Greenfield utilized Instagram and X platforms, posting through business partner Ben Cohen's profiles, to reveal his resignation resulted from the brand's inability to champion social justice initiatives central to its founding mission, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"It's profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone," Greenfield declared in his online statements, as documented by the Wall Street Journal.

Unilever's frozen dessert unit, the Magnum Ice Cream Company, expressed gratitude for Greenfield's pioneering work and emphasized dedication to upholding product excellence alongside economic and social commitments.

"We disagree with his perspective and have sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry's powerful values-based position in the world," company officials told the Wall Street Journal.

When Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry's in 2000, their arrangement specifically preserved the Vermont company's control over political messaging and marketing decisions, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Friction has intensified surrounding several matters, from former Chief Executive David Stever's exit to conflicts regarding political positions – especially those related to Middle Eastern affairs.

"Ben & Jerry's has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power," Greenfield stated in his departure message, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Unilever continues to organize TMICC, which encompasses Ben & Jerry's, for an Amsterdam listing with secondary markets in London and New York in November.

Cohen pursues brand liberation and protested at TMICC's September 9 investor briefing, having explored assembling aligned buyers for the repurchase of Ben & Jerry's, though TMICC leader Peter ter Kulve confirmed that the division remains unavailable for purchase.

Cohen and Greenfield launched their Burlington, Vermont, operation from a repurposed gas station in 1978, creating texture-heavy products suited to Cohen's smell-impaired palate, as detailed by the Wall Street Journal.

Social consciousness became integral alongside product innovation, achieving nationwide prominence during the 1990s through combining progressive advocacy with inventive flavors.

Post-acquisition, both creators remained involved without managerial roles, attending franchise events and employee sessions in an ambassadorial capacity, with spokespeople verifying Cohen's unchanged status following Greenfield's exit, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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Whenever we start a diet, we often categorize certain foods as "off-limits" – pizza and ice cream are typically at the top of that list. However, Shirly Koren Shay, a dietitian, workout coach, and mother of three, suggests it's time to change our mindset about these seemingly indulgent treats and embrace moderation as the key to sustainable weight loss success.

The "White Bear" experiment by psychologist Daniel Wegner demonstrated that when instructed not to think about a white bear, it became nearly impossible to avoid fixating on the very image we aimed to suppress. This phenomenon extends to dieting – forbidding certain foods can amplify cravings, undermining our efforts.

"Instead of placing foods into the 'forbidden' category, we should embrace the idea of enjoying all foods in moderation," explains nutritionist Sarah Wilson. "Deprivation only breeds resentment and makes us more likely to overindulge when temptation strikes."

So, how can one indulge in pizza and ice cream while still shedding pounds? The experts offer three viable options: store-bought, healthier alternatives, and homemade versions.

The store-bought option:

Pizza: A standard pizza slice from a pizzeria can pack around 250 calories, but incorporating a slice into a balanced meal with salad and protein can satisfy cravings while maintaining a calorie deficit.
Ice Cream: A half-cup (100g) serving of premium ice cream contains approximately 220 calories – an acceptable daily treat when accounting for overall intake.

The healthier alternative:

Pizza: Cauliflower-based crusts offer a low-calorie (47 calories per slice) base to load with veggies, lean protein, and a sprinkle of cheese.
Ice Cream: The frozen aisle is brimming with high-protein, low-calorie ice cream options perfect for a guilt-free daily indulgence.

The homemade route:

Pizza: Whipping up a protein-packed pizza crust at home allows you to control portions and ingredients for a satisfying, diet-friendly meal.
Ice Cream: Nutritious "nice cream" recipes using frozen bananas or yogurt provide a sweet, creamy treat without the excess calories and sugar.

"At the end of the day, no food is truly off-limits," Wilson emphasizes. "It's about finding a balance that allows you to enjoy your favorite treats without compromising your goals. Moderation and smart substitutions are key to long-term success."

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Unilever announced on Thursday that its legal battle with the independent board of its wholly-owned autonomous subsidiary Ben & Jerry's, over the brand's sale of ice cream in Israel, has been resolved.

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The Vermont-based ice cream company announced in July 2021 that it would not renew the Israeli franchise agreement for the following year, saying that the sale of its ice cream in Judea and Samaria, commonly called the West Bank, was inconsistent with the brand's values. This was met with a class-action lawsuit by a US shareholder and countered by moves to divest from Unilever by US several states such as New York and Illinois.

In June, the British consumer goods conglomerate sold its Ben & Jerry's ice cream business in Israel to local licensee Avi Zinger for an undisclosed sum. Ben & Jerry's responded by filing a lawsuit against its parent company Unilever in an attempt to block the sale.

In an updated lawsuit filed in September, Ben & Jerry's said it was seeking damages and wanted the trademarks returned. The brand also asked a judge to stop Zinger from selling the ice cream in the West Bank. Unilever's announcement of the settlement was met with praise by Zinger.

"I am pleased that the litigation between Unilever and the independent board of Ben & Jerry's has been resolved," he said.

"There is no change to the agreement I made with Unilever earlier in the year. I look forward to continuing to produce and sell the great tasting Ben & Jerry's ice cream under the Hebrew and Arabic trademarks throughout Israel and the West Bank long into the future," said Zinger.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Israel's Ambassador to the US and the UN Gilad Erdan on Monday blasted the "ignorance and hypocrisy" he said Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield displayed in an interview with Axios. In the Sunday interview, the Ben & Jerry's founders rejected criticism of their company's decision to stop selling its products in Judea and Samaria.

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"Part of the definition of antisemitism is exactly that - demanding from Israel what is not demanded from any other entity in the world, and the gentlemen Ben and Jerry have no problem with their ice cream being sold to supporters of terrorism, but Israel they boycott," Erdan said. "So I will continue to act so that as many countries as possible include Ben & Jerry's and [its parent-company] Unilever on their blacklist until this despicable boycott comes to an end."

In the Axios on HBO interview, Greenfield says he "wasn't surprised" by the accusations of antisemitism that followed the company's announcement, but "it's still painful. I understand people being upset. It's a very emotional issue for a lot of people, and it's a very painful issue for a lot of people."

Cohen, on the other hand, said, "[It was] totally fine because it's absurd. What, I'm anti-Jewish? I'm a Jew. My family is Jewish. My friends are Jewish."

"I think [the outrage] is largely based on misinformation. I think Ben and Jerry's and [parent company] Unilever are largely being characterized as boycotting Israel, which is not the case at all," Greenfield said.

"I don't view it as withholding money. We just don't want our ice cream sold in the occupied territories," Cohen said.

"We hugely support Israel's right to exist, but we are against a particular policy," he said.

In a statement following the publication of the interview, Ben & Jerry's Israel CEO Avi Zinger said Unilever and Ben & Jerry's "continue to claim they are not acting against Israel at the same time as they are acting in full force against the State of Israel and its citizens and doing a great service to the BDS [boycott, divestment, and sanctions] movement and our detractors around the world.

"Ben & Jerry's Israel will continue to act against the illegal decision that discriminates and harms many of the state's citizens, and we call on the Israeli government to also act, similarly to many countries around the world that have already joined the fight against Unilever's policy and announced the imposition of tough economic sanctions on it."

In July, the Vermont-based ice cream maker announced it would stop selling its products in Judea and Samaria by 2022. In response, New Jersey and Arizona announced they would divest from Unilever over its violation of state anti-BDS laws.

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A former employee of Ben & Jerry's said the company's board consulted with anti-Israel activist and Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Israel-Palestine director Omar Shakir before the ice-cream maker announced its decision last month to boycott the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

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"They believed him to be a valid source of information about Israel," Susannah Levin told Kan Bet Radio on Tuesday, as reported by The Washington Free Beacon. Levin worked as a freelance graphic designer for Ben & Jerry's for 21 years before resigning last month after the company said on July 19 that it would stop selling its products in Israeli settlements and eastern Jerusalem.

"Omar Shakir spoke directly to the board," added Levin. "He wrote the Human Rights Watch report, [which] is what they were basing their information on."

Shakir penned a report for HRW in April that accused Israel of committing "crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution."

The HRW director has also been accused of antisemitism and ties with terrorism. He was deported from Israel in 2019 for promoting a boycott of the Jewish state and took credit for Airbnb's 2018 decision to ban Jewish-owned listings in Judea and Samaria, a move that was later reversed.

Anti-Zionist activist and writer Peter Beinart recently revealed that he had also "spoken privately to [Ben & Jerry's] executives and encouraged their efforts" on the boycott decision. Earlier in August, Ben & Jerry's invited Beinart to speak with franchisees about their concerns regarding the boycott, reported the Beacon.

The British company Unilever now runs the ice-cream company, though founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have a direct say in social justice and political issues.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Ire over Ben & Jerry's anti-settlement ban continues. Most recently, Ecuador's largest supermarket chain, owned by El Rosado Group, announced it will no longer sell ice cream manufactured by Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry's.

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The company has over 180 stores across Ecuador and is joining other supermarket stores worldwide that are protesting Ben & Jerry's decision not to sell ice cream beyond Israel's pre-1967 Green Line.

"For us, Ben & Jerry's decision is worrying and scandalous," CEO of El Rosado Group Johnny Czarninski wrote in a letter to Unilever. He also contacted Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to let her know about the decision, after she approached him on the matter.

"Discrimination against some Jews harms all Jews worldwide," he wrote.

Unilever is also receiving blows in the United States, with Illinois having announced this week it intends to take sanctions against the company. Illinois joins other states, like Texas, New York and New Jersey, which have already proposed similar measures.

Meanwhile, Ben & Jerry's co-founders, Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, published an opinion in The New York Times on Wednesday defending their decision.

"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. But it's possible to support Israel and oppose some of its policies, just as we've opposed policies of the US government."

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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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Bitter scoop: Passengers on a Delta flight from New York to Tel Aviv on Wednesday were displeased when they discovered that the in-flight service included a less-than-sweet treat: Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

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Ben & Jerry's recent announcement that it would stop selling its products beyond the Green Line caused international controversy and much concern in Israel, where the decision was seen as capitulation to the BDS movement.

Many of the passengers on Wednesday's flight handed the ice cream back to the flight attendants.

One of the passengers was former Likud MK Dr. Anat Berko, who was traveling with a relative.

"After the ice cream was served, a lot of people protested the serving of a food product whose producer boycotts Judea and Samaria. I protested, as well, and gave my ice cream back. At that stage, the Israeli flight attendants said they had told the airline that the ice cream was an inappropriate choice, but they still served it," Berko said.

The former MK said that a few upset passengers declared they would write to Delta to protest the airline's decision to serve Ben & Jerry's.

"Not only did I give my serving back, I also filmed the event, so the airline couldn't deny it had happened. Delta needs to explain itself and this astonishing decision," Berko said.

Berko added that despite the ice cream incident, the flight and the service had been excellent.

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The flyover on July 23 kicked off a global advocacy effort that features an online campaign urging people to call on Ben & Jerry's and its parent company, Unilever, not to align with the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement targeting Israel and to renew the ice- cream maker's license with its Israeli manufacturer.

On July 19, the longtime ice-cream maker announced it would end sales in what it called "occupied Palestinian territory," a move that sparked an immediate backlash in Jewish communities worldwide.

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The IAC stated: "Ben & Jerry's decision to stop selling its ice cream to certain Israeli populations is a disgraceful surrender to the BDS hate movement, which promotes a culture of fear and violence and seeks to eliminate the Jewish homeland—the only democracy in the Middle East."

It continued: "Unilever should rid itself of this discriminatory and morally wrong act, stand by its corporate values and refocus its Ben & Jerry's brand on serving ice cream and not hate. We urge Unilever to discard this shameful decision, end this boycott, and invest instead in peace and prosperity through dialogue."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's announcement that it will stop selling its product beyond the Green Line is illegal under the 2001 merger approval decision between Unilever Global and Ben & Jerry's, former Antitrust Commissioner Dror Strum has informed the Israel Competition Authority.

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Strum was head of the Competition Authority and as Antitrust Commissioner approved the merger 20 years ago.

In a letter to Israel Competition Authority Director-General Michal Halperin, Strum explained that under the terms of the 2001 merger, Unilever was obligated to maintain a complete separation between Ben & Jerry's Global and Ben & Jerry's Israel licensee. The terms stipulate that Unilever and Strauss Ice Cream and Ben & Jerry's "not take any action that may interfere with the franchisee's activities in the country."

Strum said last week's decision to restrict sales over the Green Line was "illegal, contrary to the conditions, and has devastating and immediate consequences for the licensee in Israel."

Strum has sent a written notice to Ben & Jerry's Global, warning them they are violating the Israel Competition Law and the terms of the merger.

"As long as Unilever wants to continue to sell ice cream in Israel, it must continue to sell Ben & Jerry's in Israel and in all its areas," Strum said.

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