What’s Behind the Boycott of Judea and Samaria? “Ben & Jerry’s” Funds Palestinian Terror-Related NGO

On July 19, liberal ice cream makers “Ben & Jerry’s” announced they would be boycotting Jews in Judea and Samaria, causing worldwide outrage. Now, the New York Post has perhaps revealed one reason why the Vermont ice cream vendors, part of Unilever Corp., felt the need to go out on a limb politically and alienate all supporters of Israel.

Anuradha Mittal has been chair of the ice cream maker’s board since 2008, Isabel Vincent reports in the New York Post. At the same time, “Ben & Jerry’s” granted a donation of more than $100,000 to “charity” Oakland Institute, which is run and chaired by Mittal. As Executive Director and sole salaried employee of the Oakland Insitute, Mittal paid herself a generous salary of $154,000, writes Vincent.

The “Ben & Jerry’s” donation helped support radical Palestinian NGO “BADIL“, which supports the radical left-wing Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) campaign, calls Israel an “Apartheid State” (while Arabs serve in the Israeli government, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority practice actual Apartheid against Jews) and likens Israel to the Nazis. BADIL leaders have endorsed the terrorist People’s Liberation Front of Palestine PLFP, which is ranked as a terrorist organization by the State Department.

BADIL is part of the PLFP-related “Palestinian NGO Network” (PNGO), which rejects the EU’s call for NGOs to reject terrorism. On May 5, 2020, BADIL called the EU’s Anti-Terrorism Clause “morally unacceptable and legally objectionable,” causing the EU to suspend $2 million in funding for BADIL, the New York Post reports.

“The controversial human rights group in the West Bank received $3,000 from the foundation in 2017, according to tax filings”, the New York Post writes. Mittal’s seat on the board of “Ben & Jerry’s” and in her own foundation represent an obvious conflict of interest, says the National Legal and Policy Center:

Our contention is simple:  Mittal shouldn’t be allowed to personally benefit from grant money under her authority at Ben and Jerry’s.  This is due to Ben and Jerry’s 990 filings showing Mittal was a board member going back to 2012, maybe earlier, and had a leadership role-as a member of the board- in that organization every year to present day.  This we feel makes her a disqualified person under IRS rules.

The National Legal and Policy Center is now looking into the Oakland Institute’s records “as our current research is showing there are large un-itemized expenditures missing that the IRS requires when certain expenditures related to salary and employment are disbursed.”

 

Richard Abelson is Gateway Pundit international correspondent. Follow him on Parler or GETTR.

 

 

 

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