Jamie wrote:
I'd like to think that Ben & Jerry's would have been a leader in disengaging from
apartheid South Africa back when; by being a leader now in Israel you would be
supporting the change that is ultimately in Israel's best interests and helping to end a
chapter that threatens to grow only more dire should it continue on its present course.

Sue and John wrote:
I remember buying a Ben & Jerry's Cone in St. Petersburg at the Youth Palace. There
you were ambassadors of Peace. Let's try again.

Heather wrote:
I was just in Israel and Palestine earlier this year and witnessed myself the incredible
injustices the Israeli government inflicts upon the Palestinian people -- bulldozing
Palestinian houses, denying pregnant Palestinian women passage through
checkpoints resulting in their babies being born at the checkpoint, Israeli soldiers
shooting Palestinian children for throwing rocks! I am dismayed and confused by your
doing business with Israel.

Rhona wrote:
We bought your ice cream because it is delicious but also because of your ethical
stance and will now stop doing so until we are assured that you no longer have an
economic relationship with illegal settlements .

Zahra" wrote:
There cannot be complete freedom with oppression. The Israeli settlements deny that
basic right. They deny thousands of their basic right to live, prosper and be happy
without fear. Israel is an illegal state that performs heinous crimes against humanity.
Please stop your production and distribution of your products. Why grant one kind of
people happiness in your ice cream but ignore the dense population of people in
desolation.

Aston wrote:
Apparently your social justice focus doesn't extend to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Sean wrote:
imagine my surprise (and disappointment) to discover that Ben and Jerry?s has a
business dealings with country which is practicing apartheid in our modern day and
age.
florence wrote:
You can not be selective in your concern for human rights. all human rights abuses
should be condemed.

Michael wrote:
My wife and I lived in Jerusalem for nearly three months in 2010. We traveled to
many parts of Israel and Palestine. We were terribly shocked by what we saw and
heard about the suffering of the Palestinian people at the hands of Israelis:
humiliation, torture, indefinite detention, midnight raids on peaceful protestors and yes,
murder by IDF in Gaza and the West Bank.

So I was disgusted to learn that Ben and Jerry's was so cozy with the settler
population in Palestine. What hypocrisy. What a misguided approach. Your
company, above all others, must demonstrate true values, not just pay lip service to
them.

Maxine wrote:
As an American, and a Jew, I am very concerned about human rights and global
justice. I have always admired Ben & Jerry's, and have applauded your socially
responsible ways of doing business. I am really disappointed to hear of your sales
policies in Israel/Palestine. Around the world, businesses are heeding the call of
Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel until that nation recognizes international law and
human rights.

Bob wrote:
Please end your commercial complicity in Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank
and East Jerusalem. It is unbecoming. Take social justice seriously.

rita wrote:
I am sending this letter as an American Jew who actually believes in ethics and
compassion. I am also well aware of the anti Jewish sentiment that the situation in
Israel/Palestine has been creating around the world. I take this very seriously.

Ian wrote:
If I can give up Ben and Jerry's ice cream, why can't Ben and Jerry give up its
complicity with Israel's illegal, racist policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem?

Lia wrote:
I've been an enthusiastic fan of your values as much as your excellent ice cream, but
am now concerned that you have abandoned them.

Joel wrote:
I am sending it as a member of Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago. I do not support
Israel's illegal and immoral occupation of Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank.
If you are doing ANY business within the Jewish-only colonies within the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, then you are part of the problem. Please be part of the
solution.

Mares wrote:
I have been involved with trying to save a kindergarten in Al Aqaba, West Bank,
Palestine, Area C since 2004 when it was rebuilt by The Rebuilding Alliance. My
husband and I traveled to Wash DC in Feb of 2009 and visited most of the MI
Congressional offices giving them petitions and postcards that said: "I Care About
Peace, I Care About Al Aqaba." Because of this kindergarten (it is still standing but
the Israeli Army has dug up the Peace Road twice in 2012 that the school bus uses
to bring the children from surrounding villages ) we know so much more that ordinary
Americans concerning the human rights abuses perpetrated on the peaceful
Palestinians by the Israeli Military and the Israeli Gov't.

Janet wrote:
Ben & Jerry's is a progressive company, so why are you complicit in the human rights
abuses in Palestine? Enabling and profiting from illegal occupation is immoral. It's
that simple. Would you do business in South Africa during apartheid? This is no
different.

Rev. David wrote:
As someone who has traveled multiple times to Israel and the occupied West Bank
and as a person of faith deeply concerned for justice for all parties, I am particularly
distressed to consider that Ben and Jerry's is actually contributing to the imbalance of
justice and impeding the possibility of a fair solution to the situation or the formation of
two states.

Henry wrote:
I'm Jewish, but I know apartheid when I see it, and I've seen it in the six-plus months
I've spent in occupied Palestine.

Liz wrote:
I'm writing to you as a Jewish American, daughter of a rabbi, and long-time social
justice activist, as you have represented yourselves as being. I was one of many
many Jews involved in the Civil Rights Movement. It's part of what Judaism should
be. But I'm very sad to hear that you've let the general American Jewish blind spot
about Israel cloud your vision.

John wrote:
I drove the "Money Bus" in 1999(?) across the country and it was great to connect our
tax dollars with military spending. Now we need to connect our tax (and unfortunately
Ben & Jerry's) dollars with the horrors of the Israeli occupation.

A.S. wrote:
We would not tolerate doing business with any other body that has laws and rights
that are based on one's ethnicity.

Ellen wrote:
By selling ice cream in illegal settlements you are violating international law and
supporting the apartheid conditions. I have been to Palestine and Israel and
witnessed the apartheid conditions there. I stayed with a family in a home in Beit
Sahour where water was only available randomly - at the whim of the Israeli
government.

cy wrote:
Your labels say all the right things in a clever and attractive format! Your participation
and support of Israeli presence in the West Bank is neither attractive or honorable!

David wrote:
Either drop the social mission bullshit or get out of the occupied West Bank.

Margaret wrote:
It is with fond memories that I met Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield when they
appeared at the opening of their second ice cream store in Saratoga Springs, NY in
the 1980s. I was a newspaper reporter at The Saratogian, and though I covered the
business story as a reporter, I indulged in talk of social issues with the founders and
from then on, was hooked on Ben & Jerry's ice cream forever more.
TODAY, HOWEVER ... I am dismayed to learn that Ben & Jerry's sells its ice cream in
illegal Israeli settlements.

Mark wrote:
I myself am Jewish and support the right of Israel to exist and survive. However, I
cannot go along with its suppression of the Palestinian people, especially in terms of
the illegal settlements on their land.

Claudine wrote:
I have decided that I cannot remain on the sidelines; this is not an easy decision! Our
synagogue is one of the most progressive in the US, yet we are finding it very difficult
to engage our congregation in even talking about BDS. Once we sit down and get
informed though it gets less painful; we share our stories and realize that solidarity is
unavoidable if our eyes are opened. I personally stopped using Sodastream and
discovered that I can with a bit of ingenuity, make my own soda.
Please don't make me make my own ice cream!

Rev. Susan wrote:
I myself was recently in Palestine and saw the gross advantages that the Israeli
settlements take of the occupied territories and the Palestinian people.

Pamela wrote:
What a shame! I love your ice cream but will have to stop buying it cold turkey
because of your support for Israel. You have betrayed your customers who supported
your 1% donation to worthy causes. You have betrayed us all, those of us who
believed you were a socially responsible business. I realize that the original company
has been sold. But now you are a sham.

Mary wrote:
Come on B and J's. We love you for loving the world.

Jane wrote:
I have been volunteering here in Palestine /Israel for the past six months and have
seen the devastating effects of Occupation. Even over here in Palestine I have been
encouraging people to buy your Ice Cream, because of its Fair Trade policy, but now I
feel compelled to do the opposite.

Stephen wrote:
Why are you doing this?? ...Usually Ben and Jerry's is just and has good sense!! (and
ice cream) Stop the occupation of Palastine!!!

George wrote:
Selling your ice cream in occupied Palestine to Israeli settlers is wrong; by doing that
you are implicitly condoning Israel's policies towards the Palestinians, which include
land and home dispossession.

Joel wrote:
As a Jew who has always strongly identified with the State of Israel, nothing is more
repugnant to me than Israel assuming the role of oppressor of another group of
people.
No wonder Putin spits in our face. He gets sanctions for taking a bite out of Ukraine
but Israel can annex the lovely Golan Heights, Arab East Jerusalem and squats for
500,000 Israeli Jews on Palestinian land and not only does our government not dare
to protest for fear of AIPAC but our till arms and bankrolls these devils.

Antony wrote:
Practice what you preach.

Glenna wrote:
Don't ruin the reputation you have worked so hard to build.

Kevin wrote:
I worked a few times in Palestine, teaching kids in refugee camps. When I was there I
saw Palestinian olive groves burned to the ground, wells defiled, and houses
ransacked, all by Israeli settlers. I stayed in a village which has been attacked so often
and so violently by nearby settlers that the entire village fled to Jordan, returning only
when church groups organised a permanent observer presence in the village.

G.D. wrote:
A ghetto is a ghetto is a ghetto... Warsaw, Harlem, or Gaza!

Jennifer wrote:
I take great hope in the fact that your company seeks to swim upstream against the
tide of bottom-line-only thinking. Thus, it is all the more important that you take
seriously these calls for justice in Israel-Palestine.

Betsy wrote:
Running a facility, like Ben and Jerry's, on this occupied land, seems to me to be the
height of arrogance.

John wrote:
Love your ice cream. Deplore your support of the illegal settlements.

carol wrote:
To say "no" to profits reaped from gross human rights violations would be a powerful
message about corporate social responsibility, that would resonate around the world.
You will be surprised at the enormous support you would have, especially among your
younger customers.
I am an old Jewish woman. I love B&J ice cream, but I love justice more, and cannot
patronize B&J until it leaves the settlements.