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Originally published in Inside Sources.

It sounded frightening.

Israels president thundered its a new kind of terrorism. The prime minister threatened strong action. The Israeli ambassador demanded that state governments in the United States bring the perpetrators to court.

This wasnt about a missile strike or a cyberattack. It was about ice cream.

Ben & Jerrys had announced it would be ending production and sale of their treats in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israels response was extreme maybe, but not really surprising.

This same Israeli government defines the global civil society boycott a nonviolent pressure campaign to stop Israels violations of international law and human rights as an existential threat. Apparently, even when its about ice cream.

In 2006, Israel created its Ministry of Strategic Affairs to respond to the alleged threat posed by Irans nuclear enrichment program. (Israel, not Iran, holds the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, but thats another story.) A few years later, the same ministry got a new assignment: stop the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as BDS.

Its not really a nonviolent boycott of Chunky Monkey that Israel is worried about. Its bad publicity.

Boycotts are protected by our Constitution and the Supreme Court. Theyve been used forever in this country from the Boston Tea Party to the Montgomery bus boycott to the boycott of apartheid South Africa. Other citizen boycotts are underway today targeting Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Turkey, China, and even the Tokyo Olympics.

The BDS campaign targets Israel over its occupation of Palestinian lands, discrimination against Palestinian citizens in Israel, and denial of Palestinian refugees right to return to their homes.

These human rights violations have led influential organizations includingHuman Rights Watchand the Israeli human rights organizationBtselem to determine that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid.

Israels real fear isnt about ice cream. Its the publicity that comes with boycotts supported by wildly popular brands like Cherry Garcia.

Boycotts lead to people asking embarrassing questions. Whats the deal with Israeli settlements? If Palestinians are citizens of Israel, why dont they have the same rights as Jewish citizens? Why cant Palestinian refugees go home? The answers arent actually hard to find.

About 700,000 Israelis now live in Jewish-only settlements in the Palestinian West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. Theyre allillegal under international law.

Palestinian citizens of Israel do have the right to vote. But many rights in Israel are determined not by citizenship but by nationality. If youre not Jewish, Israeli lawsays explicitlythat many rights dont apply to you.

And despite international law and U.N. resolutionsmandating the right of Palestinian refugees like all people to return to their homes after a war, Israel refuses to allow dispossessed Palestinians to return home. But Jewish migrants from anywhere in the world whether or not they have ties to Israel are welcome to full citizenship.

Israel worries when people ask those questions. Because the answers raise more questions about the legitimacy of Israel as a democracy or our best friend in the Middle East. Questions like: How can we be such close allies with a countrywhose prime minister said, Ive killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there is no problem with that?

That leads to asking members of Congress why they send $3.8 billion of our tax money directly to the Israeli military every year. Shouldnt we condition that aid on ending human rights violations or cut it altogether?

U.S. public opinion has changed dramatically on the subject, especially among Jews and Democrats.

In a recent poll,25 percent of Jewish voters agreed that Israel is an apartheid state, and 34 percent called Israels treatment of Palestinians racist.In another poll, 66 percent of Democrats want the United States to impose economic sanctions or take other action in response to Israeli settlements.

Ben & Jerrys has a long history of social responsibility. Founded by progressive Jews, the company has supported the Black Lives Matter movement, environmental justice, and a wide range of other causes.

Pulling out of Israels illegal settlements, encouraged by a petition campaign in their home state of Vermont, is consistent with their history and U.S. public opinion.

Who knew that ice cream could be so important?

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Ben & Jerry's Is Carrying On a Proud Tradition of Boycotts for Human Rights - FPIF - Foreign Policy In Focus