Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen is once again stirring controversy — this time by personally launching a “Palestine-themed” sorbet after parent company Unilever reportedly blocked the Vermont-based ice cream maker from releasing it under its brand.

In a video posted on X, Cohen — wearing an apron and surrounded by smashed watermelons — announced he was making a “watermelon-flavored ice cream that calls for permanent peace in Palestine,” accusing Unilever and its spinoff Magnum Ice Cream Company of “stopping Ben & Jerry’s from creating a flavor for Palestine.”

“So I’m doing what they couldn’t,” he said, mashing the fruit by hand.

Watermelons, long a symbol of anti-Israel protest, have become a rallying image among pro-Palestinian demonstrators because their red, green, black, and white colors match the Palestinian flag. Cohen’s decision to feature the fruit as his “protest flavor” drew immediate backlash online, with many accusing the left-wing mogul of turning a divisive geopolitical issue into a marketing gimmick.

The stunt marks the latest escalation in the long-running feud between Ben & Jerry’s ultra-progressive founders and their corporate parent. Tensions date back to 2021, when the company announced it would halt sales in what it called “Israeli-occupied territories,” a move widely condemned as discriminatory. Unilever responded by selling Ben & Jerry’s license in Israel to a local distributor — an attempt to sidestep the founders’ political activism.

Since then, Cohen and co-founder Jerry Greenfield have accused Unilever of “gagging” the brand’s ability to take left-wing positions. In 2024, the independent board of Ben & Jerry’s even sued Unilever, alleging it had silenced the company’s advocacy for “Palestinian refugees.” The board also claimed Unilever ousted longtime CEO David Stever and replaced him with Dutch executive Jochanan Senf without board input, a move they framed as corporate retaliation.

Unilever has maintained that Ben & Jerry’s remains free to advocate for social causes, but that explicitly partisan or inflammatory political statements violate its global conduct policies.

For years, Ben & Jerry’s has blurred the line between ice cream and activism, championing left-wing causes from climate policy to police reform. But its increasingly militant tone on Israel — including Cohen’s latest foray into “protest sorbet” — has alienated swaths of consumers and drawn bipartisan criticism.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)