Oct. 29 (UPI) — The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream claimed its parent company blocked launch of its new “solidarity with Palestine” ice cream flavor.<\/p>\n
Ben Cohen, one of the two Ben & Jerry co-founders, accused Unilver management Tuesday of a growing trend of “corporate butt kissing” to federal authorities, including U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Cohen said he will independently produce the new watermelon-flavored sorbet under his “Ben’s Best” line.<\/p>\n Magnum Ice Cream Company, Unilever’s ice cream unit, said it determined “now is not the right time to invest in developing this product.”\n<\/p>\n According to Cohen, Unilever was pursuing a “corporate attack on free speech,” he told The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I’m doing what they couldn’t,” Cohen said in a<\/a> Instagram video. “I’m making a watermelon-flavored ice cream that calls for permanent peace in Palestine and calls for repairing the damage that was done there.”<\/p>\n Unilever, the British operator of consumer names like Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, bought the Ben & Jerry brand in 2000 for more than $300 million.<\/p>\n The activist Ben & Jerry’s is consistently known to speak out on critical social, political, environmental and other humanitarian issues, such as Israel’s expanded war effort in the Gaza Strip and other neighboring locations.\n<\/p>\n The watermelon flavor recognizes similar colors to that of the red, green, black and white colored Palestinian flag. The company’s original ice cream leaders stated Unilever and Magnum were unlawfully blocking it from “honoring its social mission.”<\/p>\n “The independent members of Ben & Jerry’s Board are not, and have never been, responsible for the Ben & Jerry’s commercial strategy and execution,” a Magnum spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has been available in<\/a> Israel since 1987.<\/p>\n In 2022, Unilever sold its Israeli business interests<\/a> as private disagreements flared between the corporate and the original Ben & Jerry’s.<\/p>\n The popular Vermont-based ice cream producer sued its parent company<\/a> last year over censorship claims in supportive views on Palestinians in Israel’s battle with Iran’s terror proxy Hamas.<\/p>\n