A 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell, who is an active-duty U.S. Air Force member, sadly lost his life on Sunday after lighting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.
He made the act as a form of protest against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, especially since his last post on Facebook doesn’t suggest otherwise. He had posed some questions on his page which reads:
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
The man had also done a live-stream on Twitch, where he said he “will no longer be complicit in genocide” and shouted “Free Palestine!” as he burned.
Bushnell was wearing military fatigues when he walked toward the embassy around 1 p.m. and poured gasoline over himself before igniting the fire. The flames were quickly extinguished by U.S. Secret Service agents, who were guarding the embassy.
However, the man was transported to a hospital with critical injuries, where he later succumbed to his wounds, according to the D.C. police.
This incident occurred amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. The war, which started on Oct. 7, 2023, has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians and more than 1,200 Israelis, according to official sources. The U.S. has supported Israel’s right to defend itself, while also calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid for Gaza.
The Israeli embassy confirmed the incident and said no embassy staff were injured. The U.S. Air Force also confirmed that Bushnell was an active-duty airman and expressed its condolences to his family.
Looking at his LinkedIn profile, Aaron Bushnell was a DevOps engineer who lived in San Antonio, Texas.
The U.S airman is the second person known to self-immolate in the U.S. in protest of the war. In December, another protester with a Palestinian flag set themselves on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta and was reported to be in critical condition.
Self-immolation has been used as a rare and extreme form of political protest around the world, often with fatal consequences.