Chair of Ben & Jerry’s Board Voted as ‘2021 Antisemite of the Year’ in Watchdog Poll
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Anuradha Mittal. Photo: YouTube screenshot.
The chairperson of Ben & Jerry’s board of directors and vice president of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation has been crowned the “2021 Antisemite of the Year” by thousands of voters in a contest organized by the StopAntisemitism.org watchdog group, it was announced on Sunday.
Anuradha Mittal was selected over two other “finalists,” singer Dua Lipa and Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, following several weeks of voting. The Ben & Jerry’s chair was a leading force behind the company’s announcement in July that it would stop selling its products in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem — areas the ice cream maker called “occupied Palestinian territory” — by the end of 2022 because doing business there was “inconsistent” with company values.
In response to the boycott move, several US states, most recently Illinois, announced that they will divest pension and public funds holdings from Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, in accordance with anti-BDS laws.
“For us and for the voters, Mittal was clearly the 2021 Antisemite of the Year,” said StopAntisemitism Founder and Executive Director Liora Rez. “The Ben & Jerry’s boycott is shamelessly biased and Mittal’s commitment to promoting her antisemitic and anti-Israel agenda is deplorable. The way she has leveraged her namesake and power in the corporate world to promote antisemitic initiatives is horrendous.”
Mittal did not immediately respond to an Algemeiner request for comment. She defended Ben & Jerry’s decision in August, saying, “It is not about boycotting Israel … the occupation is anti-Israel. Our decision was pro-Israel, pro-humanity, pro-human rights.”
In 2018, under Mittal’s leadership, Ben & Jerry’s partnered with anti-Israel activist and Women’s March co-founder Linda Sarsour, StopAntisemitism noted. Mittal is also the founder and executive director of the left-wing policy think tank Oakland Institute, where she led a team that wrote a series of reports called “Palestine for Land and Life,” which claims to document “everyday life under occupation” and “the use of laws and military orders which subjugate Palestinians.”
StopAntisemitism.org also noted that Mittal “has leveraged her status at Ben & Jerry’s to fund antisemitic projects” through the Oakland Institute, including the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. The Palestinian NGO supports the BDS movement against Israel, has published antisemitic cartoons and caricatures, and promotes violence targeting the Jewish state, according to NGO Monitor.
Mittal additionally serves on the board of the Environmental Defender Law Center, which she joined in 2020.
