Power Up: Progressive Pro-Israel groups come out in support of Ben & Jerry's

By Jacqueline Alemany
Anchor of Power Up
Today at 6:59 a.m. EDT
with Tobi Raji

The people
A DOUBLE SCOOP 🍨🚨: A group of progressive, pro-Israel Jewish groups are issuing a letter to U.S. governors today in support of Ben & Jerry's ice cream after the iconic Vermont-based company announced last week it would discontinue sales of its ice cream in “occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The company, whose founders are both Jewish, will continue to sell their ice cream in Israel. But Israeli government officials have called on U.S. lawmakers to sanction Ben & Jerry's in states with anti-boycott laws and have labeled the ice cream maker as “antisemitic.”

Signatories of the letter by eight groups including J Street, the New Israel Fund, and Americans for Peace Now condemn “legal action against Ben & Jerry's or its parent company Unilever in response to its decision to no longer sell ice cream in occupied Palestinian territory.”

• “We are especially dismayed that some have degraded the discussion around the issue by calling the move antisemitic, a dehumanization of the Jewish people, and even an act of terrorism,” according to the letter provided to Power Up. “Such discourse not only clouds the facts, but is extremely polarizing, deeply painful to many Jews and harms the fight against the growing tide of actual, deadly hatred that our community faces worldwide.”
• The letter notes a key distinction: “None of our organizations endorse boycotts of Israel or support the global BDS movement — and many of us actively advocate against them. At the same time, like Ben & Jerry’s, we make a clear distinction between the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories it militarily occupies. This critical differentiation between the State of Israel and the settlements established in occupied territory in violation of international law is rightly recognized and maintained in various ways by official US policy and the constitutionally-protected actions of private individuals and organizations.”

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