Yesterday, Ben and Jerry’s cofounder Ben Cohen was arrested by United States Capitol Police along with six other people at a US Senate hearing. The protestors interrupted the hearing during a testimony by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., and protested Washington’s support for Israel.
“Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the US,” Cohen said while being escorted by the police.
When asked what he’s calling on Congress and senators to do for Gaza, Cohen said that “they need to let food into Gaza, they need to let food to starving kids”.
In an interview posted on News Nation, Cohen explains that the intervention had nothing to do with Kennedy in reference to the timing of the protest.
“What it had to do with is that Congress has been cutting money from Medicaid and healthcare from poor kids, and they’re using the money they save doing that to bomb other poor kids in Gaza,” explains Cohen. “And they’re halting all the food aid that’s going in so they’re starving the people of Gaza”.
“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,” added Cohen. “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”.
Ben and Jerry’s Longstanding Opposition to Israeli Actions in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank
Ben and Jerry’s is an ice cream company that was founded in 1978 by two eponymous founders in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont. From humble beginnings, the company went on to become a major, global brand name in the ice cream business. Beyond growth, Ben and Jerry’s website highlights the company’s support of a range of human rights and environmental issues.
Among such issues are the rights of the Palestinian people. In 2021, the ice cream company released a statement announcing that it will end sales of ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT),” the statement said. “We also hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners”.
“We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region. We have been working to change this, and so we have informed our licensee that we will not renew the license agreement when it expires at the end of next year”.
The statement ended by the announcement that while Ben and Jerry’s will no longer be sold in the OPT, they will stay in Israel through a different arrangement.
Reactions to the protests varied, with many people praising Cohen’s intervention in the Senate and his commitment to “what’s right”. Others encouraged people to buy more products from Ben and Jerry’s and voiced their appreciation of “people in the business world standing up for human rights”.
With Israeli attacks across Gaza, the West Bank, and the region continuing unabatedly, and humanitarian aid delivery being blocked since March 2, international actors have increased their condemnations of Israeli actions and have launched a range of different endeavors aimed at raising awareness and addressing the ongoing genocide.
