Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s is arrested for disrupting RFK Jr. Senate testimony with Gaza war protest
‘Congress pays for bombs that kill children in Gaza,’ Cohen yelled before being removed by police
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben $ Jerry’s, is detained by U.S. Capitol Police for disrupting proceedings during a hearing with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., May 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Ben Cohen, one of the founders of Ben & Jerry’s, was arrested for protesting at a Senate committee hearing against American funding for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Cohen, who has long been a vocal progressive activist and lately a harsh critic of Israel, was part of a group that interrupted testimony Wednesday by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the secretary of health and human services. Other protesters called out Kennedy, but Cohen yelled, “Congress pays for bombs that kill children in Gaza” before being removed by Capitol Police.
As he was being escorted out with his hands bound behind his back, Cohen extended his criticism of U.S. military assistance for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, connecting it to health care in the United States.
“Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the U.S.,” he said. “They need to let food into Gaza. They need to let food in to starving kids.”
Humanitarian groups are raising alarm about encroaching famine in Gaza, where Israel has obstructed the entry of aid for two months. It is on the verge of launching a new, controversial U.S.-approved plan to distribute food there.
Domestically, Republicans in Congress are advancing a bill that would cut Medicaid funding. A bipartisan bill that provided billions in military aid to Israel passed under the Biden administration, before the much larger Medicaid cuts were on the table.
Ben & Jerry’s drew backlash from a range of Jewish groups in 2021 when it announced it would stop selling its ice cream in what it termed “occupied Palestinian territory.” Cohen and his co-founder Jerry Greenfield, who no longer control the company, supported the decision, citing their Jewish identities. Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, later effectively reversed the decision.
Cohen has since escalated his criticism of Israel, and recently was a guest on the talk show of far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, where he spoke out against American militarism and said, “There seems to be some kind of strange relationship between Israel and the U.S., where, I don’t know, Israel now has the U.S. supplying weapons for its genocide.”
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