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July 30th, 2021 
Awake Goy Reaction to the recent announcement by Ben & Jerry’s that they will no longer allow their ice cream to be sold in illegal Israeli settlements has highlighted a new and encouraging trend among Palestine solidarity activists. Social media was full of posts about the limitations of boycotts that address only Israeli settlements and the need to expand the BDS grassroots work beyond such confines.
This issue has played out even among the corporate players in the recent ice-cream fiasco, as Ben & Jerry’s said they were not consulted by parent company Unilever in adding the last line in their statement assuring everyone that “Although Ben & Jerry’s will no longer be sold in the OPT, we will stay in Israel through a different arrangement.”
Palestinian activists, especially the new generation, were joined by the Movement for Black Lives in the U.S. in emphasizing that there must be an end to all business with apartheid Israel. They welcomed the partial victory represented by Ben & Jerry’s decision but insisted that the Israeli state can’t be separated from its apartheid and military occupation. The same position was taken by Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, who initiated and led the decade-old campaign. According to VTJP member Kathy Shapiro “By maintaining a presence in Israel, Ben & Jerry’s continues to be complicit in the killing, imprisonment and dispossession of Palestinian people and the flaunting of international law. Israel destroys lives and property in the lands it occupies by force.”
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Ahmad Abuznaid, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Executive Director, noted: “For Ben & Jerry’s to fully commit to justice, there must be no scoops left behind under apartheid. Until there are none, we are not done.”
Even some voices in Israeli media touched on the subject. Gideon Levy wrote in Ha’aretz on July 22: “Therefore, the situation demands nothing less than a real boycott of Israel, of all Israelis, everywhere – a painful, costly, destructive one. Not a boycott-lite on the ice cream sold at the Rami Levy supermarket at the Etzion Junction, but one that all of Israel will feel in its pocket.”
Many also pointed out that Ben & Jerry’s business in the illegal settlements is only a small percentage of their business with Israel, and that the contract that is being cancelled is still valid for another year and a half. A year and a half in which Zionist lobby groups may well succeed in reversing even this limited decision.
Gone are the days when many activists felt they must temper their comments and “soft sell” the demand to boycott all of Israel, its entire state apparatus and any complicit companies. Of course, campaigns against illegal settlement products do have a place in the Boycott Israel movement, but they must be a first step towards something more. They should be a way to open up space for the dialogue on Israeli apartheid and why it should be shunned. The danger lies in letting settlement boycotts become the dominant feature of BDS work and allowing their limited parameters to set and restrict the agenda for most Boycott Israel work.
A further danger of focusing mainly, or only, on settlement boycotts is that it reinforces the faulty concept that the two-state solution is still viable and a worthwhile goal for Palestine advocacy. It traps activists in this circular spin that falsely gives the impression to supporters that the illegal settlements are the most important obstacle to any genuine peace with justice for Palestinians.
Most Palestinians, and now even leading human rights groups, will tell you that Israel’s apartheid system is the underlying issue and that the military occupation is simply one manifestation of that pernicious system. Furthermore, the response by the Israeli government and its lobby to the Ben & Jerry’s move reinforces that analysis; Israeli officials have dropped the façade of making any distinction between the settlements and the rest of Israel, something Western governments chose to ignore.
A new consensus is forming in the Palestine solidarity movement. Many activists are re-tuning their focus to emphasize Boycott Israel, or more accurately, Boycott Israeli Apartheid, in their actions and messaging. And Palestinians, who have been struggling for over 70 years against this racist colonial oppression, certainly welcome the change.
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