Ben of Ben & Jerry’s arrested for interrupting US Senate hearing to protest Israel
Co-founder of ice cream brand yells during health committee hearing that Congress is ‘killing poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and paying for it by kicking poor kids off Medicaid’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLuke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, was arrested on Wednesday for protesting against Israel during a US Senate hearing in Washington, DC.
Cohen and other protesters interrupted a Senate health committee hearing led by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Video from the scene showed police removing Cohen and other protesters from the room, while Cohen shouted that the US government was killing Palestinian children.
Another protester shouted, “RFK kills people with AIDS.”
Cohen posted a video of the incident on X.
“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. This was the authorities’ response,” he wrote.
The video showed police cuffing Cohen’s hands behind his back.
“They need to let food into Gaza, they need to let food to starving kids,” Cohen yelled as he was taken away.
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. This was the authorities' response. pic.twitter.com/uOf7xrzzWM
— Ben Cohen (@YoBenCohen) May 14, 2025
Cohen was charged with crowding, obstructing and incommoding, a charge related to causing an inconvenience. The charges are misdemeanors.
Anti-Israel activists regularly blame US aid to Israel for an array of issues in the US, from health care to local library closures, although military aid to Israel is a minuscule amount of the total US budget.
Cohen, 74, is a longtime progressive activist and harsh critic of Israel.
The company he founded has been embroiled in anti-Israel controversies for years.
The Unilever multinational corporation bought Ben & Jerry’s from Cohen and cofounder Jerry Greenfield in 2000 in a deal that allowed the company to maintain its independence in political activism.
In 2021, the company attempted to boycott Israeli settlements in a move that would have effectively ended sales to Israel. The attempted boycott set off a bitter, years-long legal battle between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever.
Last week, Cohen raised eyebrows by appearing on the talk show of far-right host Tucker Carlson.
Cohen, who identified as a “proud Jew” in his defense of the Israel boycott, said in the interview, “I love Jesus Christ,” and advocated for following Christian teachings.
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