Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has enlisted in an effort to hold one of the nation’s most prominent ice cream brands accountable for undermining Israel.
Moody, a Republican, joined 11 other GOP state attorneys general in seeking to pressure Unilever to end its boycott against Israel.
Unilever owns Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, which earlier this year announced that it was breaking ties with a licensee in Israel. The overseas company would no longer be allowed to make or sell their ice cream as a protest of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
The action drew praise in August from the leaders of the so-called Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or BDS, movement, which seeks to undermine Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorists.
In applauding Ben & Jerry’s, the pro-Palestinian BDS accused Israel of running illegal settlements on what they claim is Palestinian land as part of an “apartheid system …, which denies indigenous Palestinians their right to self-determination.”
Israel “denies Palestinians their rights,” the BDS statement continued. “Palestinians live under blockade, occupation, and apartheid. No company should profit off apartheid and settler-colonialism.”
In reply this week, Moody joined Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt in expressing their “grave concerns” about the boycott – which Unilever has tried to skirt by saying Ben & Jerry’s, though part of its corporate portfolio, has the independence to make this decision.
The letter from the attorneys general notes that Israel is one of America’s “closest and more reliable allies,” and that 33 states have passed measures to disinvest their pension funds from any company that engages in Unilever-style behavior.
“Unilever has embarked on an unfortunate and financially misguided path of testing our states’ resolve,” the letter notes. “Attempts by Unilever to deflect accountability and blame an ice-cream maker form the hills of Vermont (notorious for its leftist political activism) for its own corporate missteps are thus unconvincing.”
The officials pointed out that the “corporate scruples” Unilever applies to Israel do not extend to other paragons of human rights, such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.
Moody and the others added that they “count it a high honor” to stand with Israel “against any and all illegal attempts by global corporation to engage in economic warfare against our ally.”
Florida, the letter points out, is one of a handful of states, including Texas, New York, and New Jersey, to unload pension holdings of Unilever stock.
“The economic consequences of this ill-advised boycott should alone suffice to convince Unilever to reconsider,” they conclude.
It’s not surprising that Unilever has thrown in with the woke.
The Free Press reported back in March that the Britain-based company Unilever, whose 400 global brands include personal care goods under the labels of Dove, Axe, and Lifebuoy, said it was dropping the word “normal” from its beauty products because it was not inclusive.
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Boycott Unilever and all of its subsidies!
No matter how many apologist articles are published, it does not change the fact that Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem have published reports confirming that Israel is conducting apartheid in the land of Palestine. Also, Israel is currently being investigated by the International Criminal Court for the crimes of apartheid and other crimes against humanity.
Our country is struggling with crime and lawlessness. Yet, here we have a bunch of AMERICAN AGs preoccupied with the FOREIGN country of Israel. These AGs must not be very busy with doing their work for the American people if they are worrying about a FOREIGN country. Yes, Israel is a FOREIGN country! Why would American AGs worry about what a company is doing in a FOREIGN country?! Who care? We don’t have enough issues here?
Attorney General Moody displays astonishing ignorance when he puts his name to a document that claims Ben & Jerry’s it is boycotting Israel. Ben & Jerry’s has never boycotted Israel. The ice cream company is not allowing its products to be sold in the illegal settlements of the occupied territories. The document further claims that’s the occupied territories are inside the state of Israel. What an embarrassingly woeful display of ignorance.