Washington DC - Ben Cohen, co‑founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and a longtime progressive activist, told AFP he was speaking for millions of Americans outraged by the "slaughter" in after his removal from a US Senate hearing on Wednesday.
Ben Cohen, co‑founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, was arrested after interrupting a Senate hearing in protest at Israel's US-sponsored destruction of Gaza. © REUTERS
He was among a group of protesters who startled Health Secretary by interrupting his testimony about his department's budget proposal.
Shouting that "Congress pays for bombs to kill children in Gaza" while lawmakers move to slash Medicaid, the businessman and philanthropist was placed in handcuffs by Capitol Police.
He urged senators to press Israel to let food reach "starving kids" as he was led away.
"It got to a point where we had to do something," Cohen said in an interview after his release, calling it "scandalizing" that the US approved "$20 billion worth of bombs" for Israel even as social programs are squeezed back home.
"The majority of Americans hate what's going on, what our country is doing with our money and in our name," he said.
Cohen staged his protest as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was giving testimony about brutal cuts to his department's budget. © REUTERS
US public opinion toward Israel has become increasingly unfavorable, especially among Democrats, according to a Pew Research Center Poll last month.
A growing number of experts believe the assault on Gaza constitutes of the Palestinian people.
But successive US administrations have enabled Israel's mass killing through military, financial, and diplomatic backing.
Beyond the spending, Cohen framed the issue as a moral and "spiritual" breach.
"Condoning and being complicit in the slaughter of tens of thousands of people strikes at the core of us as far as human beings and what our country stands for," he said, pointing to the fact that the US pours roughly half its discretionary budget into war‑related spending.
"If you spent half of that money making lives better around the world, I think there'd be a whole lot less friction."
Invoking a parenting analogy, he added: "You go to a three-year-old who goes around hitting people and you say 'Use your words.' There's issues between countries but you can work them out without killing."
A , Cohen last year joined prominent Jewish figures in an open letter opposing the pro‑Israel lobby AIPAC.
"I understand that I have a higher profile than most people and so I raise my voice, it gets heard. But I need you and others to understand that I speak for millions of people who feel the same way."
