The American group Ben & Jerry’s, which had taken the unusual decision to file a complaint against its parent company Unilever to block an operation that paved the way for the official resumption of the sale of its ice cream in Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories, saw his application was dismissed on Monday.
The company “has not been able to show” that the transaction would cause “irreparable harm”, according to the decision of a New York judge. It had decided in July 2021 to stop distributing its ice cream products in the areas in question, considering that it was not “compatible” with its “values”.
Unilever has divested its “business interests in Israel” to Avi Zinger
But the brand’s licensee in Israel, Avi Zinger, had contravened these directives by continuing to distribute Ben & Jerry’s ice cream produced by his factory in suburban Tel Aviv in the colonias.
Also Ben & Jerry’s, arguing that such an operation threatened “the integrity of the brand” and its “social integrity”, had requested on July 5 that any agreement allowing the distribution or sale of its products in the West Bank be dissolved and that any transaction that goes in this direction is submitted in the future to the green light of its board of directors.
But it is “too speculative” to determine in advance that the brand’s new owners in Israel could promote their ice cream with messages “contradictory” to those of its creators, the judge said. And the chance that customers will be “confused” by Ben & Jerry’s positions is “reduced,” he adds.
Source: BFM TV
