News Section Editor Zaynab Khuder recounts Aaron Bushnell’s act of protest in support of the cause to free Palestine and its people from the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
Content Warning: Mentions of Self-Immolation, Suicide, War, and Violence
On Sunday afternoon, the 25th of February, 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell, a member of the United States Air Force, set up a livestream on his phone in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC. [1]
In the live-streamed video, he expressed:
“I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, 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.” [2]
Aaron Bushnell then proceeded to set his phone down, stood before the gates of the Israeli embassy and doused himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire in fierce protest of the war on Palestine being enacted by Israel. Whilst on fire, Bushnell proceeded to yell repeatedly, “Free Palestine” as the flames engulfed his body. He succumbed to the wounds caused by the self-immolation and died in hospital that Sunday night.
A friend of Bushnell had stated that he spoke to him on the phone on Saturday night. Bushnell had informed his friend that he had top-security clearance and became distressed by the events he was witnessing in Gaza. “He told me on Saturday that we have troops in those tunnels, that it’s U.S soldiers participating in the killings.” [1]
Hours before his act of protest, Bushnell had taken to Facebook to post a Twitch link with the caption:
Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?”
The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now. [1]
It is without a doubt that Aaron Bushnell’s brutal act of protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestine has fiercely ruptured a massive discourse within the media. His message, sent in an unmistakably confronting manner, too brutal to ignore and his dedication to the Palestinian cause is one that will be grieved.
ENDNOTES:
[1] Stieb. Matt. What We Know About the Man Who Self-Immolated in Front of the Israeli Embassy. New York Magazine: Intelligencer, 1 March 2023. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/aaron-bushnell-self-immolation-what-we-know.html
[2] Gessen, Masha. Aaron Bushnell’s Act of Political Despair: What does it mean for an American to self-immolate? The New Yorker. 1 March 2023. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/aaron-bushnells-act-of-political-despair
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