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Ben & Jerry’s founder to unveil Palestinian ice cream as parent company can’t separate fast enough: report

October 31, 2025 | | Print Article

Ben Cohen, the leftist co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, announced plans to produce a Palestinian ice cream to help bring about “permanent peace.”

The new watermelon-flavored sorbet will be unveiled under his personal brand Ben’s Best after Unilever, which acquired Ben & Jerry’s in 2000, prevented the company from selling a similar product.

“Here I am making something that’s actually pretty important,” Cohen announced in a video shared on X. “The scale of suffering of the Palestinian people over the last two years has been unimaginable. So the ceasefire is a welcome relief, but there’s much more work to do to rebuild. Palestinians are still living under occupation, still recovering from years of suffering, especially Palestinian children.”

“They deserve dignity, safety, and the same rights that every human being should have,” he continued. “A while back, Ben & Jerry’s tried to make a flavor to call for peace in Palestine, to stand for justice and dignity for everyone, like Ben & Jerry’s always has. But they weren’t allowed to, they were stopped by Unilever/Magnum, the company that owns Ben and Jerry’s. Just like when Ben & Jerry’s tried to stop selling ice cream in the occupied territories, they were blocked again by their parent company. So I’m doing what they couldn’t.”

“I’m making a watermelon-flavored ice cream that calls for permanent peace in Palestine and calls for repairing all the damage that was done there.”

Unilever announced in 2024 that it would begin spinning off its ice cream business, including Ben & Jerry’s, into a standalone company named Magnum Ice Cream Co. The separation was reportedly due to Ben & Jerry’s radical social and political activism.

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A spokesperson for The Magnum Ice Cream Company responded to Cohen’s claim, “The independent members of the Ben & Jerry’s board of directors made a proposal in this direction this summer. The independent members of Ben & Jerry’s Board are not, and have never been, responsible for the Ben & Jerry’s commercial strategy and execution. Recommendations are considered by Ben & Jerry’s leadership, and Ben & Jerry’s management has determined now is not the right time to invest in developing this product.”

The sorbet symbolizes Palestinian resilience and supports Gaza rebuilding efforts following the U.S.-brokered ceasefire on October 10, 2025, as noted by Grok, and Cohen was crowdsourcing flavor names, ingredients, and packaging designs on X.

“I’ve got a watermelon, an empty pint, and I need your help: Name the flavor or suggest ingredients. Or design the pint packaging,” Cohen appealed to followers.

But he may have bargained for more than he expected, according to the responses to the story:

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Tom Tillison
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