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Chair of Ben & Jerry's board of directors accused of self-dealing tens of thousands of dollars to fund her own pro-Palestinian nonprofit
Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images

Chair of Ben & Jerry's board of directors accused of self-dealing tens of thousands of dollars to fund her own pro-Palestinian nonprofit

The chairwoman of Ben & Jerry's board of directors has been accused of self-dealing tens of thousands of dollars from the left-wing ice cream company's foundation to fund her own pro-Palestinian nonprofit, the New York Post reported, citing a watchdog complaint to the IRS.

What are the details?

Besides chairing the board since 2008, Anuradha Mittal also is a vice president of the company's nonprofit foundation, the Post said.

And between 2017 and 2018, the foundation gave more than $100,000 to the Oakland Institute, which the paper calls "a progressive think tank that studies land reform around the world, where Mittal is executive director and the only salaried employee, according to IRS filings."

"It is our contention that this a possible violation of self-dealing as Mittal is considered a disqualified person under IRS rules," a copy of a complaint from the National Legal and Policy Center in Virginia says, the Post reported.

More from the paper:

The Ben & Jerry's Foundation sent a total of $104,000 in grants to the California-based Oakland Institute where MIttal was paid a combined $156,000 in salary in 2017 and 2018, IRS filings show. Part of the Ben & Jerry's Foundation cash went to finance the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. The controversial human rights group in the West Bank received $3,000 from the foundation in 2017, according to tax filings.

Last year, the European Union pulled nearly $2 million worth of funding from Badil after it refused to sign an "anti-terror" clause in its funding contract. The clause stated that none of the EU's funds would be diverted to members of terrorist organizations, such as the military wings of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Ben & Jerry's grant was used to finance "a bold multimedia project on land rights to mark 50 years since the Six-Day War and Israel's occupation," according to the Oakland Institute's 2017 annual report. "Palestine: For Land and Life" documented individual stories of "marginalization and struggle."

The Post said Mittal didn't comment on the complaint and instead said "false allegations" were made about the Oakland Institute and the Ben & Jerry's Foundation.

And about that anti-Israel boycott

Oh, and remember when Ben & Jerry's announced last month that its ice cream no longer would be sold in "Occupied Palestinian Territory" belonging to Israel?

Well, the Post said the 54-year-old Mittal was one of the creators of the controversial anti-Israel boycott as well.

StopAntisemitism.org criticized Ben & Jerry's for giving in to the demands of the radical Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel.

"Ben and Jerry's fails to realize BDS refers to ALL of Israel as occupied Palestinian territory," the organization tweeted. "Do they honestly think appeasing these bigots will help anything?"

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