Aaron Bushnell, an active duty member of the US Air Force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC on Sunday, February 25 to protest Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and his country’s support to the war.
Bushnell live streamed his “extreme act of protest” on Twitch and stated, “I am an active duty member of the US Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. 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 is not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
In the video, which has since been taken down by Twitch, 25-year-old Bushnell, wearing his uniform, poured liquid on himself and set himself on fire. He shouted “Free Palestine” after he set himself on fire and kept on shouting it before he fell to the ground. Emergency responders rushed to the scene, including an intelligence agent who pointed a gun at Bushnell, while another sprayed him with a fire extinguisher. He was then rushed to a hospital with critical injuries which he later succumbed to.
The Israeli embassy in Washington has been a central site of protest since Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza. Across the United States, hundreds of protests and mass mobilizations have been organized over the last four months in cities across the country to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to demand that the Biden administration end all aid to Israel.
In December, a protester had set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta.
The Israeli war in Gaza has killed close to 30,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 70,000 others. Nearly all the pre-war population of the besieged territory, over 2.2 million, is now displaced. Israel has carried out indiscriminate bombing and ground offensives across the territory attacking hospitals, schools, and shelter homes alike. It has also prevented the supply of basic aid and materials to the people in Gaza, pushing Palestinians to starvation and suffering of unprecedented levels.
The US has not only scuttled the attempts for peace by vetoing resolutions demanding for a ceasefire at least three times since October last year, it has also actively participated in the war by supplying billions of dollars of arms and ammunition to Israel.
