Today is ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, and our member group Vermonters for Justice in Palestine is once again calling on all those concerned with Palestinian rights to take part in a national solidarity action to call on the company to end its complicity in Israel’s occupation.
VTJP is asking that you call Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in South Burlington, Vermont and demand the company stop marketing and selling its “peace & love” ice cream in illegal, Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
To contact Ben & Jerry’s, call: (802) 846-1500 between 8am and 4pm EDT.
What to say when you call:
Let the company know who you are and where you are calling from.
Ask to speak with CEO Jostein Solheim or Rob Michalak, Global Director of Social Mission, or request to speak with their assistants if you are told neither of them are available.
Keep your message simple and direct. For example (and feel free to improvise):
I’m calling on Free Cone Day to urge Ben & Jerry’s to be true to its Social Mission and international law by stopping its Israeli franchise from doing business in Jewish-only settlements in occupied Palestine.
Doing business in Israeli settlements makes the company complicit with the crime of apartheid. In March, a United Nation’s report found Israel guilty of overseeing a “comprehensive system of apartheid” against the Palestinian people.
Also in 2016, Human Rights Watch called on businesses to terminate all activity in Israeli settlements to comply with their human rights responsibilities.
Do the right thing: stop the sale of your ice cream in illegal Israeli settlements.
Once you make the call, please take a minute to fill out this form so VTJP can keep track of how many calls were made and what the company said in order to build up their campaign.
You can also watch and share “Licking Apartheid” from Apartheid Adventures to learn more about Ben & Jerry’s profiting off of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
Thanks for taking action.
