whether they're enshrined in the constitution of the united states or in international

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law and with that when we can do that they can be hope for peace we have to lend our voices as citizens because as ben pointed out governments and war mongers those hawks that profit here from war that has to

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end those budgets can be used for peace building those budgets can be used for education those budgets can be used for healthcare and it's about time that we demand a better safe world for our children not just in israel and

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palestine but for all of us around the world this madness has to end so thank you very much thank you honorado and ben thank you both for being here with us today thank you for what you have done and are doing what

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you have built and are building um suhad and peter thank you both for being here with us and adding your voices and your thoughts to this and thank you to the many hundreds of folks who joined us for this today uh again as

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ori shared in the chat um this link will be shared it'll you can find it on uh on our social media you'll find it on our website um and if you go back and look in the chat you can find it directly uh

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where you can find the podcast so i thank you all i look forward to being with you all um someday in person thank you and so long all right

Topics:Ben & Jerry'sIsrael-PalestineOccupied Palestinian TerritoriesHuman RightsBoycottSocial JusticeMiddle East PeaceActivismCorporate Social ResponsibilityWebinar

Frequently Asked Questions

What was Ben & Jerry's decision regarding sales in Israel and Palestinian territories?

Ben & Jerry's decided to stop selling their ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories, stating that such sales are inconsistent with their social values. This decision is not a boycott of Israel itself.

Who were the main speakers in the webinar?

The webinar featured Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's; Anuradha Mittal, chair of the Ben & Jerry's board and founder of the Oakland Institute; Peter Beinart, journalist and Middle East expert; and Suhad Baba, human rights activist and executive director of Just Vision.

How did Ben & Jerry's leaders inform their decision on the occupation?

They engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including visits to Israel and Palestinian territories, meeting with IDF soldiers, Palestinian families affected by demolitions, and various activists to understand the situation firsthand.

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