Ben
& Jerry's Untimely Women's March Endorsement
IPT News
November 19, 2018
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first of your friends to like this.
 Ice cream now is
controversial. Welcome to America in 2018.
Ben & Jerry's, which has supported liberal causes throughout its
history, likely did not anticipate the criticism and talk of boycotts that followed its Oct. 31 announcement
of a new, limited time flavor to be sold in its "scoop shops."
People aren't upset about the ingredient mix in "Pecan Resist." They are disappointed that the
Women's March is one of four activist groups which will receive the
proceeds from its sales.
Ben & Jerry's says it
selected the groups because they are "working on the front lines of
the peaceful resistance, building a world that supports their values."
But the values of Women's March leaders, especially anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour
– who was photographed with founders Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield and others
for the Pecan Resist announcement – don't fit Ben & Jerry's own ideals.
"We may not agree on everything," Ben & Jerry's Twitter
feed responded to an immediate wave of criticism following
the announcement, "but the work that Linda has done to promote women's
rights is undeniably important and we are proud to join her in that
effort."
In a separate statement defending their partnership, Ben
& Jerry's claimed the Women's March has been "unequivocal in
denouncing religious discrimination, and anti-Semitism specifically."
It pointed to a Women's March statement in which it claims to seek a world
"free from anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, and
all forms of social violence."
That fits Sarsour as long as you pay no attention to everything she has
done and said. For years.
She opposes the state of Israel's very existence – a
viewpoint that by itself meets the State Department definition of anti-Semitism. And, in a
recording obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Sarsour blamed Jews for police shootings of unarmed black
people in America. She considers ultra-conservative Muslim clerics – those who
advocate for strict, Saudi-styled restrictions on women and who are
virulently anti-gay – as her heroes and mentors.
And she embraced
an actual Palestinian terrorist in Rasmieh Odeh, responsible for a 1969 Jerusalem grocery
store bombing that killed two college students.
That's just part of a record Ben & Jerry's dismisses under the
context of "We may not agree on everything."
Sarsour and national March President Tamika Mallory have struggled
clumsily with Louis Farrakhan's bigotry. Farrakhan is stridently anti-LGBT
and proudly anti-Semitic. Mallory is a long-time admirer, calling the Nation of Islam leader
the "GOAT" (greatest of all time) and Sarsour rushed to Mallory's
defense when Mallory refused to condemn Farrakhan's bigoted rhetoric.
None of that stopped Ben & Jerry's from choosing to elevate the
Women's March. The partnership also fell victim to some poor timing. In the
week following Pecan Resist's release, two major liberal celebrities broke
with the Women's March, and a German political group withdrew a human rights award it had planned to bestow
upon March leaders.
"Any time that there is any bigotry or anti-Semitism in that
respect, it needs to be called out and addressed," TV star Alyssa
Milano told
the Advocate, explaining why she is unlikely participate in a
future Women's March until it has new leadership. "I'm disappointed in
the leadership of the Women's March that they haven't done it
adequately."
Debra Messing, longtime star of Will & Grace,
then publicly supported Milano.
On Wednesday, the "Womxn's March Denver" issued a statement denouncing "anti-Semitism and
the National Women's March leadership team's failure to clearly
disassociate from anti-Semitic public figures."
The movement seems to be going against Women's March leaders, and
hopefully, against the poisonous ideas they embrace.
It was the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Foundation for Social Democracy that laid out the details showing the
disqualifying record of Women's March leaders, again, especially Sarsour.
In an open letter Nov. 6 urging the foundation withdraw a
human rights award scheduled to be bestowed upon Women's March leaders,
foundation "scholarship holders and alumni" made the case that
"Women's March USA does not constitute an inclusive alliance"
because organizers trivialize anti-Semitism and exclude Zionists.
Sarsour's comments blaming Jews for police shootings of unarmed black
people was among the examples, including language directly from the IPT's original exclusive report. It also showed how
March President Tamika Mallory has stood by Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan despite his repeated anti-Semitic slurs calling Jews
"bloodsuckers" and "termites."
Sarsour posted an open letter online Sunday evening, trying to
put questions about Farrakhan behind her. She failed to directly condemn
Farrakhan's anti-Semitism, saying he can defend himself. As for the the
Women's March, she insisted, "we REJECT antisemitism and all forms
of racism." [Emphasis original]
Sarsour's own comments the past three months alone make the assertion
laughable. Let's go back to what she said about police shootings during a speech at the Islamic Society of North America
(ISNA) convention Labor Day weekend. Sarsour was justifying her criticism
of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a 105-year-old Jewish organization
devoted to fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of hate.
The ADL also sponsors a National Counter-Terrorism Seminar in Israel, giving
American police department leaders a chance to learn counter-terrorism
strategies from Israeli officials with more experience. To Sarsour, this is
sinister.
The ADL, she said, "takes police officers from America, funds their
trips, takes them to Israel so they can be trained by the Israeli police
and military, and then they come back here and do what? Stop and frisk,
killing unarmed black people across the country."
There is zero evidence linking any police shooting to the training
seminar, run by and funded by Jews.
Her open letter makes no mention of these comments. Neither do they
address a Facebook post she made Thursday evening, which again made her hatred of Jews clear. She urged
followers to sign a petition defending incoming U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar,
D-Minn. During her primary campaign, Omar told voters she supported a
two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and didn't think BDS
helped move in that direction. Now that she's been elected, Omar flipped
and publicly stated her support for BDS.
To Sarsour, any critics upset that a politician– on the right or the
left – misled them on a significant issue are people who "always
choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and
free speech."
This kind of dual-loyalty
accusation is another anti-Semitic trope used to attack Jews throughout
history and it's consistent with Sarsour's bigotry detailed in the
Friedrich Ebert Foundation letter.
"An organization that may support feminism, but discriminates
against Jews* and Zionists* and denies Israel's right to exist should not
be honored by a democratic foundation that advocates diversity and speaks
out against discrimination," the foundation letter concludes.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wasn't talking about Sarsour or
the Women's March in a speech Nov. 7 apologizing for Canada's 1939 refusal
to admit a ship of German Jewish refugees, but he did highlight
two relevant and compelling examples of anti-Semitism embraced by liberals
today.
"Jewish students still feel unwelcome and
uncomfortable on some of our college and university campuses because of
BDS-related intimidation," he said. "And out of our entire
community of nations, it is Israel whose right to exist is most widely –
and wrongly – questioned."
Sarsour supports both behaviors. She calls herself "an unapologetic
pro-BDS, one-state solution" supporter. BDS singles out the world's
only Jewish state for an economic, political and intellectual boycott. And
a one-state solution as Sarsour envisions would eliminate Israel's Jewish
majority, ending the country's status as a refuge for Jews from global
anti-Semitism.
Ben & Jerry's clearly believes that Sarsour and the Women's March
still merit support, and that's its founders' right. But it's fair to
suggest that they find other women's movements to support that don't have
the Women's March's baggage and questionable views toward minority groups
facing increased bigotry and isolation.
When was the election in which the hundreds of thousands of women said
that the current leadership is the best, and only, one capable of
organizing and leading?
There are endless feminist leaders out there who can run the Women's
March, advocating for the same causes and opposing the current
administration with equal or greater passion, but whose leaders don't find Zionists
"creepy" or otherwise unworthy of partnerships. Women who can
muster the temerity to say Louis Farrakhan's clear and repeated views
toward Jews, gays and lesbians and others is unacceptable in a liberal,
feminist movement.
Yet the current leaders refuse to put the good of their movement ahead
of advancing their own profiles.
If Ben and Jerry want to support the Women's March, they might join
voices like Alyssa Milano, Debra Messing, the Women's March
Alliance, Women For
All, Zionness,
and many others.
Louis Farrakhan has defenders who stand by him despite his bigotry. He and
the Nation of Islam have done a lot of good
things for poor black people, they say. It's a form of situational
ethics that would not be applied to hatemongers elsewhere on the political
spectrum. It is sad to see Ben & Jerry's employ the same kind of
rationalizing with the Women's March.
Related Topics: Women's
March, anti-Semitism,
Ben
& Jerry's, Linda
Sarsour, Louis
Farrakhan, Tamika
Mallory, Alyssa
Milano, Debra
Messing, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Foundation, ADL,
police
training, Ilhan
Omar, BDS,
Justin
Trudeau
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