Ben & Jerry’s Chair accused of self-dealing as her institution is revealed to support groups that refuse to sign anti-terror clauses that would prohibit funds going to antisemitic terrorist groups
The Chair of the Board of ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holdings Inc., is embroiled in a financial scandal alleged to involve antisemitic terrorist groups.
Anuradha Mittal, who has been Chair of Ben & Jerry’s since 2008, has a history of defending the antisemitic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and is claimed to be behind the company’s recent boycott of Jewish Israeli communities across the Green Line (the 1949 armistice line) as part of the BDS campaign.
However, Ms Mittal is now facing an allegation of self-dealing. A complaint by a watchdog to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alleges that Ben & Jerry’s charitable foundation, of which Ms Mittal is Vice President, donated over $100,000 between 2017 and 2018 to the Oakland Institute, where Ms Mittal is the Executive Director and allegedly the sole salaried employee.
According to IRS filings, Ms Mittal was paid a salary of $156,000 by the Oakland Institute over the same period that Ben & Jerry’s charitable foundation donated $104,000 to the California-based institution.
It is understood that part of the Ben & Jerry’s contribution funded the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, a group that last year had its EU funding pulled after it refused to sign an ‘anti-terror’ clause in its funding contract that would bar it from diverting any of the EU’s funds to antisemitic genocidal terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Hizballah.
An overwhelming majority of British Jews find the tactics of the BDS movement—the campaign to boycott the Jewish state—intimidating.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist us with this project.
