A U.S. airman died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washi𓃲ngton D.C. onꦓ Sunday, shouting "free Palestine."
Aaron Bushnell, 25, was taken to hospital after Se🎃cret Service officers exti🐈nguished the fire.
In video footage shot both before and during his self-immolation, Bushnell says that he will “no longer be complicit in genocide” and that he is “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 is not extreme at all”.
Following the act, Bushnell repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine" bef🌼ore bಞeing attended to by Secret Service officers. He died seven hours later at a hospital.
The incident comes amidst growing global protests against Israel's military aꦏctions in Gaza and U.S. support for Israel since war broke out after the Oct. 7 assault from Palestinian militant group Hamas.
At least 29,878 people have been killed and 70,215 wounded in Israeli attack𝓰s on Gaza so far.
Aaron Bushnell’s Background
Aaron Bushnell was a 25-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force. Originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, he was stationed in San Anto🐟nio.
In a video aired live on the streaming site Twitch, Mr Bushnell, who was dressed i🍷n military uniform, identified himself and said he was a serving member of the Air Force.
He joined the Air Force as an active-duty member in May 2020 and has since worked in information technology and development operations. On his LinkedIn page, Bushnell wrote that he was lo🍎ok❀ing to “transition out of the US Air Force into software engineering.”
The Self-Immolation
Hours before lighting himself on 🃏fire, Bushnell posted a Twitch link on his Facebook p꧒age with the caption:
"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."
Prior to the incident, he had emailed many reporters, as well as left-wing and anarchist news sites. Among the organisations that got the email was the Atlanta Community Press Collective, which gave a copy to the BBC.
The email read: "Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people,” wit𝓰h a warning that it would be "highly disturbing".
Self-immolation has a long historꩵy as a form of protest, gaining particular prominence during the Vietnam War and the Arab Spring in Tunisia.
In December, an unidentified♒ individual with a Palestinian flag was critically injured after setting herself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Atlanta.
