Illinois poised to divest from Unilever amid Ben & Jerry’s boycott fallout

The domino affect against Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever continues. When states divest tens of millions of dollars from Unilever’s pension fund, it does significant economic and financial damage to Unilever. Unilever will eventually have no choice but to force Ben & Jerry’s to reverse their anti-Jewish policies.

Illinois poised to divest from Unilever amid Ben & Jerry’s boycott fallout

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The Illinois Investment Policy Board is scheduled to vote on divesting its pension funds of investments in Unilever at its meeting on Wednesday morning in Chicago, multiple sources told JNS.

By Israel Hayom, December 22, 2021

The state of Illinois is expected to divest its pension funds of investments in Unilever this coming Wednesday, JNS has learned.

This looming decision in Illinois marks the latest domino to fall as the global conglomerate continues to come under fire after ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever, publicly announced in July that it intended to cease distributing its products in areas it deemed “occupied Palestinian territory.”

The Illinois Investment Policy Board (IIPB) is scheduled to vote on the matter at its regular meeting on Wednesday morning in Chicago. Multiple sources told JNS that a majority vote to divest is assured, barring a change in Unilever’s posture.

The board will also consider taking action in another, perhaps more consequential matter related to the Israel boycott movement, involving the financial services firm Morningstar and its subsidiary, Sustainalytics. JNS has also learned that American Muslims for Palestine organization is attempting to organize a large-scale protest and potential disruption of the public meeting.

Currently, Illinois prohibits investment in certain companies that do business with Iran and Sudan, as well as companies that boycott Israel. In 2015, Illinois became the first state in America to pass such a law, in order to counter the anti-Israel BDS movement. According to Illinois law, to boycott Israel means “engaging in actions that are politically motivated and are intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or otherwise limit commercial relations with the State of Israel or companies based in Israel or in territories controlled by the State of Israel.”

The IIPB was created to ensure that the state is not investing public money in entities contrary to that law.

“The concept was that Illinois had already passed a few divestment-related pieces of legislation surrounding the Save Darfur campaign and Iran. Illinois has multiple pension funds: one for teachers one for universities, the general assembly and others.

“Each fund was contracting out research on divestment, and the thought was that creating one board to oversee would lower costs of compliance,” Rich Goldberg, former chief of staff for then-Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, told JNS. Goldberg spearheaded the legislation currently under consideration by the IIPB, and later led Iran sanctions legislation and negotiation efforts as a senior foreign policy adviser to former US Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).

The IIPB is a seven-member board comprised of a mix of non-paid appointees of the governor and representatives of key pension systems. The chairman of the board’s Committee on Israel Boycott Restrictions, Andrew Lappin, said Unilever was warned over the summer to reverse Ben & Jerry’s decision or face divestment. The 90-day window given for Unilever to comply has passed.

In its buyout agreement with Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s retained a measure of independence in controlling its own social justice policies and licensing. Unilever, which does substantial business in Israel through a range of products, has pointed to that arrangement as the reason why it says it is helpless to counter Ben & Jerry’s stance. Unilever’s chief executive officer has said multiple times that the company remains “fully committed” to doing business with Israel, and has tried to put distance between Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s announcement. But Unilever CEO Alan Jope has never intimated that he would push Ben & Jerry’s to reconsider its plans.

“The board has given Unilever multiple opportunities to formulate its position on the matter, and explain why this situation may not fall under the state’s boycott law. As Unilever has done with similar inquiries from other states, it sent a boilerplate corporate letter, and has then refused to further clarify its position. Its response was flippant,” said Goldberg.

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