Ninety-two Israelis, including more than 30 academics, endorsed a full-page ad published in Haaretz newspaper on Tuesday thanking Ben & Jerry's for its recent decision to halt sales in Judea and Samaria.
Under the banner "Thank you Ben & Jerry," the ad stated: "Dear Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, we are writing to let you know that in Israel there are also other opinions. Thank you for your commitment to Palestinian human rights."
At the bottom of the ad, which was published in English and Hebrew, the signatories added: "This statement of gratitude is directed towards Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc. in Vermont, and not to the company's Israeli franchise," which refused the demands of global Ben & Jerry's to boycott Judea and Samaria.
Controversial Board Chair of Ben & Jerry's Anuradha Mittal, who has a long history of anti-Israel activity including support for BDS, shared the ad on her Twitter page and thanked the signatories.
Signatories of the letter included 37 Israeli academics from a variety of publicly funded Israeli universities, notably 21 professors from Hebrew University and 11 from Tel-Aviv University. Academics from Haifa University, Bar-Ilan University, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Bezalel Academy also added their signatures.
Other signatories included former Joint List MKs Sondos Saleh, Iman Khatib-Yasin, Wael Younis and Jabar Asakla, former Hadash MK Hana Sweid, former Meretz MKs Zehava Gal-On, Hussniya Jabara and Roman Bronfman, and former Labor MKs Tzaly Reshef and Avraham Burg.
The pro-Israel watchdog group Im Tirtzu blasted the letter and said that it underscores how severe the "BDS from within" phenomenon is.
"While tremendous amounts of resources are invested in Israel and throughout the world to combat the international BDS movement, radical Israeli professors and former politicians are undermining these efforts by promoting BDS from within Israel," Im Tirtzu said.
"There is no parallel in the world to this phenomenon of hypocrisy and ungratefulness, in which these professors and former politicians earn their living at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer, yet at the same time work to boycott and slander them."
