A Ben & Jerry's shop owner Joel Gasman blamed the chain's newly announced boycott of Israeli settlements as the reason his Upper West Side has tanked in recent days, the New York Post reported on Thursday.
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Gasman said the anti-settlement ban came as a shock to him, vowing to donate a portion of his proceeds to help Israel.
"We couldn't sit back and watch without speaking up," Gasman told the paper on Thursday. "It has definitely hurt our bottom line and our overall store value. We've lost some foot traffic as well as bigger catering jobs that usually help us during the summer. We're getting bad reviews online that have nothing to do with the store, only in regards to corporate views."
Gasman will donate 10% of his profits to fund education causes in Israel in protest of the ice cream maker's corporate decision.
"It's been upsetting for us," he said, stressing that he and fellow Ben & Jerry's shops had nothing to do with the company's move to stop selling products beyond the Green Line.
Ben & Jerry's announced its decision in mid-July in response to pressure by the progressives on the Left who have criticized it for operating in Israel. In its statement, the Vermont-based company said selling ice cream in Israeli settlements was "inconsistent with our values." The move drew immediate outrage from Israelis and Jewish groups, many of whom called the move antisemitic.
Public officials in the US also condemned the move, with states threatening to divest their pension funds from Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry's.
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