{"id":31986,"date":"2024-02-26T20:49:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T04:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=31986"},"modified":"2024-02-26T20:49:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T04:49:02","slug":"after-setting-himself-on-fire-us-airman-aaron-bushnell-dies-declaring-free-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/26\/after-setting-himself-on-fire-us-airman-aaron-bushnell-dies-declaring-free-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"After Setting Himself on Fire, US Airman Aaron Bushnell Dies Declaring ‘Free Palestine’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Aaron<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Bushnell, an active duty U.S. airman, died on February 25, 2024 after self-immolating outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. to protest the Gaza genocide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo: Talia Jane\/X)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 26, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My name is Aaron Bushnell, 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<\/a> at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s how the 25-year-old from San Antonio introduced himself\u2014and bade farewell\u2014to the world in a livestream video of his Sunday afternoon walk to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. Arriving outside the front gate, Bushnell set down his phone, took eight paces, turned to face the camera, doused himself in an unknown accelerant, donned his service cap, and set himself alight. He repeatedly screamed “Free Palestine” as he burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uniformed Secret Service officers arrived on the scene even before Bushnell was able to ignite the fire. They repeatedly ordered him to “get on the ground.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Get on the ground, you fucker,” someone\u2014presumably an officer\u2014can be heard saying in the video as Bushnell screams and writhes in agony. He managed one final, garbled, yet unmistakable “free Palestine” as his body was engulfed in flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: The following video contains blurred graphic images that some readers may find disturbing.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last walk of Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the US Air Force who self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in protest against US involvement in Israel's genocide in Gaza.https:\/\/t.co\/FwAAH0GJ8B<\/a><\/p>— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) February 26, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>