Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen has accused parent company Unilever of blocking the release of an ice cream flavour expressing solidarity with Palestine, deepening a long-running rift between the activist brand and its corporate owner.
Cohen said Unilever prevented the Vermont-based company from creating a watermelon-flavoured dessert symbolising peace in Palestine, prompting him to launch the flavour independently through his own activist ice cream venture.
In a video posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Cohen announced plans to produce the flavour under Ben’s Best, a small brand he founded in 2016. Standing in a kitchen, he told followers:
“I’m doing what they couldn’t. I’m making a watermelon-flavoured ice cream that calls for permanent peace in Palestine and for repairing the damage that’s been done there.”
He said he is inviting the public to suggest names and ingredients for the new product.
Watermelon symbolism and brand activism
The watermelon has become a global symbol of solidarity with Palestinians, its red, green, black, and white colours mirroring those of the Palestinian flag.
Cohen, who co-founded Ben & Jerry’s with Jerry Greenfield in 1978, said Unilever’s decision to block the flavour undermines the brand’s long-standing commitment to social activism.
“Unilever has unlawfully blocked Ben & Jerry’s from honouring its social mission,” he said, adding that he intends to continue producing flavours that reflect the issues the company has been “silenced” from addressing.
Ben & Jerry’s has a history of taking political stances — from climate change and racial justice to refugee rights and gun control. In 2021, it stopped selling its ice cream in Israeli-occupied territories, arguing that doing so was inconsistent with its values.
That decision led to a bitter legal dispute with Unilever, which later sold Ben & Jerry’s Israeli operations to a local licensee, allowing sales to continue in the occupied West Bank despite the company’s objections.
Growing divide with Unilever
The latest comments from Cohen widen the public split between the brand’s founders and Unilever, which bought Ben & Jerry’s in 2000 for $326 million but pledged to allow it to maintain its independent “social mission.”
Cohen and Greenfield have increasingly clashed with Unilever over what they see as interference in the company’s activism. In September, Greenfield announced his departure from Ben & Jerry’s, saying its independence had been compromised.
“Jerry has a really big heart, and this conflict with Unilever was breaking it,” Cohen told the BBC earlier this year. “My heart leads me to continue to advocate for Ben & Jerry’s independence so it can live up to the values it was founded on.”
Unilever has not commented publicly on Cohen’s latest remarks. The company recently announced plans to spin off its ice cream division, which includes both Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum, into a separate business next year.
For now, Cohen says his new flavour — which he describes as “a dessert for peace” — will be made and sold entirely independently of Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s.
