North Carolina Divesting $40 Million From Ben & Jerry’s Over Israel Boycott

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in a grocery store in Washington on July 10, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell justified the state’s recent decision to pull out investments from ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s over the firm’s boycott of Israel, suggesting that local laws compel them to make such a move.

“We are where we are. We don’t pick which laws to apply and who to apply them to,” North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell, a Republican, said in an interview this week. “I wish I never heard of this subject and wish we didn’t have to do what we had to do.” In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced it would no longer sell its products in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT),” which comprises the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

On Dec. 21, Mr. Folwell updated the list of companies subject to divestment and contract restrictions due to their boycott of Israel, adding Ben & Jerry’s, its parent company Unilever, and the subsidiaries of Unilever.

State laws prohibit the North Carolina Retirement Systems or the Department of State Treasurer from investing in any company that engages in a boycott of Israel. The law was passed by the state legislature in 2017.

Since Ben & Jerry’s was involved in such a boycott. Mr. Folwell ordered that $40 million worth of investments be divested from Unilever assets.

In addition, state agencies and local governments are prohibited from entering into any contract with these companies.

“We have policies in place per state law that dictate how we should proceed on any holdings in the retirement system of companies that boycott Israel and their affiliates. We will follow our policies and the law,” the state Treasurer said at the time.

“This is particularly important in this case as we have witnessed the atrocities perpetrated against the Israeli people. There is no place for antisemitism in this state or this country.”

The North Carolina Retirement Systems manages retirement accounts of over a million individuals, including police officers, government employees, teachers, firefighters, and other public workers. The total investments come to around $117.9 billion and are under the management of the Department of State Treasurer.

In his interview, Mr. Folwell noted that sponsors of the 2017 legislation backed his actions. His office had reached out to Unilever before deciding on divesting the retirement funds.

“I don’t know the people at Ben & Jerry’s. I respect their entrepreneurship. I think when they signed the contract, Ben & Jerry’s anticipated something like this,” Mr. Folwell said. “Unilever didn’t anticipate anything like this. Generally, when a parent tells a kid not to do something, they expect them to listen.”

Woke Positioning

In its statement, Ben & Jerry’s claimed that the decision to not sell in the OPT region was due to such actions being “inconsistent with our values.”

Writing in a July 2021 opinion essay in The New York Times, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s stated that the company rejects Israel’s policy of perpetuating “an illegal occupation that is a barrier to peace and violates the basic human rights of the Palestinian people who live under the occupation.”

A few months later, in October, the New York pension fund said that it was pulling out $111 million in equity investments from Unilever.

Back in 2016, the New York Common Retirement Fund adopted a policy that stated there would be repercussions for companies engaged in BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) activities, which put the fund’s Israeli investments at risk.

“Our review of the activities of the company, and its subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s, found they engaged in BDS activities,” Thomas DiNapoli, the manager of New York’s $268 billion retirement fund, said in a statement to the New York Post.

In addition to North Carolina and New York, other states that have pulled out retirement funds over Ben & Jerry’s Israel boycott include Arizona, Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, and Florida.

Unilever sold its Ben & Jerry’s business interests in Israel to an Israel-based licensee in June 2022. The independent members of Ben & Jerry’s board approached the courts, seeking an injunction of the sale. However, their requests were refused.

Besides Israel, Ben & Jerry’s has taken a “woke” stance on several issues. The company has long supported left-wing and Democrat causes.

Last year, the firm came under backlash after it denigrated the Fourth of July weekend, claiming that the United States only exists on “stolen land.” The company asked people to “commit to returning” the land.

“What is the meaning of Independence Day for those whose land this country stole, those who were murdered and forced with brutal violence onto reservations, those who were pushed from their holy places and denied their freedom?” the company said in a post.

“The faces on Mount Rushmore are the faces of men who actively worked to destroy Indigenous cultures and ways of life, to deny Indigenous people their basic rights.”

The company’s comments triggered boycott calls. “Make @benndjerrys Bud Light again,” country singer-songwriter John Rich said in an X post.

In March, company co-founder Ben Cohen spoke against U.S. assistance to Ukraine, insisting that America should try to negotiate an end to Kyiv’s war with Russia.