Protesters call on General Mills to stop manufacturing Pillsbury products on an illegal settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory. The demonstration took place at the corporation's Minneapolis headquarters on the eve of its annual board meeting. Emma Leigh Sron / AFSC
OAKLAND, CA (April 29, 2021) Several members of the Pillsbury family – whose ancestor Charles A. Pillsbury founded the Pillsbury Company over 150 years ago – are calling for a boycott of the company bearing their family name. In an op ed published in the April 28 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Charlie, George, Leah, Lydia, and Sarah Pillsbury explain that they will not be buying Pillsbury products as long as the company continues to operate a factory in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
The op ed reads in part: “As long as General Mills continues to profit from the dispossession and suffering of the Palestinian people, we will not buy any Pillsbury products. We call on General Mills to stop doing business on occupied land. And we call on all people of good conscience and all socially responsible organizations across the globe to join in boycotting Pillsbury products until General Mills stops this illegal and immoral practice.”
Pillsbury manufactures goods in a factory in the Atarot Industrial Zone, an illegal settlement that Israel occupied during the 1967 war and then illegally annexed. “The factory is exploiting land, water, and other resources that were captured by force from their legal Palestinian owners, in violation of international law—and General Mills is directly profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory,” said Noam Perry, Economic Activism Associate for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). “We are calling on everyone to join the No Dough for the Occupation campaign to ask the Pillsbury Company to uphold its expressed commitment to human rights and stop doing business in illegal settlements.”
Earlier this year, a U.N. report listed General Mills in its database of companies involved in Israel’s illegal settlement activities, one of only seven U.S. companies on that list. The report was mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which called on states to prevent their companies from contributing to such gross human rights abuses.
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The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.