It’s not often that selling ice cream turns into a heated international legal battle. But the fractious dispute between consumer giant Unilever and one of its own subsidiaries, Ben & Jerry’s—finally settled this week after 18 months—shows the perils faced by a companies wrestling political crosswinds in an age of intense brand sensitivity. And as another U.S. company, Airbnb, learned recently, coming to a good resolution in such situations can be especially difficult when the politics involve one tiny market: Israel.
The argument between Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s exploded in acrimony in July 2021, during Israel’s blistering summer, when Ben & Jerry’s—the Burlington, Vt., company renowned for the progressive views of its founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield—said it would no longer sell its ice cream in Jewish settlements on the West Bank and Golan Heights, which the U.N. and the European Union have declared illegal under international law; the U.S. held a similar stance but reversed it in 2019.
