Medea Benjamin (born Susan Benjamin, 1952) is an American political activist and co-founder of the anti-war group CODEPINK and the human rights organization Global Exchange. Raised in Freeport, New York, in a middle-class Jewish family, she studied public health and economics, holding master’s degrees from Columbia University and the New School for Social Research. Before co-founding Global Exchange in 1988, she worked as an economist and nutritionist for international agencies including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Latin America and Africa.
Benjamin is known for engaging in direct-action protests wearing prominent pink attire. Her published works on U.S. foreign policy include Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control (2012), Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection (2016), and Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2018). In 2005, she was among 1,000 women collectively nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1000 PeaceWomen project.
Benjamin has frequently gained media attention for interrupting public addresses and Congressional hearings by high-level U.S. officials. In May 2013, she repeatedly interrupted a major foreign policy speech by President Barack Obama at the National Defense University, demanding the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and an end to targeted drone strikes. During the Israel–Hamas war, Benjamin and CODEPINK activists organized near-daily demonstrations in Washington, D.C., resulting in multiple arrests for disrupting testimony by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Throughout her activism, Benjamin has engaged in humanitarian and political missions to the Palestinian territories, leading delegation visits to the Gaza Strip and participating in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla initiatives aiming to challenge the naval blockade. Citing her Jewish heritage to oppose military occupation, she described the crisis in Gaza during an August 2024 interview: “What we are witnessing in Gaza is not just a conflict, but a planned campaign to eliminate the entire population.“