Tubs of ice-cream are seen as a labourer works at Ben & Jerry’s factory in Be’er Tuvia, Israel July 20, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

A major New York supermarket chain has taken punitive action against Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream company declared that it was ending sales in the West Bank.

John A. Catsimatidis, owner and CEO of the Gristedes grocery store chain, which mainly operates in New York City, announced Sunday, “I authorized our stores to cut Ben & Jerry’s space by 30% & not advertise until further notice.”

“It’s a tragedy that Ben & Jerry’s has politicized ice cream,” he stated.

Catsimatidis added, “I like Haagen Dazs better created by a South Bronx family who is pro-Israel.”

The decision by Ben & Jerry’s was met with intense criticism in Israel, while some US officials have promised to use state anti-BDS laws to take legal action against the company.

The supermarket chain Morton Williams, which runs 15 stores in New York and one in New Jersey, said it would reduce the Ben & Jerry’s products carried on its shelves, while kosher markets from New Jersey to Florida said they would stop carrying the brand altogether.

In the wake of the scandal, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called BDS a “new type of terrorism — economic terrorism.”

He added that BDS “does not pursue peace and seeks to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel. It is aiming its arrows at the Israeli economy.”