Ecuador's largest grocer takes Ben & Jerry's off the shelf

(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Ecuador’s largest supermarket chain, owned by El Rosado Group, has announced that it will no longer sell ice-cream manufactured by Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s.

The company has more than 180 stores across Ecuador and is joining other supermarket stores worldwide that are protesting the decision by Ben & Jerry’s not to sell ice-cream beyond Israel’s pre-1967 Green Line.

“For us, [the] decision is worrying and scandalous,” El Rosado Group CEO Johnny Czarninski wrote in a letter to Unilever. He also contacted Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to let her know about the decision after she approached him on the matter.

“Discrimination against some Jews harms all Jews worldwide,” he wrote.

Unilever is also receiving blows in the United States, with Illinois having announced last week it intends to take sanctions against the company. Illinois joins other states, like Texas, New York and New Jersey, which have already proposed similar measures.

Meanwhile, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s, Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, published an opinion piece in The New York Times on Wednesday (July 28) defending the company’s decision.

“We are also proud Jews. It’s part of who we are and how we’ve identified ourselves for our whole lives. As our company began to expand internationally, Israel was one of our first overseas markets. We were then, and remain today, supporters of the State of Israel. But it’s possible to support Israel and oppose some of its policies, just as we’ve opposed policies of the U.S. government,” they wrote.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.