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Arizona has divested all public funds from Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever following the ice cream maker’s decision to in the occupied Palestinian territories.����

Arizona's Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced Tuesday that the state was from Unilever by 21 September, which amounted to $143 million as of June 2021.��

The action was taken after��decided to stop sales at illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank,��which was seen as a violation of the state’s anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)��laws.��

"Arizona will not do business with companies that are attempting to undermine Israel's economy and blatantly disregarding Arizona's law," Yee said.��

"I stand with Israel, and I will not allow taxpayer dollars to go toward antisemitic, discriminatory efforts against Israel," she added, emphasising her role as��Arizona's chief banking and investment officer.

Arizona’s anti-boycott law prohibits state contracts with and state investments in entities that boycott Israel or territories occupied in Israel.��

The southwestern US state is one of eight known to have investigated whether state anti- laws apply to the ice cream company and one of 21 states to explicitly include settlement boycotts as part of their respective definitions of what constitutions a boycott of Israel.��

maintain that their decision is not a boycott of Israel, as it will continue to “stay in Israel through a different arrangement” and only suspend sales in

The move to halt ice cream sales, announced in July 2021,��was met with praise and scornful criticism.��

said Ben & Jerry’s decision was “antisemitic” and a “disgraceful capitulation...to all that is evil in the anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish discourse.”��

Pro-Palestine activists hailed Ben & Jerry’s decision to pull out of illegal settlements, which have been condemned by the UN as unlawful.��