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Ben & Jerry's, known for its euphoric ice cream flavors and
dedication to social justice, celebrates the beginning of the freedom to marry
for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont with the symbolic renaming of its
well-known ice cream flavor "Chubby Hubby" to "Hubby
Hubby." In partnership with Freedom to Marry, Ben &
Jerry's aims to raise awareness of the importance of marriage equality
and, to show its support, will serve "Hubby Hubby" sundaes in Vermont
Scoop Shops throughout the month of September.
Ben &
Jerry's has a long history of commitment to social justice, including gay
rights. Its partnership with Freedom to Marry, a national leader in the
movement for marriage equality, aims to raise awareness of the importance of
marriage equality and to encourage other states to follow the blazing trails of
Vermont, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Iowa,
New Hampshire, and Maine. Freedom to Marry promotes
the national conversation about why marriage equality matters and brings
together partner organizations into a larger whole - a shared civil
rights campaign.
"At
the core of Ben & Jerry's values, we believe that social justice can
and should be something that every human being is entitled to," said Walt
Freese, Chief Executive Officer of Ben & Jerry's. "From the
very beginning of our 30 year history, we have supported equal rights for all
people. The legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a
step in the right direction and something worth celebrating with peace, love
and plenty of ice cream."
To kick
off the celebration, Ben & Jerry's and Freedom to Marry will be
publicly supporting the first marriages of gay and lesbian couples in Vermont
and raising awareness for marriage equality and how to take action by driving
consumers to freedomtomarry.org. By logging onto the site, people
can show their support, sign a Marriage Resolution Petition, have conversations
about why marriage matters and learn more about how they can support the cause.
"It's
not polite to talk with your mouth full, but the most important thing that all
us ice cream lovers can do to support the freedom to marry is speak with the
people we know about why marriage matters and the need to end marriage
discrimination in every state"," said Evan
Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry and author of
Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's
Right to Marry. "Thanks to Ben & Jerry's,
starting those needed conversations has never been sweeter - and thanks
to Freedom to Marry, we all now have a great excuse to eat more ice
cream."
For more
information on why marriage equality matters and to take action in your state,
please log on to www.freedomtomarry.org. To find your
local Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop or learn more about Ben &
Jerry's social mission, log onto www.Facebook.com/benjerry. Also,
don't forget to visit us on www.benjerry.com.
Read
Online: https://freedomtomarry.org/press_center/ben_&_jerry%27s_renames_legendary_flavor.php
###
Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership
working to win marriage equality nationwide. Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry
is headed by Evan Wolfson, nationally recognized as a central "architect
of the marriage equality movement." Freedom to Marry guides and focuses
this social justice movement on a nationwide level, serving as a strategy and
support center for national, state, and local partners, a catalyst that drives
and shapes the national debate on marriage equality, and an alliance-builder
fostering support from non-gay allies.
Ben & Jerry's produces a wide variety of super-premium
ice cream and ice cream novelties, using high-quality ingredients including
milk and cream from family farmers who do not treat their cows with the
synthetic hormone rBGH. The company states its position on rBGH on its labels.
Ben and Jerry's products are distributed nationwide and in selected
foreign countries in supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores,
franchise Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shops, restaurants and other venues.
Ben & Jerry's, a Vermont corporation and wholly-owned subsidiary of
Unilever, operates its business on a three-part Mission Statement emphasizing
product quality, economic reward and a commitment to the community.
Contributions made via the employee led Ben & Jerry's Foundation in
2008 totaled over $1.9 million. Additionally, the company makes significant
product donations to community groups and nonprofits both in Vermont and across the nation. The purpose
of Ben & Jerry's philanthropy is to support the founding values of
the company: economic and social justice, environmental restoration and peace
through understanding, and to support our Vermont communities. For the full scoop on
all Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop locations and fabulous flavors, visit
www.benjerry.com.
Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Headed by Evan Wolfson, one of America's leading civil rights advocates and lawyers, Freedom to Marry brings new resources and a renewed context of urgency and opportunity to this social justice movement.
"We can either continue on our current path... and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
Other countries must hold Israel accountable for violating international law in its war on Gaza and escalating violence in the illegally occupied West Bank, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Monday.
Türk's remarks came as he opened the 57th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva with a wide-ranging warning about the rise of international violence and human rights violations worldwide.
Ending Israel's war on Gaza and "averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority," Türk said.
"States must not—cannot—accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (U.N.) Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation," he said.
In particular, Türk referenced the International Court of Justice's advisory ruling in July that Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem is illegal. The ICJ also called on Israel to evacuate its settlers from the West Bank and on other nations not to recognize Israel's occupation as legal or to render any aid to Israel that maintained the status quo.
Türk on Monday called for the situation to be "comprehensively addressed."
He added that Israel's war on Gaza had forced 1.9 million people to flee their homes since October 7, 2023, many more than once, as Hurriyet Daily Newsreported. The war has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to official figures, though experts say the true death toll is likely much higher.
"I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone."
Türk added that "deadly and destructive" operations in the West Bank, such as 10-day period of raids that concluded Friday, are at a scale "not witnessed in the last two decades" and are "worsening a calamitous situation."
He also spoke out for the rights of the likely more than 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and the 101 hostages still held in Gaza.
Beyond Israel and Palestine, Türk also highlighted ongoing conflicts in Sudan and between Russia and Ukraine, noting that the international community seemed to accept the "crossing of innumerable red lines, or readiness to toe right up to them."
"We are at a fork in the road," the human rights chief advised. "We can either continue on our current path—a treacherous 'new normal'—and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity, and the planet."
In a record election year, Türk argued that committing to the protection of human rights was especially important.
"I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone," he said.
In particular, he encouraged voters to "be wary of the shrill voices, the 'strongman' types that throw glitter in our eyes, offering illusory solutions that deny reality."
"Know that when one group is singled out as a scapegoat for society's ills, one day your own might be next," he said.
"We welcome the White House's statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur's killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate," said the family of Aysenur Eygi.
The family of the U.S. citizen killed by Israeli forces in the illegally occupied West Bank last week issued a statement over the weekend demanding that the Biden administration order an "independent investigation," arguing a probe by Israel's military would not be enough to establish the facts and pursue justice.
The statement from Aysenur Eygi's family was posted to Instagram on Saturday by a friend of Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish American citizen who was volunteering for the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers shot Eygi in the head during a protest against the expansion of unlawful Israeli settlements near the West Bank city of Nablus.
"Like the olive tree she lay beneath where she took her last breaths, Aysenur was strong, beautiful, and nourishing. Her presence in our lives was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military," the family's statement reads. "A U.S. citizen, Aysenur was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter."
"We welcome the White House's statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur's killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate," the statement continued. "We call on President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris, and Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties."
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in the wake of Eygi's killing, which sparked global outrage, that "we are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen" and "have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident." The U.S. is Israel's chief diplomatic ally and arms supplier.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), for its part, claimed that soldiers "responded with fire" in the direction of "a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them." The IDF said it is "looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area."
But one eyewitness who was present when Eygi was killed told reporters that "it was quiet" when the deadly shot was fired, contradicting the IDF's account.
"There was nothing to justify the shot," said Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak. "The shot was taken to kill."
Longtime Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack describes the “intentional killing” of American Aysenur Eygi in the West Bank:
“It was quiet. There was nothing to justify the shot. The shot was taken to kill.” pic.twitter.com/2eTOYDEqpI
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) September 6, 2024
Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of Nablus, toldCNN on Saturday that an autopsy conducted at a nearby university "confirmed that Eygi was killed by an Israeli occupation sniper's bullet to her head."
Eygi was at least the third U.S. citizen killed by the IDF in the West Bank since the Israeli military launched its assault on the Gaza Strip following a deadly Hamas-led attack on October 7. The IDF is notorious for refusing to hold its soldiers accountable for massacring civilians, mostly Palestinians.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a statement Friday that "to date, the U.S. has not received satisfactory responses from the Netanyahu government about the two other Americans killed in the West Bank since October 7th, and the Biden administration has not been doing enough to pursue justice and accountability on their behalf."
Van Hollen said he has "repeatedly raised these concerns" with top administration officials, including Blinken.
"The Biden administration must do more to hold the Netanyahu government accountable and use American influence to demand the prosecution of those responsible for harm against American citizens," the senator said Friday. "If the Netanyahu government will not pursue justice for Americans, the U.S. Department of Justice must."
A spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry called on Israel's allies to "stop supporting and arming it."
The Israeli military carried out a series of airstrikes on central Syria late Sunday, reportedly killing more than a dozen people and prompting a furious response from Syrian ally Iran.
"We strongly condemn this criminal attack," Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference in Tehran.
Kanaani went on to urge Israel's weapons suppliers, chiefly the United States and Germany, to "stop supporting and arming it" as its catastrophic assault on the Gaza Strip spills out across the region. Nearly 40 people were wounded in Israel's strikes on Sunday, according to a Syrian health official, and several are in critical condition.
Citing two unnamed regional intelligence sources, Reutersreported early Monday that the Israeli strikes hit a "major military research center for chemical arms production located near Misyaf."
The facility, according to Reuters, "is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production."
Kanaani denied that the facility hit was connected to Iran.
"What official sources from the Syrian government have announced is that there were attacks on some Syrian facilities, including an attack on a research center affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and the Syrian army," he said.
Civilians were reportedly among those killed and wounded in Sunday's strikes, which came as the world awaited Iran's expected military response to Israel's assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July.
Israeli forces have carried out dozens of airstrikes in Syria—including one targeting Iran's consulate in Damascus—since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, which prompted Israel's large-scale assault on Gaza.
Al Jazeerareported that Israeli forces continued to pummel the Palestinian enclave on Monday, bombing "al-Amoudi street in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City." The outlet noted that "at least 10 people have been killed today in attacks across the Gaza Strip."