Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen claimed Tuesday that Unilever stopped the company from creating an ice cream “flavor for Palestine.”
“Unilever / Magnum stopped Ben & Jerry’s from creating a flavor for Palestine — so I’m doing it myself,” Cohen said in a post Tuesday on social platform X.
“I’ve got a watermelon, an empty pint, and I need your help: Name the flavor or suggest ingredients Or design the pint packaging,” he added.
Watermelons are often used as a symbol of support for Palestinian rights, for which Cohen has been an advocate.
Jerry Greenfield, another co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, was recently revealed to be quitting the company. Cohen said in a September post on X that Greenfield had “made the difficult decision to step down from the company we built together.”
“I’m sharing his words as he resigns from Ben & Jerry’s. His legacy deserves to be true to our values, not silenced by @MagnumGlobal,” Cohen said in the September post.
Cohen was removed from a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing featuring Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in May for protesting the war in Gaza. During the hearing, he shouted “Congress pays for bombs.”
“I told Congress they’re killing poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and they’re paying for it by kicking poor kids off Medicaid in the US,” Cohen said on X at the time.
Cohen has a history of political activism; he was previously arrested for disorderly conduct seven years ago amid protesting the presence of F-35 fighter jets based in Vermont. He also supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2016 and 2020 bids for the presidency.
The Hill has reached out to Unilever for comment.
