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Ben & Jerry’s Accuses Parent Company Unilever of Firing CEO Over Political Posts, Anti-Israel Activism
Tubs of ice cream are seen as a laborer works at a Ben & Jerry’s factory in Be’er Tuvia, Israel, July 20, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Ben & Jerry’s has accused parent company Unilever of firing its CEO in retaliation for the ice cream producer’s political activism on social media, which includes calling for a permanent ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas war.
Ben & Jerry’s — which was founded in 1978 by Jewish childhood friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield — and five directors of its independent board filed a lawsuit against Unilever and its US subsidiary, the New York-based corporation Conopco, in federal court in November 2024, claiming the companies are censoring its public advocacy. The ice-cream maker accused Unilever, a conglomerate based in London, and Conopco of violating its 2000 merger agreement, which created the independent board and gave it “primary responsibility for Social Mission Priorities and the Essential Integrity of the Brand.” Ben & Jerry’s has a history of outspoken advocacy on topics of social justice and human rights, including climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, and Black Lives Matter.
The Vermont-based ice cream company filed an amended complaint in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday that accused Unilever and Conopco of continuing to censor its political posts on social media. In one recent instance, Ben & Jerry’s said Unilever “blocked” the company from posting a message in solidarity with pro-Hamas activist and former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil. Ben & Jerry’s wanted to write in support of free speech and link to a petition for Khalil’s release after he was arrested earlier this month by US authorities in accordance with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump cracking down on campus antisemitism and supporters of terrorist groups. Khalil’s deportation is pending a legal challenge by his lawyers.
Ben & Jerry’s also claimed Unilever stopped it from posting in December 2023 in support of a ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas war that started two months earlier, after the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel. Unilever also allegedly stopped Ben & Jerry’s from posting on social media in support of Palestinian refugees in May 2024 because of the inappropriate timing of the message, since it would have coincided with an Iranian missile attack on Israel. Another claim is that Unilever did not let Ben & Jerry’s post in support of anti-Israel campus protests, which often turned violent, and their First Amendment rights in June 2024. Unilever’s response was that it had “reasonable concerns about the need to condemn the violence associated with the protests and support rights of Jewish students as well.”
“Unilever’s suppression of Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission has reached startling new levels of oppressiveness,” Ben & Jerry’s stated in its updated complaint this week. It also claimed Unilever was waging a “campaign of professional reprisals,” which led to the firing of Ben & Jerry’s CEO David Stever, who assumed the position in May 2023 after being a longtime tour guide for the company. Under Stever’s leadership, the company “outperformed Unilever’s ice cream portfolio” and was ranked #2 on the Brand 500 Authenticity Index in 2023 and 2024, according to Ben & Jerry’s.
“Contrary to their obligations under Section 6.14, Unilever has repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry’s personnel, including CEO David Stever, should they fail to comply with Unilever’s efforts to silence the Social Mission. This month … Unilever followed through with their threats,” the lawsuit further stated.
Ben & Jerry’s said Unilever informed its board of directors about Stever’s firing on March 3, without following protocol outlined in the merger agreement, which says Unilever must consult with an advisory committee from the board before making decisions about the removal of a CEO. Ben & Jerry’s is accusing Unilever of removing Stever because of his “commitment to Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission and Essential Brand Integrity and his willingness to collaborate in good faith with the Independent Board, rather than any genuine concerns regarding his performance history.”
“Unilever has repeatedly failed to recognize and respect the Independent Board’ primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission and Brand Integrity, including threatening Ben & Jerry’s personnel should the company speak out regarding issues which that Unilever prefers to censor,” stated the amended complaint this week. The lawsuit alleges that Unilever executives previously criticized Stever in his January 2025 performance review for “repeatedly acquiesce[ing] to the demands of the Independent Social Mission Board” by permitting certain social media posts.
Ben & Jerry’s wants the court to order Unilever to “prospectively respect and acknowledge” its independent board and its authority. It also wants Unilever to comply with the merger agreement and its policy regarding the appointment and firing of a CEO.
Ben & Jerry’s also claimed in its lawsuit this week that Unilever has violated its settlement agreement with the ice cream company by blocking its donations to two anti-Israel organizations: Jewish Voice for Peace and the Council on American Islamic Relations last year. Ben & Jerry’s is asking the court to order Unilever to pay the company $5 million that it will then disbursement to human rights and humanitarian organizations of its choosing.
Unilever defended itself by saying that it “exercised its right to withhold consent to donate” after researching JVP and CAIR, and discovering that both groups have made “made inflammatory comments” about the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel.
A plaintiff included in the lawsuit against Unilever is Anuradha Mittal, chairman of Ben & Jerry’s independent board of directors. When Bloomberg News previously visited her office, it reported that it is decorated with a “Free Palestine” placard and a poster of two Palestinian men embracing next to a barbed wire fence. The poster included a message in Arabic that said, “Support the Intifada.” In 2018, on Israel’s Independence Day, Mittal tweeted, “The catastrophe continues #Nakba70 years later #palestine bleeds Boycott Divest Sanctions #israel.”
On Wednesday, Unilever filed a motion to dismiss Ben and Jerry’s complaint. The British conglomerate claimed in part that Ben & Jerry’s independent board members do not have the right to bring lawsuits on behalf of the company. Also, Ben & Jerry’s did not allege that it suffered any damages as a result of Unilever’s alleged breach of the settlement agreement, Unilever added.
Unilever noted that its issues with Ben & Jerry’s are a “direct result” of the board’s decision to get involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and share its opinions so publicly “without any regard to the negative impact” on both companies. Unilever insisted that if anything, Ben & Jerry’s decision in 2021 to stop selling its products in Israeli territories resulted in “severe consequences” for both companies.
In July 2020, Ben & Jerry’s independent board unanimously passed a resolution to end distribution of Ben & Jerry’s products in eastern Jerusalem and in the West Bank. The company made the announcement a year later in July 2021, saying in a released statement: “We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The announcement led to “multiple lawsuits” in the US and Israel targeting Unilever for being in violation of laws against the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, as well as accusations of antisemitism, “severe” sanctions, and the divestment of “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Unilever’s stock, Unilever claimed in its motion to dismiss on Wednesday.
“Unilever … continues — to this day — to suffer the consequences of that decision. B&J’s and/or Unilever still remain on at least nine states’ anti-BDS lists and Indonesia has a ‘fatwah’ on Unilever. These are just two examples of the world-wide response to the Board’s decision that have negatively impacted B&J’s and Unilever,” the company stated. “Unilever continues to support B&J’s and its social advocacy work. Over time, the social mission of B&J’s shifted, but in recent years it has come to a head as B&J’s seeks to advocate for one-sided, highly controversial, and polarizing topics that put Unilever, B&J’s, and their employees at risk.”
In 2022, Unilever sold its Ben & Jerry’s property rights to a local distributor in Israel, who resumed selling the ice cream products in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank with Hebrew and Arabic labeling. Ben & Jerry’s sued Unilever for its actions. The 2022 lawsuit ended with a settlement agreement that requires Unilever to “respect and acknowledge the Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board’s primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission and Essential Brand Integrity” and “work in good faith with the Independent Board to ensure that both are protected and furthered.”
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Trump Defends Plan to Accept $400 Million Jet From Qatar
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump on Monday defended his controversial decision to accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar, lauding the overture from Doha as “a great gesture.”
“I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much,” Trump said while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office. “I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’ But it was — I thought it was a great gesture.”
The US president argued that the Qatari government gifted him the jet because he has “helped them a lot over the years in terms of security and safety.”
Trump announced on Sunday night that the US Department of Defense would receive a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a “gift, free of charge” from Qatar. According to Trump, the jet will serve as a replacement to “the 40-year-old Air Force One.” The jet will be considered property of the US federal government until the end of Trump’s term in office, after which ownership of the aircraft will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation.
Trump’s decision to accept the gift from Qatar sparked immediate backlash, with critics accusing the president of violating the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign countries without the consent of Congress, and compromising national security.
The president’s plan to accept the lavish gift from Qatar has raised concern among foreign policy experts who worry that Doha could influence American policy in the Middle East. Qatar, a wealthy Gulf nation with substantial investments in US real estate and infrastructure, maintains a complex relationship with the Trump administration. Last month, Trump struck a deal to build a full 18-hole golf course in Qatar.
Moreover, Qatar maintains extensive financial links with Hamas, the terrorist group that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza after slaughtering 1,200 people in Israel and taking 251 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023. Qatar has transferred an estimated $1.8 billion to the Hamas terror organization, according to reports. Doha also contributed $30 million per month to Hamas from 2012 to 2023, according to a Qatari official interviewed by Der Spiegel.
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Students for Justice in Palestine Awarded ‘Best’ Campus Group by University of California, Davis Newspaper
University of California, Davis in Davis, California, on May 28, 2024. Photo: Penny Collins/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
The University of California, Davis’s (UC Davis) official campus newspaper has named the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter the “Best Student-Run Organization or Club” for the second consecutive year, despite the group’s history of calling for violence against Jews and Israelis.
The Aggie defended granting SJP one of its highest annual honors, describing it as having “led some of the most prominent political organizing efforts at UC Davis” and fostering students’ interest in “global justice and university accountability.” The paper did not mention SJP’s links to Islamist terrorist organizations or its efforts across the US to advocate for the destruction of both America and Israel.
It continued, “Their advocacy, however, goes far beyond protest. Throughout the year, SSJP hosted film screenings, teach-ins, and information panels aimed at educating students on the historical and ongoing occupation of Palestine. They also continued to call out the University of California system’s financial ties to companies profiting from violence against Palestinians — pressuring administrators to divest and pushing for transparency in how student tuition is spent.”
SJP thanked The Aggie for the award.
“We are honored to receive this acknowledgement and humbled to be held in the high esteem of our peers,” the group said in a statement. “This acknowledgement is not ours alone — it belongs to everyone who continues to show up, speak out, and do the vital work in their communities. It is their dedication that shapes who we are.”
The Aggie has not responded to The Algemeiner‘srequest for comment on this story.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, UC Davis is a hub of anti-Zionist extremism in which faculty and staff regularly call for the destruction of Israel and acts of violence cheered as “resistance.” Following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, for example, the university kept on staff a professor who appeared to call for violence against Jewish journalists and their children.
“One group of ppl [sic] we have easy access to in the US is all these Zionist journalists who spread propaganda & misinformation,” American Studies assistant professor Jemma Decristo wrote on the X social media platform. “They have houses [with] addresses, kids in school. They can fear their bosses, but they should fear us more.” The message was followed by images of a knife, an axe, and three blood-drop emojis.
In 2024, UC Davis’s student government (ASUSD) passed legislation adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement and falsely accusing Israel of genocide.
“This bill prohibits the purchase of products from corporations identified as profiting from the genocide and occupation of the Palestinian people by the BDS National Committee,” said the measure, titled Senate Bill (SB) #52. “This bill seeks to address the human rights violations of the nation-state and government of Israel and establish a guideline of ethical spending.”
Puma, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Airbnb, Disney, and Sabra are all named on Students for Justice in Palestine’s “BDS List.”
Powers enumerated in the bill included veto power over all vendor contracts, which SJP specifically applied to “purchase orders for custom t-shirts,” a provision that may affect pro-Israel groups on campus. Such policies will be guided by a “BDS List” of targeted companies curated by SJP. The language of the legislation gives ASUCD the right to add more to it.
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of California, Davis is one of many SJP chapters that justified Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks In a chilling statement posted after the world became aware of the terrorist group’s atrocities on that day, which included hundreds of civilian murders and sexual assaults, the group said “the responsibility for the current escalation of violence is entirely on the Israeli occupation.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), SJP chapters — which have said in their communications that Israeli civilians deserve to be murdered for being “settlers” — lead the way in promoting a campus environment hostile to Jewish and pro-Israel voices. Their aim, the civil rights group explained in an open letter published in December 2023, is to “exclude and marginalize Jewish students,” whom they describe as “oppressors,” and encourage “confrontation” with them.
The ADL has urged colleges and universities to protect Jewish students from the group’s behavior, which, in many cases, has allegedly violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Jewish Communities in France, Germany, UK Form New ‘JE3’ Alliance Amid Surge in Antisemitism
From left to right: President Phil Rosenberg of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Josef Schuster of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Yonathan Arfi of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). Photo: Screenshot
The leading representative bodies of Jewish communities in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have formed a new alliance to amplify Jewish perspectives in international debates, amid a troubling rise in antisemitism across all three countries.
On Monday, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), and the Central Council of Jews in Germany announced the formation of the new “JE3” alliance during a conference of the Anti-Defamation League’s J7 Task Force — the largest international initiative against antisemitism — held in Berlin.
This new alliance, inspired by the E3 diplomatic format that unites France, Germany, and the UK to coordinate on key geopolitical issues such as nuclear negotiations with Iran and peace in the Middle East, aims to provide a united Jewish communal voice on these and other pressing international matters.
The newly formed group also seeks to strengthen existing umbrella organizations, such as the World Jewish Congress, the European Jewish Congress, and the J7 initiative — a coalition of Jewish organizations in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the United States.
“It is our hope that the JE3 will become a powerful voice for our communities on issues that we care about together,” Josef Schuster of the Central Council, Phil Rosenberg of the Board of Deputies, and Yonathan Arfi of CRIF said in a joint statement.
“It is particularly significant that we brought together the new grouping in Berlin, 80 years after the end of the Holocaust,” the statement continued. “This is a show of intent by our three flourishing communities that we are committed to boosting Jewish life in our respective countries, cooperating in the fight against antisemitism, and enhancing bilateral and multilateral relations between our countries and Israel.”
Berlin: The largest representative organisations of European Jewish communities in France, Germany, and the UK have today launched a new ‘JE3‘ alliance. @Le_CRIF @ZentralratJuden pic.twitter.com/hXotcz6RDb
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) May 12, 2025
This new JE3 initiative comes as France, Germany, and the UK, as well as other countries across Europe and around the world, have reported record spikes in antisemitic activity in recent years, largely fueled by a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment following Hamas’s launch of its war against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Last week, the J7 Task Force released its first Annual Report on Antisemitism, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, when Nazi Germany formally surrendered to Allied forces on May 8, marking the end of World War II and the Holocaust.
The report, which echoes findings from recent studies, revealed a dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents between 2021 and 2023. These increases include 11 percent in Australia, 23 percent in Argentina, 75 percent in Germany, 82 percent in the UK, 83 percent in Canada, 185 percent in France, and 227 percent in the US. Those numbers continued to spike to record levels in the aftermath of the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7.
Additionally, the data showed a concerning rise on a per-capita basis, with Germany reporting over 38 incidents per 1,000 Jews, and the UK seeing 13 per 1,000.
The seven communities identified several common trends, including a surge in violent incidents, recurring attacks on Jewish institutions, a rise in online hate speech, and growing fear among Jews, which has led many to conceal their Jewish identity.
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