Thinking of to Aaron Bushnell and his self-immolation to protest genocide
Over the past week my mind went often to Aaron Bushnell and his self-immolation to protest genocide a week ago.
“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." - Aaron Bushnell, February 25, 2024
Memories of Aaron Bushnell : As Recounted by His Friends...
On February 25, Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire at the gate of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC as an act of protest against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Hostile critics have attempted to shrug off Aaron’s action as the consequence of mental illness. On the contrary, Aaron’s choice was a political action arising from his deeply held anarchist convictions. In the following collection, we share Aaron’s own summary of his politics, followed by testimony from three of Aaron’s close friends.
‘An extreme act’: Why Aaron Bushnell self-immolated for Gaza | The Take...
Aaron Bushnell, a member of the US air force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, in an act of political protest over Israel’s war in Gaza. Bushnell livestreamed his death, saying he no longer wanted to be complicit in genocide. How will his message resonate?
The Life & Death of Aaron Bushnell: U.S. Airman Self-Immolates Protesting U.S. Support for Israel...
Democracy Now! speaks with Bushnell's friend and conscientious objector Levi Pierpont, who says his friend's death was not a suicide but was about using his life to send a message for justice. "We have to honor the message that he left," says Pierpont, who says Bushnell died "to get people's attention about the genocide that's happening in Palestine." Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat, lays out the history of self-immolation to protest war and how Bushnell's act could impact U.S. policy for the war on Gaza. "It was an act of courage, an act of bravery, to call attention to U.S. policies," says Wright, who offers support to Pierpont and other veterans advocating for peace live on air.
Aaron Bushnell’s Act of Political Despair...
He had been watching a Presidential race between two elderly men who seem to differ little on what for Bushnell was the most pressing issue in the world today: the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. What did it matter that Bushnell had the right to vote if he had no real choice? That he was a member of the military surely made matters worse. His final message on Facebook read, “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 message, which contained a link to the page on Twitch where Bushnell was planning to live-stream his final act of protest, is no longer visible.)
In His Right Mind ❧ Current Affairs...
Bushnell placed his act within the context of the 143 days of horror Palestinians have suffered since October 7. He refused to be a part of it any longer—not the white phosphorus burning children to the bone, not the indiscriminate bombing that has killed 30,000 people and destroyed libraries, bakeries, schools, hospitals, and entire families, and not the celebrations of genocide happening on the other side of the Gaza border.
There is a certain ghoulish delight taken in the suffering of Palestinians. At Keren Shalom, Israelis place bouncy castles in front of aid trucks to ensure help is delayed and denied. On social media, the soldiers of the IDF film themselves laughing and giving the thumbs-up as they bulldoze Palestinians’ homes and loot their belongings.
The response to Bushnell’s self-immolation has been similarly cruel.
US Airman Self-Immolates in Front of Israeli Embassy, Yelling “Free Palestine”...
As Bushnell committed his final act of protest, the official death toll from Israel’s genocide of Gaza was surpassing 30,000 Palestinians, with thousands more missing under the rubble, many presumed dead. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has reported that Israel has blocked food from entering the northern part of Gaza since January 23, and officials have warned that over 700,000 Palestinians in Gaza are on the verge of starving to death due to Israel’s starvation campaign. Horrors that would otherwise be unimaginable — like newborn babies dying from starvation, air strikes or the systematic destruction of an entire region’s medical system — are becoming commonplace for Palestinians amid Israel’s horrific assault.
As Bushnell falls over, a police or security officer is seen on video pointing a gun at his burning body. Another officer responding to the incident can be heard yelling, “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers.”
Suicide vs genocide: Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell...
Over the past 143 days, Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave. In video footage recorded prior to and during his self-immolation, Bushnell states 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”.
To be sure, Palestinians have long been accustomed to, well, burning to death at the hands of Israeli weaponry, ever since the state of Israel undertook to lethally invent itself on Palestinian land in 1948. The Israeli military’s use of skin-incinerating white phosphorus munitions in more recent years has no doubt contributed to the whole Palestinian “experience”.
On Bushnell - by Thrival - Synthegeist...
We cannot allow the status quo to water down the martyrdom of Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old hero who served in the United States Airforce and intentionally created a media firestorm against the ongoing agenda of the geriatric western ruling class. Contrary to reports from the press, this was not a shocking case of self harm, or a small minded tragedy. Yesterday, Aaron contacted reporters, donned his fatigues, and stood in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., and set an intentional, bold example of what heroes do rather than “be complicit in genocide.”
Since western powers invented Israel by stealing land from Palestinians in 1948, colonizers have rained decades of genocide down upon the children of Gaza, with the latest 144-day assault claiming nearly 30,000 Palestinian deaths and murdering over 10,000 babies and children with every war crime imaginable, from burning white phosphorus to outright starvation.
Aaron Bushnell Refused to Be Silent on the Horrors in Gaza...
Bushnell’s death takes place as the Joe Biden administration continues to arm Israel to the hilt, lavishing it with billions of dollars while providing a diplomatic cover for its war crimes in Gaza, vetoing several UN resolutions for a cease-fire. The United States has rewarded Israel’s war crimes with a war crime of its own, as it continues to starve Palestinians by halting funding to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. This halt in funding is a collective punishment of the Palestinian people for seeking justice at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), while promising not to punish Israel for its potential looming invasion of Rafah even if it targets civilians, and despite mounting fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing. (The United States was among the few countries to defend Israel at the ICJ hearing on Israeli occupation last week.)
As Bushnell burned, the death toll in Gaza passed thirty thousand civilians, nearly half of them children. Two million Palestinians have been displaced. Half of the population is on the brink of starvation, as Israel continues to deprive the besieged Gaza Strip of food, water, and medicine, thus condemning thousands of Palestinians to a slow, agonizing death.
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In the aftermath of Bushnell’s self-immolation, the New York Times announced: “Man Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in Washington, Police Say” – a rather strong contender, perhaps, for the most diluted and decontextualised headline ever. One wonders what folks would have said in 1965 had the US newspaper of record run headlines like: “Octogenarian Detroit Woman Dies After Setting Herself on Fire, Police Say – An Event Having Nothing Potentially To Do With Said Woman’s Opposition To The Vietnam War Or Anything Like That”.
And while such an intense and passionate form of suicide is no doubt bewildering to many, genocide should be all the more appalling; as Bushnell himself said, self-immolation is nothing “compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine”, where people know all too well how quickly human beings burn.
In Bushnell’s case, the US political-media establishment appears to be doing its best to not only decontextualise but also posthumously discredit him. Time Magazine’s write-up, for example, admonishes that the US “Defence Department policy states that service members on active duty should ‘not engage in partisan political activity’” – as though actively abetting a genocide weren’t politically “partisan”.