After deciding it was “inconsistent” with the company’s values, Ben & Jerry’s has announced that it has decided to “end sales of [its] ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The decision, which the ice cream giant announced on its Twitter page on Monday morning, comes after the company said it heard and recognized “the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners.”
“We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region,” the announcement reads. “We have been working to change this, and so we have informed our licensee that we will not renew the license agreement when it expires at the end of next year.”
The statement ends with Ben & Jerry’s sharing that it will stay in Israel “through a different arrangement,” with updates on said arrangement to come when the company is ready.
The announcement ended two months of silence from the company on social media platforms, which the Boston Globe reported on, as consumers reportedly expressed outrage with business moves in West Bank and East Jerusalem during the armed conflict between the Israeli government, Hamas and other militant groups.
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