Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, arrested during anti-Israel protest at US Senate

Seven people were arrested during a protest inside a Senate committee hearing as anti-Israel activists interrupted testimony by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

By World Israel News Staff

Seven people were forcibly removed from a committee hearing in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday and subsequently arrested, a spokesperson for the U.S. Capitol Police said after the protesters interrupted a statement delivered to the hearing by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The demonstrators, who included the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Ben Cohen, shouted anti-Israel slogans during the hearing and condemned U.S. support for Israel and Republican-backed plans to trim Medicaid spending.

Some of the protesters also targeted Kennedy, condemning his calls to scrutinize the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

One protester shouted that Kennedy “kills people with AIDS” while holding up a sign that read “RFK Kills People With AIDS Worldwide – RFK Lies People With AIDS Die.”

During Kennedy’s testimony, Cohen stood up in the visitors gallery and shouted that the U.S. was facilitating the killing of children in Gaza.

Capitol Police quickly intervened, removing Cohen and six other protesters from the hearing room and placing them under arrest.

As he was being escorted out of the building, Cohen repeated his accusations.

“Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the U.S.,” Cohen said.

“Congress and the senators need to ease the siege. They need to let food into Gaza. They need to let food to starving kids.”

Cohen is now facing charges of crowding, obstructing, incommoding, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer.

A long-time progressive-left activist, Cohen appeared recently on populist firebrand Tucker Carlson’s podcast, criticizing American foreign policy.

During the interview, Cohen lambasted Israel’s war against the Hamas terror organization,and American support for the Jewish state.

“There seems to be some kind of strange relationship between Israel and the US where, I don’t know, Israel now has the U.S. supplying weapons for its genocide,” Cohen said.

“We support the slaughter of people in Gaza. If somebody protests the slaughter of people in Gaza, we arrest them.”