Ben & Jerry founder leaves a company amid a dispute with Unilever over Gaza Business and Economics News

Jerry Greenfield says he could no longer “a good conscience” continues to work for the company “Sakht”.

Jerry Greenfield, the founder of Ben & Jerry, retired nearly 50 years old, accusing the UK’s mother company to silence the social mission of the ice cream brand, especially with regard to War for the genocide of Israel on GazaAccording to his commercial partner Ben Cohen.

In an open message that Cohen’s Ben & Jerry community on the social media platform X deals on Wednesday, Greenfield called it one of the most “most difficult and most painful” decisions he made ever.

After 47 years, Jerry made the difficult decision to step down from the company that we built together. I share his words as he resigned from Ben & Jerry. His legacy deserves to be honest to our values, and not be silent Magnumglobal #freebenandjerrys pic.twitter.com/ezxgrs76a

Yobencohen September 17, 2025

Unilever and Ben & Jerry have been clashes since 2021, when the Fairmont company said it will work. Stop sales in the occupied West Bank It was also “not consistent with our values.”

Since then, the brand has filed a lawsuit against its mother company for the alleged efforts to silence it and described the Israeli war on Gaza as a “genocide”, a rare position of a large American company.

At that time, a Utyver spokesman said, “Our heart is launched for all victims of tragic events in the Middle East. We reject the claims made by the B&G Social Mission Board, and we will bury our cause strongly. We will not comment more on this legal issue.”

Greenfield said that he could no longer “good conscience” to continue working for the company “Facardized” by Unilever, despite the integration agreement aimed at protecting the social mission of the brand.

He wrote in the letter: “This independence was present in a small part due to the unique integration agreement that I negotiated with Utyver,” he wrote in the letter.

Both men are famous for their progressive activity.

Cohen He was arrested in May To disable a hearing in the Senate in the United States to protest against Washington’s support for the Israeli war in Gaza. Nearly 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war, following the Hamas attacks worth October 7, 2023 in southern Israel.

A spokesman for Magnum Ice Cream said on Wednesday that he does not agree to the perspective of Greenfield and sought to involve both founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen the strong Ben and Jerry -based position on the world. The spokesperson also said that he was grateful to Greenfield for his role in postponing Ben & Jerry.

Ben & Jerry and Leslifler did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters news agency.

Last week, Cohen said that the brand had tried to sell investors with a fair market value ranging from 1.5 billion dollars and $ 2.5 billion amid tensions with Uilever, but the proposal was rejected.