Colorado invokes a pro-Israel state law to divest its pension fund from Ben & Jerry's

(JTA) — In 2016, Colorado’s state pension fund passed a law pledging economic loyalty to Israel.

That law is now being invoked as the state becomes the seventh to punish ice-cream company Ben & Jerry’s over the company’s 2021 pledge to stop selling ice cream in “occupied Palestinian territories.”

The board of Colorado’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association voted unanimously Friday to begin a procedure to divest its holdings from Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, the Denver Post reported. The association drew upon the 2016 law, signed by Democratic then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, which r...