President of Israel Labels Ben & Jerry’s ‘Economic Terrorists’

by | Jul 22, 2021

President of Israel Labels Ben & Jerry’s ‘Economic Terrorists’

by | Jul 22, 2021

ezgif.com gif maker (1)

On Wednesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called boycotts against Israel a “new kind of terrorism” after Ben & Jerry’s announced it will stop selling ice cream in occupied Palestinian territories at the end of 2022.

Israeli officials are outraged at the American company’s decision, and Herzog railed against the Boycott, Divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS) that promotes boycotts to hold Israel accountable for its occupation and war crimes against Palestinians.

“The boycott against Israel is a new type of terrorism — economic terrorism. Terrorism that seeks to harm Israeli citizens and the Israeli economy. We must oppose this boycott and terrorism of any kind,” Herzog said. “The BDS campaign does not pursue peace and seeks to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel. It is aiming its arrows at the Israeli economy.”

The Palestinian Authority, which welcomed Ben & Jerry’s decision, fired back at Herzog’s comments. “The occupation is terrorism itself. It is the worst kind of terrorism,” the PA Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Also on Wednesday, Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked slammed Ben & Jerry’s decision in a visit to the ice cream makers factory in Israel. “Ben & Jerry’s International chose to suck up to terrorist and antisemitic organizations instead of being faithful to its Israeli licensee,” she said.

Shaked said Israel will enlist pro-Israel groups in the U.S. to boycott the ice cream company. Over 30 U.S. states have passed anti-BDS laws, and Israeli officials are calling on those states to enforce them against Ben & Jerry’s.

The reaction by Israeli officials to the decision by Ben & Jerry’s makes it clear that Israel is threatened by the boycott movement. The view of Israel is changing in the U.S., and more momentum is behind BDS than ever before. A recent poll found that 25 percent of Jewish American voters consider Israel to be an apartheid state.

This article was originally featured at Antiwar.com and is republished with permission.

Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com. Follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

View all posts

Our Books

Recent Articles

Recent

TGIF: Notes on Anarcho-Capitalism

TGIF: Notes on Anarcho-Capitalism

I'm pretty sure I won't be around long enough to see anarcho-capitalism—or what I call market-ordered anarchism—prevail in the United States. I'm just as sure that I won't see government strictly limited to protecting individual rights and never violating them (if...

read more
WMDs for a MIC in Need

WMDs for a MIC in Need

In the closing days of 2025, the White House turned an opioid crisis into a national security drama. Standing in the Oval Office during a Mexican Border Defense Medal ceremony on December 15, President Donald Trump declared that he would sign an executive order to...

read more
Smashing the ‘Roosevelt Myth’

Smashing the ‘Roosevelt Myth’

David T. Beito’s FDR: A New Political Life offers a bracing, deeply researched, and welcome reassessment of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one that decisively breaks with the hagiographic tradition that has dominated twentieth century American historiography. The book’s...

read more

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This