Dawn Images

Ice cream maker Ben Cohen is not one to mince words when it comes to calling out Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine and its devastating war on Gaza. Now he’s asking Indian actor Kareena Kapoor to join him.

Cohen posted on social media saying Kapoor had been part of Unilever and its ice cream offshoot Magnum’s marketing presence in India for over a decade while also using “her platform to condemn the violence committed against Palestinian children”.

The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s said Unilever and Magnum were actively silencing criticism of Israel, including that from his brand — which Cohen said faced attempts from Magnum to oust members of the independent board looking after its social mission in December.

“We believe that if this is brought to Kareena’s attention, she will stand up for what’s right and encourage Unilever/Magnum to free Ben & Jerry’s,” Cohen said in his post.

He urged his followers to tell Kapoor to “continue her bravery and stand behind the values she has championed by flooding her comments with #BoycottMagnum and #FreeBenandJerrys”.

The actor’s record of pro-Palestine activism is limited to resharing the viral “All Eyes on Rafah” story and a statement from Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell condemning Israel’s killing of children as “unconscionable”.

Cohen on the other hand, has been arrested for protesting American complicity in the “slaughter” of Palestinians during a Senate hearing in Washington DC.

He also defied the will of Ben & Jerrys’ parent company by making a Palestine-inspired watermelon sorbet himself when the company refused to let his brand make one.

Jerry Greenfield, the other half of Ben & Jerry’s, quit the company in September 2025 over disputes with its parent company over the brand’s social mission.

Meanwhile in Israel, the local company producing and selling Ben & Jerry’s ice cream — the actual brand refused to sell their products in the occupied West Bank, so Unilever sold its Israeli operations — created an “official ice cream flavour” for the country.

While the flavour got a nod from the government in Tel Aviv, the internet was not nearly as kind and bashed the attempt as “pathetic”.