Ben og Jerrys medstifter Ben Cohen arresteret ved en DC Julian Assange Protest, derefter arresteret igen over gaza

Ben Cohen, medstifter af Ben & Jerry, blev taget i forvaring torsdag i Washington, DC, under en demonstration, der støtter Julian Assange, WikiLeaks grundlægger og udgiver.

Sideløbende med den feministiske støttegruppe CODEPINK fordømte Cohen - det kendte Vermont-isfirma - den amerikanske regerings retsforfølgelse af Assange som et angreb på pressefriheden og iscenesatte protesterne i nærheden af justitsministeriet.

Cohen blev arresteret sammen med CODEPINK medstifter Jodie Evans for at blokere indgangen til Department of Justice (DOJ) bygning. Parret plantede sig foran gangbanen og holdt adgang i ca. en time på trods af en kraftig nedbør. Scenen blev filmet.

For at åbne protesten satte Cohen et "pressefrihed" tegn på, at "pressefriheden går op i røg".

"Der er intet demokrati uden pressefrihed, fordi pressen er det eneste, der kan holde regeringen ansvarlig. Og der er ingen pressefrihed, så længe Assange bliver retsforfulgt", Cohen sagde.

På det tidspunkt, hvor protesten, Assange, derefter 52, blev afholdt i Belmarsh fængsel, en maximum-sikkerhed facilitet i Sydøstlondon, mens kæmper udlevering til USA til at stå anklaget i henhold til Spionage Act

"Det er skandaløst. Julian Assange er ikke voldelig. Han formodes at være uskyldig, og alligevel er han på en eller anden måde blevet fængslet i isolation i fire år. Det er tortur, sagde Cohen." Han åbenbarede sandheden, og derfor lider han, og vi må gøre alt for at hjælpe ham ".

WikiLeaks grundlægger stod over for 18 tæller bundet til offentliggørelsen af klassificerede filer om Irak-krigen og Guantanamo Bay mellem 2010 og 2011. Hvis han blev dømt for alt, stod han i fængsel i op til 175 år.

Talrige journalister har fordømt sagen mod Assange som et angreb på en fri og åben presse.

Længe kendt som en aktivist og outspeed om hans progressive synspunkter, Cohen ankom til Washington, DC, tilsyneladende parat til at blive arresteret.

“If you’re trying to fight an issue of injustice, you can scream and yell, you can write, but the ultimate thing you can do is get arrested for it, to disobey the unjust law. So that’s what I’m doing and I feel good about it,” Cohen told a reporter while seated in the walkway leading to the DOJ entrance.

Efter ca. tre timer i varetægt, Cohen sagde i et indlæg på X at han og Evans var blevet løsladt af politiet.

Dage tidligere, på Independence Day, Ben & Jerry 's havde gjort opmærksom på med en erklæring om, at USA blev grundlagt på stjålne indfødte jord, der bør returneres - en stilling, der genererede ophedet debat, med nogle klappe holdning og andre opfordrer til en boykot.

Opdatering: assange frigjort i 2024 anmelsesaftale

Much has changed since this 2023 protest. On June 24, 2024, Julian Assange was released from Belmarsh Prison after reaching a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors, bringing his long extradition fight to a close. He pleaded guilty to a single felony count under the Espionage Act — conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents — at a hearing in Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. The presiding judge sentenced him to time already served (the roughly five years he spent in Belmarsh), allowing him to walk free and return to his home country of Australia. In his first public remarks afterward, Assange told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that he had “pled guilty to journalism,” choosing freedom over a continued legal battle. Press-freedom organizations welcomed his release while warning that the deal set a troubling precedent for journalists. For earlier AEGIS reporting on the extradition fight, see how mor til Julian Assange 's to børn advarede om WikiLeaks grundlægger skæbne.

Cohens aktivisme fortsætter: arresteret igen over gaza

Cohen’s willingness to put his body on the line did not end with the Assange campaign. On May 14, 2025, the 74-year-old co-founder was arrested again at the U.S. Capitol — one of seven protesters forcibly removed from a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified. Rising to his feet, Cohen denounced U.S. complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza, shouting that Congress “pays for bombs that kill children in Gaza” and pairing that charge with the Republican push to cut Medicaid at home: “Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the U.S.”

Capitol Police zip-tied his hands behind his back and walked him out, charging him with the misdemeanor offense of crowding, obstructing, and incommoding. As he was led away, Cohen pressed the point that mattered most to him: “Congress and the senators need to ease the siege. They need to let food into Gaza. They need to let food to starving kids.” His protest came as humanitarian organizations warned of famine across Gaza, where Israel’s prolonged obstruction of aid had pushed the territory’s population toward mass starvation under a bombardment that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them children. A CODEPINK spokesperson framed it bluntly, saying Americans were expected to look away while Israel was “literally starving them to death.”

The stance was consistent with the company’s record: Ben & Jerry’s announced in 2021 that it would stop selling its ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territory, calling continued sales there inconsistent with its values, and Cohen has since become one of the more prominent corporate voices condemning Israel’s conduct and Washington’s military support for it. For more on the deadly toll of the aid crisis Cohen was protesting, see our report on how over 30 palæstinensere blev dræbt og 200 såret af israelsk skud nær et amerikansk fødevarehjælpested i Gaza.

Se Cohen diskutere hans Capitol arrestation nedenfor: