Dale Folwell/PHOTO: NC State Treasurer
More than two years ago, in October 2021, National Legal and Policy Center wrote a letter to North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell and urged him to divest the state’s pension funds from Unilever, parent company of Ben & Jerry’s. At the time the ice cream maker — which has a strange arrangement under the U.K.-based conglomerate to operate with its own board of directors, in order to preserve its founders’ progressive political agenda — had announced it would cancel its contract with its Israel-based vendor so it could end sales of its products in the West Bank and East Jerusalem sectors of the country.
Ben & Jerry’s board is led by anti-Semite Anuradha Mittal, and the subsidiary’s decision created a massive headache for Unilever, whose CEO at the time, Alan Jope, acted helpless over what to do about its renegade child. Many states in America, led by both conservative and liberal public finance managers and treasurers, announced divestment of its pensions and other investments from the parent company.
Unilever ultimately bailed on the problem and sold the rights to sell the ice cream in Israel to the very licensee who Ben & Jerry’s board planned to cut ties with.
As for Folwell, back in October 2021, he responded to NLPC’s letter by announcing his office would monitor the issue, stating, “We appreciate being contacted by NLPC on this issue. 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. We will follow our policies and the law.”
The NC state law Folwell referenced has been on the books since 2017.
Yesterday he announced that he would now divest North Carolina’s pension funds from Unilever.
“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,” Folwell said, as reported by the Associated Press. “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.”
It’s not clear, however, whether Ben & Jerry’s (or Unilever) are still “boycotting” Israel, since the subsidiary no longer operates in the country as it pertains to selling its ice cream products, which are still available there through their former licensee, using their name in Hebrew.
Folwell is running for governor of North Carolina in 2024.
