Anuradha Mittal is an American left-of-center activist. She is the founder of the Oakland Institute and the chair of the board of activist ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s. ^{1 2} Her work with the institute and her initiative to have Ben & Jerry’s partially boycott Israel have led to accusations of antisemitism. ²

Board Memberships

Anuradha Mittal is the board chair of Ben & Jerry’s, a major ice cream maker and distributor which has an extensive track record of left-progressive activism. She is also the vice president of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm. ^{2 3}

In 2020, Mittal also joined the board of the Environmental Defender Law Center, a left-of-center legal activist group which provides support to environmentalist activists around the world. ¹

Oakland Institute

Anuradha Mittal is the founder and director of the Oakland Institute, a think tank which publishes left-progressive analysis of topics related to human rights, international development, and agricultural policy. ¹ The institute typically prioritizes issues affecting the third world, especially those involving disputes between indigenous groups and governments or corporations, but has also addressed issues such as the privatization of farmland in Ukraine and the World Bank’s involvement in the Philippines. ⁴

The institute has published a series of reports on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The reports prioritize the perspectives of Palestinian Arabs and accuse Israel of inflicting “70 years of occupation and displacement” on Arabs living in the disputed Gaza Strip and West Bank of the Jordan River. ⁵

In August 2021, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, where Mittal works as vice president and serves as a trustee, has awarded more than $170,000 in grants to the Oakland Institute. The Beacon claimed that the grants “could run afoul of self-dealing laws, which prohibit private foundations from using funds to benefit their trustees.” ⁶

In April 2022, Mittal wrote an op-ed opposing a carbon-capture project in Iowa. She criticized the proposed project for not doing anything meaningful to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and for constructing a pipeline that would carry hazardous materials. She criticized the head of Summit Carbon Solution, Bruce Rastetter, for having a poor record on the environment at his previous businesses. ⁷

Rights of Nature Tribunal

Anuradha Mittal is a member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature’s International Rights of Nature tribunal. ⁸ The tribunal is legally non-binding and provides a forum for environmentalists to speak on behalf of nature to protest the destruction of the environment, for which the group blames businesses and governments. ⁹

Ben & Jerry’s Israel Controversy

In July 2021, the pro-Israel activist organization Stop Antisemitism labeled Anuradha Mittal as its “anti-Semite of the of week.” The website called Mittal “the driving force” behind Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop distributing its products in Israeli settlements in territories whose sovereign status is in dispute between the State of Israel and Palestinian Arabs. Stop Antisemitism also accused Mittal of having “a long history of supporting antisemitic causes.” The organization cited a series of nine reports which she co-authored for the Oakland Institute titled “Palestine for Land & Life.” According to Stop Antisemitism, these reports “falsely accused Israel of apartheid, colonialism, and land grabbing.” In addition, Stop Antisemitism claimed that Mittal “also uses her role at the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation to funnel money … to fund antisemitic projects.” The organization demanded that Ben & Jerry’s cut all ties with Mittal. ²

Mittal posted a response to her critics on Twitter, where she reiterated that she was “proud of [Ben & Jerry’s] for taking a stance to end sale of its ice cream” in what she called “the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” At the same time, she said that “this action is not anti-Semitic” and that she herself was not anti-Jewish. Mittal claimed that she had endured “vile hate” as a result of the company’s actions, and called on her critics to “pls [sic] work for peace – not hatred.” ¹⁰

Ben and Jerry’s parent corporation Unilever issued a statement which defended its decision to allow the ice cream company to engage in left-of-center activism through its independent board, which Mittal oversees. Unilever did not explicitly endorse or disavow the boycott. However, Unilever condemned the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement against Israel and confirmed that Ben & Jerry’s would still sell its products in Israel in a statement to the Anti-Defamation League, a leading left-of-center Jewish advocacy group. ¹¹

In December 2021, Stop Antisemitism awarded Mittal their “Antisemite of the Year” for her support of boycotting Israel. The group claimed that “Mittal has an extended history of promoting and supporting antisemitic causes and earned this title by boycotting hundreds of thousands of Jews living in over 140 communities in Israel.” ¹²

In November 2025, the Magnum Ice Cream Company, which is a parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, concluded an internal investigation which found that Mittal was not qualified to serve as the chair of Ben & Jerry’s independent board. Magnum found that Mittal “no longer meets the criteria” to serve, as stated in a securities filing. The investigation came because of parent company Unilever’s plan to spin off Magnum as an independent company. It was unclear what actions Magnum could take because the Ben & Jerry’s board is an independent board. Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen said of the investigation: “This is a deliberate attempt to rewrite history and strip the Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board of the legal authority it was guaranteed.” ¹³

Other Activism

In December 2023, Mittal wrote on social media, “When people are occupied resistance is justified!” and she tagged the post with “Free Palestine” and “ceasefire now.” The words appeared to show support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas during its war with Israel. ¹⁴

In October 2024, Mittal wrote an op-ed on World Food Day where she criticized Israeli policy in Gaza. She accused the Israeli government of starving the people of Gaza. She wrote, “Starvation, along with Israel’s incessant air strikes, bombardment, and ground offensives, is the weapon of war against the innocent civilians in Gaza. Especially children.” She claimed that Israel was deliberately blocking food from reaching the people of Gaza. She wrote, “The entire population of Gaza faces the most extreme form of hunger. With over 100,000 tons of food positioned at different corridors in Jordan, Ashdod, and Egypt, Israel’s blocking of aid and refusal of a ceasefire, have resulted in children dying of malnutrition and starvation as the international community watches.” She claimed that Israel was using food as a weapon by forcing Palestinians to leave parts of Gaza and relocate to other parts of Gaza where she claimed, “There’s no guarantee of safety or shelters for the displaced.” ¹⁵

Mittal also denounced the United States for what she claimed was its role in perpetrating the “genocide” in Gaza. She demanded that the United States end all military aid to Israel since doing so would force Israel to withdraw its troops from Gaza.  ¹⁵

1. Anuradha Mittal. Oakland Institute. Accessed August 23, 2021. https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/about/people/anuradha-mittal
2. “Antisemite of the Week: Anuradha Mittal – The Bigot Behind Ben & Jerry’s Boycott.” Stop Antisemitism. July 24, 2021. Accessed August 23, 2021. https://www.stopantisemitism.org/antisemite-of-the-week5-1/antisemite-of-the-week-anuradha-mittal-the-bigot-behind-ben-amp-jerrys-boycott
3. Issues We Care About. Ben & Jerry’s. Accessed August 23, 2021. https://www.benjerry.com/values/issues-we-care-about
4. Land Rights. Oakland Institute. Accessed August 23, 2021. https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/land-rights-issue
5. “Palestine: For Land and Life.” Oakland Institute. Accessed August 23, 2021. https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/palestine-for-land-life
6. Alana Goodman. “Ben and Jerry’s Gave $170,000 in Grants to Board Trustee’s Anti-Israel Foundation.” The Washington Free Beacon. August 4, 2021. Accessed August 23, 2021. https://freebeacon.com/culture/ben-and-jerrys-gave-170000-in-grants-to-board-trustees-anti-israel-foundation/
7. Mittal, Anuradha. “Opinion: Bruce Rastetter Is No Climate Hero.” The Des Moines Register, April 17, 2022. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/2022/04/17/bruce-rastetter-no-climate-hero-carbon-pipeline/7320336001/.
8. “Anuradha Mittal.” Rights Of Nature Tribunal. Accessed November 29, 2025. https://www.rightsofnaturetribunal.org/judges/anuradha-mittal/.
9. “About Us.” Rights Of Nature Tribunal. Accessed November 29, 2025. https://www.rightsofnaturetribunal.org/about-us/.
10. Anuradha Mittal. Twitter. July 27, 2021. Accessed September 14, 2021. https://twitter.com/mittaloak/status/1420025947051466771?lang=en
11. Jonathan Greenblatt. Twitter. July 27, 2021. Accessed August 23, 2021. https://twitter.com/JGreenblattADL/status/1420036076647948290?s=20
12. “Anuradha Mittal Is Crowned the 2021 ‘Antisemite of the Year.’” GlobeNewswire News Room, December 27, 2021. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/12/27/2358106/0/en/Anuradha-Mittal-is-Crowned-the-2021-Antisemite-of-the-Year.html.
13. “Ben & Jerry’s Board Chair Is Not Fit to Serve, Parent Company Says .” CNN, November 6, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/business/ben-and-jerrys-board-chair?Date=20251106&Profile=CNN%2CCNN%2BInternational.
14. “Ben & Jerry’s Chair: ‘When People Are Occupied Resistance Is Justified!’ .” JNS, December 6, 2023. https://www.jns.org/ben-jerrys-chair-when-people-are-occupied-resistance-is-justified/.
15. Mittal, Anuradha. “On World Food Day, We Should Have Remembered the People of Gaza.” InDepthNews, October 17, 2024. https://indepthnews.net/on-world-food-day-we-should-have-remembered-the-people-of-gaza/.