Florida will not put any state funds into the parent company of Ben & Jerry's unless it reverses a decision to stop selling ice cream in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem, Governor Ron DeSantis said Tuesday.
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The Republican governor said the State Board of Administration added London-based Unilever to its list of "scrutinized companies" that boycott Israel. This means that if Ben & Jerry's position on Israel is not reversed in 90 days, Florida will not invest in or contract with Unilever or its subsidiaries.
Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry's, has said that there was little it could do to block the decision. Under a 2000 purchase agreement, Ben & Jerry's retained great autonomy over its social-justice policies.
"As a matter of law and principle, the state of Florida will not tolerate discrimination against the state of Israel or the Israeli people," DeSantis said in a press release. "I will not stand idly by as woke corporate ideologues seek to boycott and divest from our ally, Israel."
The company's founders, Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, said in a recent New York Times opinion piece that they no longer control the company but approve of the action in Israel as reflecting their progressive values. The company has a long history of advocating for social justice.
"We are also proud Jews. It's part of who we are and how we've identified ourselves for our whole lives. As our company began to expand internationally, Israel was one of our first overseas markets. We were then, and remain today, supporters of the State of Israel," the founders said. "But it's possible to support Israel and oppose some of its policies, just as we've opposed policies of the U.S. government."
Unilever's 400 brands include a wide variety of familiar consumer goods, and Unilever Israel is one of the biggest consumer goods conglomerates in the country.
Unilever CEO Alan Jope said last week that Unilever remains "fully committed" to its businesses in Israel and will find a way to continue to produce Ben & Jerry's inside the country while excluding settlements.
In an email Tuesday, Unilever said it employs more than 2,000 people in Israel and the company "rejects completely and repudiates unequivocally any form of discrimination or intolerance."
"Antisemitism has no place in any society," the company said, adding that Ben & Jerry's will continue selling ice cream in parts of Israel "through a different business arrangement."
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