A couple of months ago, the world was shocked when Jerry Greenfield stepped down and resigned from his role at Ben & Jerry's all due to supposedly being "silenced" by parent company Unilever/Magnum. The reason was never explained in full length, but it seemed to be down to the parent organisation stopping Ben & Jerry from being able to share and have their own political beliefs. Now we have an update on this front.
In a post from Ben Cohen, he has claimed that Unilever/Magnum shut down Ben & Jerry's plans to create a Palestine-themed flavour of ice cream, in part of an effort to help "secure peace, justice, and dignity in Palestine".
The flavour will now not be coming out as part of the Ben & Jerry's brand, but that isn't stopping Cohen, who is now going ahead and making it all the same, something he is asking for community aid with in regard to naming the flavour, suggesting the ingredients, and designing the pint packaging.
Cohen explains in a video talking about this: "A while back, Ben & Jerry's tried to make a flavour to call for peace in Palestine. To stand for justice and dignity for everyone. Like Ben & Jerry's always has. But they weren't allowed to. They were stopped by Unilever/Magnum, the company that owns Ben & Jerry's. Just like when Ben & Jerry's tried to stop selling ice cream in the occupied territories, they were blocked again by their parent company.
"So I'm doing what they couldn't. I'm making a watermelon-flavoured ice cream that calls for permanent peace in Palestine and calls for repairing all the damage that was done there. And I'm doing this to shine a light on the experience of the Palestinian people and children in particular. So the world does not look the other way."
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