() Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen, who was removed from a Senate committee hearing Wednesday for protesting, called Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocide with our bombs” and said Americans have become “complicit” through military support.
“The American people have become complicit in the genocide that Israel is engaging in, and if it weren’t for us providing the bombs, they wouldn’t be able to do it,” Cohen told ‘s “CUOMO,” following his removal from the hearing.
Cohen was escorted out of a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing featuring Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after standing up and shouting, “Congress pays for bombs.” The protest occurred about 15 minutes into the hearing.
When asked about his protest, Cohen said it “didn’t really have anything to do with Bobby Kennedy,” but was instead focused on Congress cutting Medicaid funding while increasing military spending.
“What it had to do with is that Congress has been cutting money for Medicaid, health care for poor kids. And they’re using the money they save doing that to bomb other poor kids in Gaza,” Cohen said.
The ice cream company co-founder pointed to widespread destruction in Gaza as evidence of what he views as genocide.
“All the hospitals have been destroyed, all the universities have been destroyed, the schools have been destroyed, the housing has been destroyed, and tens of thousands of people have been killed,” Cohen said.
While acknowledging that Hamas-held hostages should be returned, Cohen rejected the notion that this justifies Israel’s military campaign.
“The hostages need to be returned, but that’s no justification to kill tens of thousands of children, old people, mothers, fathers, you know, people just like us,” he said.
Cohen has a history of political activism, having been arrested for disorderly conduct in 2018 while protesting F-35 fighter jets based in Vermont.
He supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020, and during the 2024 presidential race, he and co-founder Jerry Greenfield created a “Kamala’s Coconut Dream” ice cream flavor as part of a get-out-the-vote initiative for then-Vice President Harris.
The ice cream entrepreneur advocated for treating Palestinians “decently” and supported a two-state solution, suggesting Israel has been “shutting that out” while creating a “humanitarian disaster.”
partner The Hill contributed to this report.
