Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, whose name helped shape the popular ice cream brand, has quit the company, as its rift with parent Unilever deepened over its stance on the Gaza conflict, Reuters reports.

In an open letter addressing the Ben & Jerry’s community that was shared by his partner Ben Cohen on social media platform X, Greenfield said that the Vermont-based company has lost its independence since Unilever curtailed its social activism.

Greenfield said he could no longer “in good conscience” continue working for a company that had been “silenced” by Unilever, despite a merger agreement meant to safeguard the brand’s social mission.

“That independence existed in no small part because of the unique merger agreement Ben and I negotiated with Unilever,” he wrote in the letter.

Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed since 2021, when the Chubby Hubby maker said it would stop sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The brand has since sued its parent over alleged efforts to silence it and described the Gaza conflict as “genocide”, a rare stance for a major US company.

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