By Michael Arria / Mondoweiss
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.”
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.
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.
Also see this column by Sam Husseini on the historical significance of self-immolation as a form of resistance, posted Dec. 6, 2023.
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Michael Arria
Michael Arria is the U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss. His work has appeared in In These Times, The Appeal, and Truthout. He is the author of Medium Blue: The Politics of MSNBC. Follow him on Twitter at @michaelarria.