WASHINGTON: Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, was dragged out of a US Senate hearing and arrested on Wednesday after interrupting a testimony with a protest against Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. “I told Congress they’re killing poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and they’re paying for it by kicking poor kids off Medicaid in the US,” Cohen wrote in a post on X, alongside a video showing him being forcibly removed from the chamber.
The protest occurred during a session of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, where US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was testifying. According to US Capitol Police, Cohen was among seven people arrested and charged with “crowding, obstructing or incommoding”.
The others faced additional charges including resisting arrest and assault on a police officer.
Cohen arrested
As Cohen stood and interrupted the hearing, he shouted: “Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the US.” Officers quickly moved in to restrain him as others held up signs and chanted slogans against the war.
Cohen, who is Jewish, has long been outspoken about the US-Israel relationship. In an earlier interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, he said: “Right now, what it means to be American is that we are the world’s largest arms exporter, we have the largest military in the world, we support the slaughter of people in Gaza… If somebody protests the slaughter of people in Gaza, we arrest them. What does our country stand for?”
Ben & Jerry’s
Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s, are known for their progressive activism. In 2021, the company announced it would stop selling its ice cream in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, saying doing so was “inconsistent with our values”.
A US judge later rejected a bid to block those sales, and the company settled with parent firm Unilever.
More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive after Hamas’s October 2023 attacks, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Agencies
‘You’re killing poor kids’: Ben & Jerry’s co-founder dragged out of US Senate, arrested over Gaza protest
