On February 25, 2024, at 12:58 PM, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active duty member of the United States Air Force, approached the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., and committed an act of self-immolation near the front gate. This act was in protest of the ongoing battle in Gaza where 41,000+ have been killed - of them 15,000 are children, an additional 77,000+ have been injured, and the number of humans remaining buried in the rubble from the destruction of Gaza by the IDF is unknown - the overwhelming majority of them being women, children, the elderly, and the disabled since October 7, 2023, after Hamas fighters breached the walls of Gaza and entered the state of Israel. Since October 7th, nearly 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes and land, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of starvation as Israeli citizens and the IDF block humanitarian aid from crossing all of the borders into Gaza while the US and some EU members refuse to intervene.
Aaron delivered his message to social media outlets before his planned self-immolation where he wrote,
"Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people".
"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."
"I am an active duty member of the United States 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's not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal."
As the fire began to engulf him, Aaron then issued the command:
Free Palestine!
Free Palestine!
Free Palestine!
Aaron was transported to hospital where he died at 8:06 PM from injuries related to his act of protest against the US and Israeli governments.
On February 25, 2024, at 12:58 PM, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active duty member of the United States Air Force, approached the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., and committed an act of self-immolation near the front gate. This act was in protest of the ongoing battle in Gaza where 41,000+ have been killed - of them 15,000 are children, an additional 77,000+ have been injured, and the number of humans remaining buried in the rubble from the destruction of Gaza by the IDF is unknown - the overwhelming majority of them being women, children, the elderly, and the disabled since October 7, 2023, after Hamas fighters breached the walls of Gaza and entered the state of Israel. Since October 7th, nearly 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes and land, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of starvation as Israeli citizens and the IDF block humanitarian aid from crossing all of the borders into Gaza while the US and some EU members refuse to intervene.
Aaron delivered his message to social media outlets before his planned self-immolation where he wrote,
"Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people".
"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."
"I am an active duty member of the United States 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's not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal."
As the fire began to engulf him, Aaron then issued the command:
Free Palestine!
Free Palestine!
Free Palestine!
Aaron was transported to hospital where he died at 8:06 PM from injuries related to his act of protest against the US and Israeli governments.
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