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North Carolina became the latest state to strip Ben & Jerry’s parent company of public employee pensions over the ice cream company’s Israel boycott, which ended last year.
North Carolina is a politically swing state. Other states cutting retirement benefits for Ben & Jerry’s boycott of Israel cross traditional political lines, including: arizona, florida, illinois, new jerseyNew York, and texas.
“We’re where we are right now. We don’t choose which laws apply to us or who they apply to,” North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Falwell, a Republican, told FOX Business this week. said in an interview. “I wish we hadn’t heard about this topic. I wish we hadn’t done what we had to do.”
Falwell announced last month that the North Carolina Retirement System, which provides retirement benefits to more than 1 million members, including teachers, firefighters, police officers and public servants, withdraw $40 million From Ben & Jerry’s and its affiliates. This includes its UK-based parent company, Unilever PLC.
The North Carolina State Department of State Treasurer currently manages pension plan investments totaling $117.9 billion.
Ben & Jerry’s, a company long known for its left-wing advocacy, maintained an independent board of directors to stay active after its sale to Unilever.
Mr. Falwell said Unilever could not have anticipated that allowing a popular ice cream brand to have its own board of directors would cause so many problems.
“I don’t know the employees at Ben & Jerry’s. I respect their entrepreneurial spirit. I think Ben & Jerry’s anticipated something like this when they signed the contract.” said Falwell, who is also a 2024 gubernatorial candidate. “Unilever did not expect anything like this. Generally speaking, when parents tell their children not to do something, they expect them to listen.”
In the face of the BDS movement (which stands for Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions), the North Carolina State Legislature in 2017 passed a law that “allows North Carolina Retirement System or State Department Treasurer to invest in companies involved in the boycott of Israel.” passed a law prohibiting ”
While some states took early action, Falwell said North Carolina needs to go through the process before a sale.
He noted that the sponsors of the 2017 bill supported his office’s procedures. Falwell said his office contacted Unilever, but with no success, and ultimately decided to sell.
when announce the decision Last month, Falwell said it was important to make clear that anti-Semitism has no place in North Carolina, citing the Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel after the Hamas attack.
However, he said international events had no impact on the timing of the sale.
Neither Unilever nor Ben & Jerry’s responded to inquiries from FOX Business about this story.
In July 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would stop selling products to Israelis in the West Bank. Although Ben & Jerry’s is a subsidiary, it maintains a board of directors.
In June 2022, Unilever was sold To quell the controversy, Ben & Jerry’s has discontinued its ice cream operations in Israel. However, Ben & Jerry’s board was still free to maintain its position on Israel.
“The new business arrangement comes after the brand and its independent board of directors announced the decision last year to discontinue ice cream sales in the West Bank,” Unilever said in a June 2022 press release. This follows Unilever’s review of Jerry’s.”
The parent company said it spent a year hearing input from the Israeli government and others.
“Unilever completely rejects and unequivocally rejects any form of discrimination or intolerance. Anti-Semitism has no place in any society,” the company said in a statement. June 2022 Press Release.
“We have never expressed support for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and we have no intention of changing that position.”
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