The cofounder of Ben & Jerry\u2019s ice cream and six other people have been arrested after disrupting a United States Senate hearing to protest Washington\u2019s support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he was being taken away, Ben Cohen said: \u201cCongress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The arrests of Ben Cohen and the other protestors on Wednesday came as U.S. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr was giving testimony to lawmakers on his shake-up of federal health agencies. The seven were arrested on charges of \u201ccrowding, obstructing or incommoding\u201d, assault of a police officer or resisting arrest, US Capitol Police said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police said Cohen was only charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding, a misdemeanor punishable by 90 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both. Cohen and his Ben & Jerry\u2019s cofounder Jerry Greenfield are well known for their progressive activism, including opposition to Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Cohen, who is Jewish, said the U.S. had a \u201cstrange relationship\u201d with Israel that involved Washington \u201csupplying weapons for its genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now, what it means to be American is that we are the world\u2019s largest arms exporter, we have the largest military in the world, we support the slaughter of people in Gaza,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cIf somebody protests the slaughter of people in Gaza, we arrest them. What does our country stand for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2021, Ben & Jerry\u2019s announced that it would no longer allow its Israeli licensee to sell its ice cream in the West Bank and Gaza, saying that doing so would be \u201cinconsistent with our values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A U.S. judge the following year rejected Ben & Jerry\u2019s bid for an injunction to block the sales after finding that the company had failed to show that it would suffer irreparable harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ben & Jerry\u2019s, which was founded in 1978 in the U.S. state of Vermont, and its parent company, Unilever, later settled their legal dispute on undisclosed terms. In March, Ben & Jerry\u2019s filed a lawsuit accusing Unilever of firing chief executive David Stever over his support for the brand\u2019s \u201csocial mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war, following Hamas\u2019s October 7, 2023, attacks on the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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