As a Jewish American as well as a dual citizen of Israel and the United States, I was deeply disappointed that Newsday did not see fit to include a single voice supportive of Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop doing business in the occupied territories (“Hempstead Town officials vow to boycott Ben & Jerry’s,” July 23, 2021). Sadly, the report also fails to stress that Ben & Jerry’s has explicitly committed to continuing doing business in Israel itself, within the country’s legal borders; its boycott is only of those areas that have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967, where Palestinians are denied equal human rights.

In addition, Newsday repeats the falsehood that a boycott limited to illegal West Bank settlements is the same as a boycott of Israel overall and part of the BDS movement. This is a gross distortion. Many patriotic Israelis and progressive pro-Israel individuals and groups in the U.S. wish the best for Israel and, precisely for that reason, reject its occupation and settlement policy, in keeping with a vision of a democratic Israel that might one day cease to rule over the Palestinian people and instead live at peace with them.