Teaneck Store Won't Carry Ben & Jerry's After Israel Decision

TEANECK, NJ — Glatt Express, a kosher supermarket in Teaneck, will no longer carry Ben & Jerry's products after the company said they would stop selling their products in "the Occupied Palestinian Territory" earlier this week.

Ben & Jerry's announced in a news release on Monday that they would no longer sell their products in these areas, which includes the occupied West Bank and contested east Jerusalem, according to the Associated Press.

Locally, kosher supermarkets in the tri-state region have vowed to take the product off their shelves, regardless of the monetary ramifications.

Glatt Express Supermarket, in Teaneck, took to Facebook on Monday to announce their decision to stop carrying the products. Quickly, the owner of the store, Dani Secemski made the rounds on national news shows like Fox and Friends.

Secemski also spoke to CNN, telling the network that he would stop carrying Ben & Jerry's despite having roughly $1,200 worth of the company's products in stock, and selling approximately $8,000 worth of their ice cream annually.

"I thought this was an anti-Semitic statement about the evil situation in the Middle East," he told the network. However, he did say that he'd begin selling and carrying the products again if "they can reverse their decision."

The largest supermarket to take Chunky Monkey and Half Baked off store shelves is Morton Williams, the New York Post reports. The company has 15 stores in New York City and one in Jersey City.

In addition to the company's decision to stop selling products in occupied territories, Ben & Jerry's will end a license agreement with an Israeli manufacturer and distributor at the end of 2022. The company does plan to stay in Israel "through a different arrangement," officials said.

Read the full statement from the company below:

We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). We also hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners.

We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region. We have been working to change this, and so we have informed our licensee that we will not renew the license agreement when it expires at the end of next year.

Although Ben & Jerry’s will no longer be sold in the OPT, we will stay in Israel through a different arrangement. We will share an update on this as soon as we’re ready.

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