Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream company that has come under fire for far-left politics which most recently include a boycott of sales of their products in the “West Bank” and East Jerusalem sectors of Israel, is (unsurprisingly) led by a far-left anti-Semite.
Most of the focus on the company’s past progressive swagger has been attributed to co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who wholly endorsed the anti-Israel move, but have no positions of authority in the company. However, they did insist that their ideological approach to managing the business would remain when they sold the company to Unilever, the current owner, in 2000.
So true to its origins, Ben & Jerry’s now operates independently, led by board chairwoman Anuradha Mittal, who has a history of activism in support of Hezbollah and Hamas and founded the Oakland Institute, which consistently produces anti-Israel propaganda.
Alana Goodman at the Washington Free Beacon unearthed some of Mittal’s past history of opposition against the Jewish state:
Articles published by the Oakland Institute claimed that Israel’s strike on Hezbollah was part of a years-long plan to “allow the Cheney/Rumsfeld war party to once again take control” and argued for “a voluntary and sensitive integration of Hezbollah into a reformed, viable Lebanese political arrangement.”
The Oakland Institute also published a series of reports in 2017 accusing Israel of humanitarian crimes. The series included a lengthy interview with Bassem Tamimi, a Palestinian man who was convicted of organizing stone-throwing attacks against Israeli soldiers and has promoted claims that Israel arrests Palestinian children in order to “steal their organs.”…
Mittal’s Twitter feed also shows her long-standing anti-Israel views. She has posted in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, praised singer Shakira for canceling a performance in Israel, and defended Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D., Minn.) claim that pro-Israel members of Congress have an “allegiance” to a foreign government. Omar’s remarks were denounced as anti-Semitic by members of her own party and prompted the House to pass a resolution against hate and intolerance.
Read the rest of Goodman’s profile of Mittal here.