Ben Cohen, co-founder of the iconic ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s, says that parent company Unilever prevented the company from launching a new flavor intended to show solidarity with Palestine, BBC reports.
Cohen announced that he will move forward independently with the project, creating the flavor as part of a personal series highlighting social causes that he claims Ben & Jerry’s has been barred from addressing publicly.
Ben & Jerry’s, long recognized for its outspoken stance on political, environmental, and humanitarian issues - including the Israel-Gaza conflict - has often found itself at odds with Unilever, which purchased the brand in 2000.
According to Cohen, both Unilever and its soon-to-be-separated ice cream division, Magnum, have “unlawfully blocked” Ben & Jerry’s from fulfilling its social mission.
In a video posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Cohen revealed that he is developing a watermelon-flavored sorbet and invited suggestions for the product’s name and ingredients. The watermelon has become a symbol of solidarity with Palestinians because its red, green, black, and white colors mirror those of the Palestinian flag.
“I’m doing what they couldn’t,” Cohen said in the video, filmed in a kitchen. “I’m making a watermelon-flavored ice cream that calls for permanent peace in Palestine and for repairing the damage that was done there.”
Cohen added that Unilever had explicitly barred Ben & Jerry’s from producing the dessert.
The new flavor will be part of Cohen’s activist brand, Ben’s Best, which operates separately from Ben & Jerry’s. In a press statement, Cohen said the flavor will be produced independently and will represent issues the original company was prevented from addressing.
Ben’s Best was first established in 2016 in support of then-US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, with the launch of the “Bernie’s Back” flavor. Cohen said he plans to develop other socially conscious flavors under the same label.
In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop selling products in Israeli-occupied territories. Unilever later sold the company’s Israeli operations to a local licensee, allowing Ben & Jerry’s to continue being sold in the West Bank.
The rift between the co-founders and Unilever has widened in recent months. In September, Jerry Greenfield, the company’s other co-founder, stepped down, saying that Ben & Jerry’s independence had been compromised by Unilever’s efforts to limit its activism.
At the time, Cohen stated that Greenfield’s decision came from “a really big heart” and that “this conflict with Unilever was breaking it.”
“My heart leads me to keep working within the company to advocate for its independence,” he said, “so it can continue to live up to its founding values and social mission of more than 40 years.”
Since 2022, Ben & Jerry’s Israel has been fully independent. The company acquired the rights of the brand and has been operating since then with no legal or commercial connection to Unilever or Ben & Jerry’s Global.
The local operation is run by "American Quality Products Ltd.," owned by Avi Zinger, with a manufacturing plant in Be’er Tuvia employing over 200 workers, most of whom are residents of Israel’s south. The Israeli company operates with full autonomy throughout the country, upholding the local and community values that have guided it for more than 35 years.