Texas Looking Into Divestment From Unilever Over Ben & Jerry’s Boycott
By JPost
Posted on 07/22/21
| News Source: JPost
Texas may withdraw its investments from Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever, after the ice cream company decided to boycott Judea and Samaria, Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced on Thursday.
Hegar said he directed his staff to determine whether Ben & Jerry's or Unilever took any action that would trigger his state's anti-boycott law.
Texas’ pension fund amounts to over $100 million, according to Bloomberg, and Unilever is included in its portfolio.
Texas Government Code Chapter 808 prohibits the government from investing its pension fund in any party that boycotts Israel. It defines "boycott Israel" as "refusing to deal with, terminating business activities with, or otherwise taking any action that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on or limit commercial relations specifically with Israel or with a person or entity doing business in Israel or an Israeli-controlled territory."
Ben & Jerry's has operated in Israel for close to 35 years, with a factory in Be'er Tuvia. On Tuesday, Ben & Jerry's announced that it would no longer sell its products in the "Occupied Palestinian Territories," and was ending its contract with its Israeli licensee, which refused to participate in the boycott, at when it expires in 2022. The statement said they would look for a new arrangement and continue to sell its products in Israel.
The Vermont-based company's independent board, however, released a statement of its own saying the previous statement came from Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s, and does not reflect their position, which is to end sales in Israel entirely.