Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen announced that he plans to independently create a Palestine-themed ice cream flavor now that he has resigned from Unilever after it blocked the company from doing so, reports Newsmax.
In an Instagram post, Cohen revealed that the brand’s parent company, Unilever, had refused to approve a flavor supporting Palestine, prompting him to take matters into his own hands. “I’m doing it myself,” he wrote.
Cohen said the new flavor will feature watermelon, a fruit that The Times of Israel noted has become a symbol of Palestinian identity online because its red, green, white, and black colors mirror those of the Palestinian flag. He also encouraged his followers to submit ideas for the flavor’s name, additional ingredients, and design concepts for the pint.
“I’ve got a watermelon and an empty pint of ice cream — and I need your help,” Cohen said in the post.
The longtime activist and outspoken critic of Israel pointed out that Unilever had also blocked Ben & Jerry’s from halting sales in “the occupied territories” four years ago, when the company’s board pushed to boycott Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Speaking to The Guardian, Cohen accused Unilever of conducting a “corporate attack on free speech” and engaging in “corporate butt kissing” of President Donald Trump. He said Ben & Jerry’s independent board had already approved the pro-Palestine flavor a year earlier before it was shut down by the parent company.
A spokesperson for Magnum Ice Cream, the Unilever division that owns Ben & Jerry’s, confirmed that the flavor proposal had been canceled.
Cohen has since launched a “Free Ben & Jerry’s” campaign, urging Unilever to sell the company to a group of socially conscious investors who would, he says, uphold its original “social mission.”
Earlier this year, co-founder Jerry Greenfield resigned from Ben & Jerry’s after decades with the brand, citing worries that its independence had eroded since Unilever began limiting its activism, according to the BBC.
Unilever, which bought Ben & Jerry’s in 2000 for $326 million, had agreed at the time to preserve the company’s independent board to allow it to advocate for social justice causes, The Times of Israel reported.
