Ben Cohen, co-founder of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand, was arrested Wednesday during a Senate committee hearing while protesting for Gaza.

Cohen and six other protesters interrupted a session in which United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was speaking about a proposed Medicaid budget cut by the Trump Administration.

Capitol Hill police were seen escorting him out of the chamber aggressively. 

Video footage of the incident was posted on X, with Cohen heard saying, “I said that Congress is paying to bomb poor kids in Gaza and paying for it by kicking poor kids off Medicaid in the U.S.”

Cohen, who was already in Washington D.C. protesting for Gaza with House Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) mere hours prior, was charged with a misdemeanor but was released later that day, according to a report by The New York Times.

“I can't call myself an American and not put my body on the line,” Cohen would later write on X.  “For me, our government-funded destruction and slaughter of families living in Gaza is an attack on justice, common decency, and what I had thought was the American way. The American way that Superman used to defend, along with Truth and Justice.”

Ben and Jerry’s has been a vocal critic of Israeli policy towards Palestinians for years. 

Despite both co-founders Cohen and Jerry Greenfield being Jewish, their ice cream brand most notably said in 2021 that they would end all business operations in the Occupied West Bank due to their dismay of the Israeli occupation.