Ben & Jerry’s is at it again. The ice cream company’s gripe is not with Israel this time but instead with the United States.
On July 4, America’s Independence Day, Ben & Jerry’s posted a blog article on its website that discusses the alleged theft of land from Native Americans. The blog focuses on Mount Rushmore, as it was a sacred mountain taken from the Lakota Sioux “to honor their colonizers, four white men—two of whom enslaved people and all of whom were hostile to Indigenous people and values”.
The blog even links to a petition advocating the return of the iconic Mount Rushmore to the Sioux.
Although their sentiments are strong, Ben & Jerry’s is not going to act on them, least of all by boycotting the United States, where in 2022, Ben & Jerry’s sold over $280 million of ice cream and has hundreds of stores nationwide. Despite admonishing the country for what it says is the mistreatment of a native population, Ben & Jerry’s will continue to sell ice cream in the US.
By contrast, ironically and hypocritically, Ben & Jerry’s went against a different native people in 2021 when it tried to stop selling ice cream to Jews in the West Bank.
Jews have lived in Judea and Samaria continuously for more than 3,500 years. The Bible and historical record are replete with Jewish history in the sacred sites of Shiloh, Hebron, Bethlehem, Shechem, and other places in the territory that Ben & Jerry’s wanted to cut off from its business.
Indeed, the Jews are native to Israel, and more than that, their land was also stolen. Many, many times.
Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Muslim Caliphs, Crusaders, Ottomans, and British – they all controlled Israel at different points throughout history. Mosques, churches, and administrative buildings were built on the rubble of sacred Jewish sites, and the Jewish people were deprived of sovereignty and freedom in their native land for nearly 2,000 years.
Nevertheless, Ben & Jerry’s holds a double standard when it comes to native people. In the case of the Sioux, they spread messages of support and back their claims to their territory and sacred sites. In the case of Israel, they sought to ally with the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and embroil themselves in a large, class-action lawsuit to stop doing business on native Jewish land.
Related Reading: Stopping BDS Cold: Five Lessons to Be Learned From Ben & Jerry’s Attempt to Cream Israel
In July 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced that “it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. In this context, “occupy” is being used to describe the Jews as settlers who do not have a right to the land where they live. In this phrase, Ben & Jerry’s corrupts history and negates the Jewish connection to the land.
However, when Ben & Jerry’s writes that “in 1970, indigenous activists climbed Mount Rushmore and occupied it for months,” “occupy” clearly refers to something positive, despite using the same word to demonize Israel.
By all accounts, berating the United States on its day of independence is probably not a smart business decision. However, the real takeaway from this bungled attempt at virtue signaling is that Ben & Jerry’s is inconsistent with its own values.
Whereas supporting the rights of native people is laudable, it is downright deplorable to support one native group when it is convenient and to engage in wrongful behavior with another.
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Featured Image: Ben&Jerry – Open Food Facts; Protesters – Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
