Registry

Does Ben & Jerry's support Israel?

Owned by The Magnum Ice Cream Company Records for the parent company are kept separately.

Statement on recordupdated 2026-09-26

Ben & Jerry's has publicly expressed support for Israel, but we found no record of donations or aid. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Food & beverage brands · Household & consumer goods brands · Companies that support Israel

Background

Ben & Jerry's is the rare case where the brand and its parent pulled in opposite directions, so precise attribution matters. Since Unilever acquired it in 2000, an independent board has safeguarded the brand's social mission. In July 2021 that board announced an end to sales in Israeli settlements; Unilever corporate distanced itself and, in June 2022, settled litigation by long-time Israeli licensee Avi Zinger by selling the Israeli Ben & Jerry's business to his American Quality Products — so the ice cream is still made and sold throughout Israel and the West Bank, a deal Israeli officials celebrated and the independent board opposed. The rift deepened after October 7, 2023: in November 2024 Ben & Jerry's sued Unilever, saying the parent silenced its pro-Palestinian statements (including ceasefire calls) and blocked donations to groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace; in 2025 it told the court Unilever ousted CEO David Stever partly over his stance on Gaza — claims Unilever rejected. Co-founder Jerry Greenfield resigned in September 2025 saying the brand had been "silenced". In December 2025 Unilever spun off its ice cream arm as The Magnum Ice Cream Company (listed in Amsterdam, London and New York), which now owns Ben & Jerry's and has said the brand is not for sale, while co-founder Ben Cohen campaigns to buy it back. Sales of the ice cream in Israel are the business of Zinger's independent company, not of Ben & Jerry's itself. What that Israeli company does with its own money is a separate matter, and the two franchisee rows below are its acts, not the brand's: it funds Israeli community causes, including a Gaza-border rehabilitation partnership tied to a 2026 flavour, and a list of non-profits it has named on its own site in captures going back to 2016.

Ben & Jerry's — OPT statement (official) CNBC (2022 sale) Times of Israel (lawsuit) CNBC (Greenfield resignation) CNBC (Magnum spin-off listing)

Timeline of documented records

198619921998200420102016202220281987 — Operations in Israel: Israeli market (licensed local manufacturing and nationwide sales)Operations in Israel19872016 — Franchisee action: Israeli non-profits named on the company's own site, plus MEET, a joint Israeli-Palestinian programmeFranchisee action20162021-07 — Public statement: Public statement (settlement-sales decision)Public statement2021-072026-06 — Franchisee action: Ayalim association (עמותת איילים) — rehabilitation, community and educational projects in southern Israel and the Gaza-border areaFranchisee action2026-06

Documented records

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Operations in Israel1987—Israeli market (licensed local manufacturing and nationwide sales)
Ben & Jerry's ice cream has been manufactured and sold throughout Israel since 1987 under an exclusive license held by Israeli businessman Avi Zinger's American Quality Products Ltd., which owns the local factory and distribution. After Unilever's June 2022 settlement sold the Israeli business to Zinger outright, the ice cream continues to be made and sold across Israel and the West Bank under its Hebrew and Arabic names — by the independent licensee-turned-owner, no longer under the Ben & Jerry's company itself.
Public statement2021-07-19—Public statement (settlement-sales decision)
Ben & Jerry's — through the independent board that safeguards its social mission — announced it would end sales of its ice cream in "the Occupied Palestinian Territory" (Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem) when its Israeli license expired at the end of 2022, calling such sales "inconsistent with our values", while its statement said the company would stay in Israel "through a different arrangement". This was an action of the Ben & Jerry's brand, opposed by parent Unilever, which a year later sold the Israeli business over the board's objection.
Franchisee action2026-06-07—Ayalim association (עמותת איילים) — rehabilitation, community and educational projects in southern Israel and the Gaza-border area
Ben & Jerry's Israel — the Israeli-owned licensee that holds the brand rights, Avi Zinger's American Quality Products Ltd., not the Ben & Jerry's brand — announced on 7 June 2026 a new Israeli flavour, "Milk and Honey" (חלב ודבש), developed and produced at its Be'er Tuvia plant together with farmers, local businesses and social organisations from southern Israel and the Gaza-border area, with the milk, honey and chocolate sourced from southern Israeli producers. On its own site the company states that royalties from sales are donated to rehabilitation, community and educational projects in the south and the Gaza-border area in partnership with the Ayalim association; no sum is disclosed and the amount depends on sales, so the Amount column stays a dash. The article, published 7 June 2026, says a public launch event was to be held on 12 June 2026 at Ayalim's student village in Sderot; nothing published after that date was found confirming it took place. The Ben & Jerry's brand has not owned the Israeli business since Unilever sold it to Zinger in 2022 and had no part in this.
Franchisee action2016—Israeli non-profits named on the company's own site, plus MEET, a joint Israeli-Palestinian programme
On its own Hebrew-language site, Ben & Jerry's Israel — the Israeli-owned licensee, not the Ben & Jerry's brand — says it supports and works with Magen David Adom's blood services (a free pint every year for anyone who gives blood), the Shema centre for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, the "Our Children" association at Schneider Children's Medical Center, the GLOBE education project and the National Project for Ethiopian Israelis (ENP). The same page adds Kfar Nahar HaYarden, a free holiday village for seriously ill children; the Fund for the Preservation of Nature and Heritage, for which it says it ran a campaign donating part of its pint sales toward repairing damage to the forests of the Jerusalem hills; and MEET (Middle East Education through Technology), a joint Israeli-Palestinian programme run with MIT and the Hebrew University, where its support took the form of a factory workshop for 80 of its students, mentoring and donated ice cream for the graduation ceremony. The page's own summary line ends "and more", so even this list is not everything. No amounts and no dates are given and the relationships are described as ongoing, so the year recorded is the earliest archived capture carrying this copy — 15 July 2016, which already names Magen David Adom, Shema, Our Children, GLOBE and ENP in almost the same words. Kfar Nahar HaYarden, the Fund and MEET first appear in the capture of 28 November 2023, and all eight were still listed in the capture of 10 January 2026. Both citations are captures of the same company page, so this row rests on a single source: the company's own account of itself.

Frequently asked questions

Did Ben & Jerry's donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of donations. What is on record is a public statement of support — see this page for the wording and its source.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 13 distinct sources are cited for Ben & Jerry's. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-09-26

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