After New Jersey, Arizona and Florida, which last week announced sanctions against Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry's, Texas also announced its joining the trend on Friday.
Unilever shares reacted in the past week with declines of about 1.5%.
One analyst wrote that this was a larger decline, as the stock has no other reason to fall, and without these provisions it would have risen.
The immediate implication of the sanctions is the withdrawal of the state's pension funds and investments in Unilever bonds, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Singer, Photo: Eric Sultan
The countries' sanctions were preceded by an ultimatum demanding that the company stop the boycott of Ben & Jerry's Israel, or disengage from the ice cream company in general.
Unilever responded last week that not only does it have nothing against Israel, it has also strongly argued that it is increasing its investments in the country.
But if that affair is not enough, another affair is now being published in the United States that raises the scent of anti-Semitism: a Jewish employee at Unilever is suing the company, after he claims he was fired following a vacation he demanded during Rosh Hashanah.
According to a New York Post report, according to a lawsuit filed last Thursday, this is a 2019 case in which David Rosenbaum, 55, CEO of Unilever in New Jersey, informed his employer Frank Alfano that he plans to take vacation days on Rosh Hashanah.
The lawsuit alleges that Alfano told Rosenbaum that he could not take a vacation on the holiday and probably not on Yom Kippur either.
Rosenbaum told Alfano that religion forbids him to work these days.
Rosenbaum was forced to take a vacation and sent an email to the higher ranks on September 30 of that year, on the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
He explained what Alfano told him and that it was against the law, he said.
The lawsuit alleges that Unilever's attorney replied that she would speak to the human resources department.
It was also alleged that the next day, October 1, Rosenbaum was fired by telephone because he did not come to work on Rosh Hashanah.
It was also reported that in a previous incident, Alfano retaliated against Rosenbaum for a complaint he filed a month before the incident, after Alfano asked Rosenbaum to lend him money and the latter refused.
Thus, ostensibly, Alfano harassed him.
Rosenbaum, who also worked with Ben & Jerry's marketing team to organize sales events, claimed that his personal case was further evidence of Unilever's anti-Semitism revealed in July this year, when Unilever's subsidiary, Ben & Jerry's, imposed an illegal boycott. Ostensibly, about Israel.
The global company refused to sell ice cream "Beyond the Green Line."
The lawsuit alleges that this is despite the fact that it continues to sell ice cream in some of the most oppressive human rights countries.
Allegations of harassment
His lawyer, Sinai Salvo, told the New York Post that he has since been unemployed and struggling to find a new job during the corona plague.
According to Selvo, it's bad enough that Alfano did not give Rosenbaum a leave, but worse is that the senior management did not try to do anything about it.
According to her, they did not try to reach any creative solution, not even after the email Rosenbaum sent them.
Israel Today's appeal to global Unilever stated that "Unilever strongly rejects these claims, and has a zero-tolerance policy regarding anti-Semitism, or any form of discrimination in the workplace."
It should be noted that Frank Alfano did not receive a response to the New York Post.
Avi Singer, CEO and owner of Ben & Jerry's Israel, responded to Texas' accession to states that boycott the company: "The list of states that are clearly and decisively working against the boycott of Israel and its citizens is expanding.
We at Ben & Jerry's Israel will continue to sell throughout the country and employ hundreds of workers living in the south.
It is support for Israeli society that will prove to world society that we in Israel do not succumb to illegal boycott actions.
"Ice cream is not part of politics, and as many countries understand the injustice done to Israel, more countries will in the coming days join the demand from the global Ben & Jerrys to reverse its decision."
