Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old soldier in the United States Air Force, died on Sunday after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC in protest of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza.
BY MICHAEL ARRIA
An active-duty member U.S. airman is dead after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on Sunday. The self-immolation was a protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has been occurring since October.
Aaron Bushnell was a 25-year-old soldier in the United States Air Force. Before the action he uploaded a video to Twitch explaining his motivation. A censored version of the stream was uploaded to Twitter by journalist Talia Jane.
“I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” says Bushnell in the video. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
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In the clip Bushnell, who is wearing his fatigues, douses himself in gasoline and lights himself on fire while yelling, “Free Palestine!” The flames were eventually put out by Secret Service members. Bushnell succumbed to his injuries at a DC hospital later that night.
Content Warning: Graphic VideoVIDEO POSTED TO AARON BUSHNELL’S TWITCH ACCOUNT. VIA TALIA JANE, TWITTER/X.
Multiple people who knew Bushnell reached out to Jane to share their memories of him.
“He is one of the most principled comrades I’ve ever known,” said one. “He’s always trying to think about how we can actually achieve liberation for all with a smile on his face,” offered another.
Bushnell also made a Facebook post the morning before he set himself on fire. “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now,” it read.
Since October, thousands of Americans have protested Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and the United States government’s support for the bombing. In December, a protester was critically injured after lighting themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. A Palestinian flag was found at the scene.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking cabinet approval for an invasion of Rafah, despite the fact that a temporary ceasefire is currently being negotiated. “It has to be done,” said Netanyahu recently. “Because total victory is our goal, and total victory is within reach.”
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, more than half of the deaths have been women and children.
The world has commended a US Air Force member for his show of solidarity with Gaza after he took away his own life outside the Israeli embassy in Washington.
The New Arab Staff
26 February, 2024
Bushnell livestreamed the incident outside the Israeli embassy in Washington on social media [Getty]
A member of the US military set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington on Sunday afternoon in protest of the genocide in Gaza.
Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active duty airman, was pronounced dead later Sunday after being rushed to hospital.
Authorities extinguished the fire, and Israeli embassy spokeswoman, Tal Naim, said no staff were hurt.
In uniform, Bushnell live-streamed the incident on the social media platform Twitch, introducing himself as he approached the gates of the embassy.
The video has been widely shared on other social media platforms.
"I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide," he says, before revealing that he was going to carry out an "extreme act of protest".
He still played down the act of self-immolation, saying it did not compare to the suffering being experienced by Palestinians, battered by months of Israeli bombardment.
Bushnell sets his phone down, stands in front of the embassy gates and pours a flammable substance over himself before sparking a fire.
"Free Palestine, free Palestine!" he shouted while engulfed in flames.
Sirens could be heard only seconds later as authorities rushed to extinguish the fire.
One security guard in the video is seen pointing a gun toward Bushnell, despite the latter being on the ground. Some people on X alleged that the man holding the gun was an Israeli agent, but The New Arab could not verify the claims.
Notes of sympathy and solidarity poured in for Bushell on social media.
Who was Aaron Bushnell?
A Washington D.C. native, Bushnell specialised in software engineering and computer science attending the University of Maryland Global Campus from where he graduated in 2023, according to his profile on LinkedIn.
He was still at the Southern New Hampshire University where he was expected to earn a Bachelor of Science degree next year.
The Washington native joined the US Air Force in May 2020, gradually working his way to become a DevOps Engineer three years later.
He describes himself on LinkedIn as an "aspiring software engineer" and that he has "a talent and a passion for solving complex problems with code".
Growing frustration
At the start of December, another woman protested the war on Gaza and set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Georgia.
There has been growing anger at Joe Biden’s administration for his unwavering support for Israel since it began its unprecedented air and ground campaign in Gaza, killing close to 30,000 people since 7 October.
Health authorities in Gaza say most of the victims are women and children.
Washington is expected to send Israel weapons including MK-82 bombs and KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions that add precision guidance to bombs, and FMU-139 bomb fuses, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.
The growing backlash against Biden is especially noticeable in Arab-American communities, particularly states like Michigan which has a sizeable Middle Eastern population.
In echo of Vietnam war, US airman sets himself on fire in front of Israel embassy in Washington
WASHINGTON
An serving member of the US Air Force set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington on Sunday, officials said, as media reported he was protesting the war in Gaza.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene just before 1pm (1800 GMT) in response to a “call for person on fire outside the Israeli embassy,” according to a message on X, formerly Twitter, by the capital’s fire department.
They arrived to find that officers from the Secret Service, the US law enforcement agency tasked with protecting US political leaders, visiting heads of state and others, had already extinguished the fire.
The man was transported to hospital with “critical life threatening injuries,” the fire department said.
An Air Force spokesman confirmed to AFP that he was an serving member of the Air Force, but gave no further details.
A spokesman for the Israeli embassy said no staff were injured in the incident, and that the man was “unknown” to them.
US media reported that the man apparently livestreamed himself on Twitch, wearing fatigues and declaring he will “not be complicit in genocide” before dousing himself in a liquid.
He then set himself on fire while yelling “Free Palestine!” until he fell on the ground.
Bushnell reportedly sent a message to media outlets before his self-immolation. “Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people,” he said.
“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” the airman repeated, in footage reviewed by TIME magazine, as he walked toward the driveway of the Israeli embassy. “But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
The shocking act came as protests are increasing across the United States against Israel’s actions in Gaza, where the Jewish state is waging a retaliatory war for an attack on October 7 by Hamas militants. An earlier act of self-immolation in protest against the war in Gaza was reported a few months ago in Atlanta, Georgia.
Opinion polls show the US public to be divided about the war, with majorities of Democrats and young people calling for a ceasefire. Protests against the war have taken place in most US cities.
The self-immolation of the US airman in protest against the Gaza war is likely to remind Americans of the Buddhist monks who burnt themselves to death protesting the Vietnam war in 1963. Their self-immolations played an important role in reshaping US policies in Southeast Asia.
With the death toll in Gaza nearing 30,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, international pressure has been increasing on the United States to rein its ally Israel, which it continues to supply with weapons and shield with UN security council vetoes despite misgivings about the mounting number of casualties among civilians.
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