On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, died after setting himself on fire outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C, Wikipedia gathered.
Immediately prior to the live-streamed act, Bushnell said that he was protesting against “what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers” and declared that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide”, after which he doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire.
As he burned, Bushnell repeatedly shouted “Free Palestine!” while one Secret Service officer pointed a gun at him and two others attempted to extinguish the flames.
Self-immolation of Aaron BushnellPart of the Israel–Hamas war protests in the United State.
The act was live-streamed on Twitch. The Metropolitan Police Department responded to assist the United States Secret Service after Bushnell set himself on fire, and he was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
He was declared dead in the evening. Bushnell’s act was the second self-immolation protesting against the United States support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war, which has killed over 30,000 Palestinians and resulted in a major humanitarian crisis, at an Israeli diplomatic station in the United States; another protestor set herself on fire at the country’s Atlanta consulate in December 2023.
