JERUSALEM: A new agreement in Israel will put Ben & Jerry’s ice cream back on shelves in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank despite the ice cream maker’s protest of Israeli policies, according to Unilever, the company that owns the brand.
But it’s unclear if the product, which would only be sold with Hebrew and Arabic lettering, would still appeal to Ben & Jerry’s fans or have the support of the Vermont company, which has long backed liberal causes.
Israel hailed the move as a victory in its ongoing campaign against the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. BDS aims to bring economic pressure to bear on Israel over its military occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
Unilever, which acquired Ben & Jerry’s in 2000 but distanced itself from the ice cream maker’s decision last year to halt sales in the territories, said Wednesday that it had sold its business interest in Israel to a local company that would sell Ben & Jerry’s ice cream under its Hebrew and Arabic name throughout Israel and the West Bank.
When Ben & Jerry’s was sold, the companies agreed that the ice cream maker’s independent board would be free to pursue its social mission, including longstanding support for many liberal causes, including racial justice, climate action, LGBTQ rights and campaign finance reform.
But Unilever would have the final word on financial and operational decisions.
Unilever said it has “used the opportunity of the past year to listen to perspectives on this complex and sensitive matter and believes this is the best outcome for Ben & Jerry’s in Israel.”
In its statement, Unilever reiterated that it does not support the BDS movement. It said it was “very proud” of its business in Israel, where it employs around 2,000 people and has four manufacturing plants.
Unilever sold the business to Avi Zinger, the owner of Israel-based American Quality Products Ltd, who had sued Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s in March in a US federal court over the termination of their business relationship, saying it violated US and Israeli law.
Zinger’s legal team said the decision by Unilever was part of a settlement. He thanked Unilever for resolving the matter and for the “strong and principled stand” it has taken against BDS. “There is no place for discrimination in the commercial sale of ice cream,” Zinger said.
There was no immediate comment from Ben & Jerry’s. A spokeswoman pointed to the Unilever announcement.
But reaction to the new agreement arrived quickly.
Omar Shakir, the director of Human Rights Watch for Israel and the Palestinian territories, said Unilever seeks to undermine Ben & Jerry’s “principled decision” to avoid complicity in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights, which his organization says amount to apartheid, an allegation Israel adamantly rejects.
“It won’t succeed: Ben & Jerry’s won’t be doing business in illegal settlements. What comes next may look and taste similar, but, without Ben & Jerry’s recognized social justice values, it’s just a pint of ice cream.”
Israel hailed the decision and thanked governors and other elected officials in the United States and elsewhere for supporting its campaign against BDS. It said Unilever consulted its Foreign Ministry throughout the process.
“Antisemitism will not defeat us, not even when it comes to ice-cream,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said. “We will fight delegitimization and the BDS campaign in every arena, whether in the public square, in the economic sphere or in the moral realm.”
BDS, an umbrella group supported by virtually all of Palestinian civil society, presents itself as a non-violent protest movement modeled on the boycott campaign against apartheid South Africa. It does not adopt an official position on how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be resolved, and it officially rejects antisemitism.
Israel views BDS as an assault on its very legitimacy, in part because of extreme views held by some of its supporters. Israel also points to the group’s support for a right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees — which would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish-majority state — and BDS leaders’ refusal to endorse a two-state solution to the conflict.
Ben & Jerry’s decision was not a full boycott, and appeared to be aimed at Israel’s settlement enterprise. Some 700,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed and considers part of its capital. Israel captured both territories in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want them to be part of their future state.
Most of the international community views the settlements as a violation of international law. The Palestinians consider them the main obstacle to peace because they absorb and divide up the land on which a future Palestinian state would be established. Every Israeli government has expanded settlements, including during the height of the peace process in the 1990s.
Sale puts Ben & Jerry’s ice cream back in West Bank... well kind of
https://arab.news/mb236
Sale puts Ben & Jerry’s ice cream back in West Bank... well kind of
- Unilever, which acquired Ben & Jerry’s, sold its business interest in Israel to a local company that would sell Ben & Jerry’s ice cream throughout Israel and the West Bank.
Jordan’s King Abdullah, Indonesian president discuss defense cooperation, regional developments
- Indonesia and Jordan signed memorandums of understanding in agriculture, education and religious affairs
- King Abdullah highlighted Indonesia’s vital role in promoting international stability and peace
LONDON: King Abdullah II of Jordan and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto attended a signing ceremony for a defense cooperation agreement and three memorandums of understanding in Amman.
King Abdullah received Subianto on Monday at Al-Husseiniya Palace during the Indonesian leader’s first visit to Jordan since assuming office in March 2024.
Indonesia and Jordan agreed to collaborate on defense and signed memorandums of understanding in agriculture, education and religious affairs.
King Abdullah highlighted Indonesia’s vital role in promoting international stability and peace, Petra news agency reported.
The two leaders condemned Israeli violations of the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and attempts to divide the site temporally and spatially. King Abdullah said Jordan will continue its religious and historical role in safeguarding Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. He said the war in Gaza and developments in Syria and Lebanon are causing regional instability, Petra added.
Subianto reaffirmed his country’s solidarity with Jordan in defending Palestinian rights and said that Jakarta supports the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The two leaders addressed ways to stop the Israeli war on Gaza, reinstate the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, resume the entry of humanitarian aid and support Palestinians remaining in the coastal enclave.
Subianto said that Jordan and Indonesia have been longtime friends, highlighting his country’s eagerness to continue collaboration with Amman, Petra reported.
Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, the king’s office director Alaa Batayneh, Jordan’s Ambassador to Indonesia Sidqi Omoush, and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, the king’s chief adviser for religious and cultural affairs, attended the meeting.
Syrian president, Lebanese PM discuss border demarcation weeks after ceasefire
- Lebanese and Syrian leaders agreed to cooperate in the economic field and agreed on creating a ministerial committee to follow up with issues of common interest
CAIRO: Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam discussed land and sea border demarcation and security coordination on Monday, weeks after the two countries agreed on a ceasefire that ended cross-border clashes.
“This visit will open a new page in the course of relations between the two countries on the basis of mutual respect and restoration of trust and good neighborliness,” Salam said in a statement released by his office.
The mountainous frontier has been a flashpoint in the months since militants toppled Syria’s Bashar Assad, an ally of Tehran and Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, and installed their own institutions and army.
The latest round of clashes was in March when Syrian troops exchanged fire with Lebanese soldiers and armed groups in northeast Lebanon. Syria accused Hezbollah of crossing into Syrian territory and kidnapping and killing three members of Syria’s army.
Hezbollah, however, denied any involvement. A Lebanese security source told Reuters the three Syrian soldiers had crossed into Lebanon first and were killed by armed members of a tribe who feared their town was under attack.
The two countries’ delegations also discussed the fate of missing and detained Lebanese people in Syria, an issue that came under the spotlight after the toppling of Assad, which led to the opening of prisons and the discovery of collective graves in Syria.
Lebanon says more than 700 Lebanese were detained in Syrian prisons due to the Syrian influence in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war from 1975 to 1990.
For much of the Assad family’s five decades in power, Syria held significant influence over Lebanon, maintaining a military presence there for 29 years until 2005 despite widespread opposition from many Lebanese.
The Lebanese and Syrian leaders also agreed to cooperate in the economic field and agreed on creating a ministerial committee to follow up with issues of common interest, the Lebanese prime minister’s office said.
Germany pledges 125m euros for Sudan on eve of aid meet
- Funds will go toward helping international and local aid organizations to “bring urgently needed food and medicine to people in need” in Sudan, Baerbock said
BERLIN: Germany will provide 125 million euros ($142 million) in humanitarian aid for Sudan, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday, on the eve of an international conference on the situation in the war-torn country.
The funds will go toward helping international and local aid organizations to “bring urgently needed food and medicine to people in need” in Sudan and the wider region, Baerbock said in a statement.
Paramilitaries in Sudan known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been at war with the army since April 2023.
The conflict has essentially divided Sudan in two, with the army holding sway in the north and east, while the RSF controls most of Darfur and parts of the south.
The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 13 million and created what the International Rescue Committee has described as “the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.”
An international conference on the situation in Sudan will take place in London on Tuesday, co-hosted by Britain, Germany, France, the EU and the African Union, the German foreign ministry said.
The Sudanese army and the RSF militia were both unwilling to come to the table, according to the ministry.
“Death is an ever-present reality in large parts of Sudan,” Baerbock said, calling the conflict “the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our time.”
“Entire regions have been destroyed, hundreds of thousands of families have been forced to flee, millions of people are starving, and women and children are being subjected to the most horrific sexual violence,” she said.
“The focus in London will therefore be on working with our African partners to identify options for unrestricted humanitarian access, protection of the civilian population and a political solution to this bloody conflict.”
Baerbock said the Gulf states would be among those represented at the meeting, calling on them to “use their influence... to establish humanitarian corridors.”
“Only joint international pressure will finally persuade the parties to the conflict to come to the negotiating table,” she added.
Turkiye to begin restoration work on dome of Hagia Sophia
- The dome will first be covered to protect it during the repair process
- Existing lead cover will then be removed for the restoration and reinforcement project to continue
ISTANBUL: Turkiye is set to begin restoration and reinforcement work on the dome of the Hagia Sophia, in one of the biggest repair projects carried out on the 1,486-year-old structure, experts said on Monday.
Hagia Sophia was the largest cathedral in the world for 900 years until its capture by Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453, after which it was one of Islam’s most exalted mosques for nearly 500 years.
The building was converted to a museum by Turkiye’s secular republic more than 70 years ago but turned back into a mosque by President Tayyip Erdogan in 2020.
The process will be difficult and will “open an important page in the book of Hagia Sophia,” said Asnu Bilban Yalcin, a Byzantine art historian, adding that restoration of other parts of the structure has been under way for 10 years.
“It is truly a structure full of surprises because sometimes things develop in a way we do not expect. That is, you design and plan it, but when you open it, things may develop differently,” she told Reuters outside the Hagia Sophia.
The dome will first be covered to protect it during the repair process, said Ahmet Gulec, a cultural property conservation and repair expert, adding that the existing lead cover will then be removed for the restoration and reinforcement project to continue.
The reinforcement project will focus on weak structural points determined during simulations of a large earthquake, in a country criss-crossed by fault lines.
The real structural problems will become more apparent when the lead cover is lifted, said Hasan Firat Diker, a professor of architecture at the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University.
The Hagia Sophia is expected remain open to worshippers and visitors during the restoration process, which makes the repair process more difficult, said Gulec, the cultural property conservation and repair expert.
The experts did not specify a date for the completion of the restoration of the dome, given potential setbacks due to weather conditions and unforeseen additional works.
Thousands remain displaced in Jenin as Israeli military campaign continues for 84th day
- 6,000 people remain displaced within Jenin city, while 3,200 have sought refuge in the dormitories of the Arab American University
- Discussions with the Palestinian Authority are ongoing to provide mobile homes for displaced residents
LONDON: Israeli forces have continued operations in Jenin and its refugee camp for the 84th day, with homes being bulldozed and burned while some have been converted into military positions.
On Monday morning, Israeli forces detained two Palestinians from the village of Yamoun, located west of Jenin, after storming the town and conducting raids on homes, WAFA news agency reported.
Israeli forces deployed infantry units around Al-Amal Hospital and Al-Rabi Building on Al-Mahta Street, near the Jenin refugee camp, conducting raids in the area, WAFA added.
Jenin Governor Kamal Abu Al-Rub said 21,000 people remain displaced as a result of the Israeli military campaign, with 6,000 residents sheltering within Jenin city. At the same time, 3,200 people sought refuge in the dormitories of the Arab American University, and 4,181 individuals found shelter in Burqin village. Abu Al-Rub said discussions with the Palestinian Authority are ongoing to provide mobile homes for the displaced residents in Jenin.
Over the weekend, Israeli forces sent reinforcements and armored vehicles into Jenin and its refugee camp, including D10 bulldozers and infantry. Israeli forces conduct military training near the Jalameh checkpoint, north of Jenin, and occasionally fire live ammunition toward the deserted Jenin camp, WAFA reported.
