Aaron Bushnell Burned Himself Alive for Gaza — and for All of Us

Suicide vs Genocide, Truth vs Deception, Resistance vs Predatory Capitalism

**A vigil was held on Monday for Aaron Bushnell outside the Israeli embassy in DC** (Source: BBC)

It was just another regular Tuesday in the office, 10 minutes away from lunch break. I was having quite an efficient and head-in-the-game day, so I decided to go Twitter surfing for a couple of minutes.

That only lasted for about two tweets.

The news of US airman Aaron Bushnell setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, screaming “Free Palestine,” was a total shock. Watching it was a tough choice – it’s a memory that’ll stick forever. But I figured I owed him that much. Telegram did the uncensoring.

I couldn’t take a single bite of my lunch, in shock and disturbed by Bushnell’s video. And I am 100% sure that was the intention of his acts: to be so perturbing and intimidating, so shocking and agitating that the world could not overlook anymore the massacring reality of the situation, to pull us away from the numbing distractions of Western mass media and focus our attention on the genocide in Gaza.

And you know what? It’s not even a man burning that is haunting and his flesh frying, but the voices, the sounds and shouts of a man going through the single most profound act of sincerity that any of us could ever witness.

Bushnell’s calm, youthful voice as he approaches the embassy,“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.” The sound of his metal canister rolling towards the camera, his cries of “Free Palestine” turning into wordless screams due to excruciating pain, the repeated orders of a law-enforcement officer off-camera “to get on the ground,” and a first responder yelling at that one particularly helpful individual to fetch fire extinguishers instead of pointing guns at the burning Bushnell.

The amount of time he stood while burning was shocking. Where he found the strength, I don’t know. He was upright even after he stopped making sounds. He knew the pain was going to be unbearable. He knew he might die, or be horrifically burned and wish for death. He knew that once the flame touched the accelerant on his body, there was no going back.

But he didn’t waver.

Instead, ignited the flame.

And his death was gruesome, and it was meant to be.

Prior to his final act, Bushnell posted a poignant message on Facebook:

“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 Answer

Aaron Bushnell made his stance clear through his actions, and we’re all making ours known now.

I’d never endorse such an extreme act, but it’s undeniable that it’s serving its purpose: it’s forcing the world to pay attention to Gaza’s suffering and exposing the deceitful and synthetic nature of the society we live in.

Part I

Everywhere I find discussions about Bushnell online, it’s flooded with pro-Israel trolls scrambling to control the narrative. This only amplifies the significance of Bushnell’s act. They know how damaging it is for US and Israeli propaganda to have a story about a US Air Force member self-immolating while shouting “Free Palestine” and making international news. They’re trying their hardest to limit this damage.

In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified his military actions, claiming America would react more aggressively if it were under attack. Don’t worry, Mr. Prime Minister: the media is taking care of that.

Following Bushnell’s self-immolation, the New York Times ran a headline that massively downplayed the incident: “Man Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in Washington, Police Say.” Possibly one of the most diluted and decontextualized headlines ever, and possibly the reason they were ashamed of it and took it down.

Then, there’s discredit and decontextualization. Time Magazine’s write-up criticized him for violating US Defense Department policy by participating in partisan political activity and “wearing the uniform during unofficial public speeches, interviews” — as though actively assisting a genocide wasn’t considered a “partisan” political issue. At the end of the article, readers are given a suicide hotline number, which implies that Bushnell’s act was just the result of a mental health crisis rather than a deliberate political statement.

The Air Force hasn’t said much about Bushnell’s death either, merely confirming that an active-duty service member died in the incident. The Pentagon’s press secretary called it a “tragic event.”

Journalists are expected to challenge the powerful by revealing the truth. But it’s clear as day that Bushnell has made a mockery of Western mainstream media with his actions.

Part II

And then again, we have the utmost act of sincerity exposing this falsehood of civilization we live in. Our society is a fraud. We’re stuck in a world where reality is replaced with hollow culture, apathetic celebrities, and empty Instagram activism. We’re in a political system designed to divert us from the real issues and manipulate us into supporting the status quo. We’re sleepwalking through life in a state of induced oblivion, stuck in a vicious cycle of stagflation and inflation, inducing the “global cost of living crisis” while the rich get richer, and the rest of us struggle to survive.

Just take a look at the data from the annual inequality report by Oxfam. The world’s richest five men have doubled their fortunes since 2020, while almost five billion people globally have become poorer. If each of the five wealthiest men spent a million dollars every day, they would still take 476 years to exhaust their combined wealth. At current rates, it will take 230 years to end poverty, but we could have our first trillionaire in 10 years.

What’s the logic or reason for more than half the world getting poorer, while just a tiny handful of people get so rich they could make every single person in the world (!) $417.72 better off, more than the GDP per capita of the poorest 3 countries in 2023?

As we grapple with this reality, we’re also battling rising “climate anxiety.”

But then, an Air Force guy blindsides us with an act of genuine sincerity, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. His intentions are as noble as they come. There’s nothing in our society that can prepare us for this level of authenticity, selflessness, and purity of intention. It’s a shock to our system, ripping through the fabric of our world.

Aaron Bushnell was meant to be a cog in the killing machine, but his principles cost him his life.

**Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell.** (Source: Facebook/Aaron Bushnell)

We Couldn’t Even If We Tried

Over the past 150 days, Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave.

The Israel-Gaza war erupted on 7 October last year when Hamas gunmen infiltrated southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 others hostage.

Since then and over the past 150 days, the world has watched Israel explicitly committing war crimes, cutting off essential resources to the two million people trapped in the world’s biggest open-air prison, a.k.a. Gaza. The damage has not only been with one of the most intense bombing campaigns in modern war, equivalent to two nuclear bombs but also using water as a weapon by targeting critical infrastructure and cutting off supplies. And the death toll of nearly 30,000 Palestinians only keeps growing

There’s no doubt that some are now digging into Bushnell’s past, hunting for any speck of dirt that could discredit him as I write this. They’ll say he was evil, insane, and misled by anarchists, pro-Palestine activists, and radical media. The fact is, this is their gut reaction to a disturbing reality. This is how they’d have reacted during slavery, Jim Crow, apartheid. This is how they’re reacting, as their country is complicit in genocide.

Because, at the end of the day, if you’re not dealing with a severe “mental health crisis” over the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, backed by the US, it’s safe to say you’re psychologically distorted.

I won’t provide a link to the video here; choosing to watch it is a personal decision you need to make independently. What matters is that it happened, just like the ongoing massacre in Gaza. Each of us must confront and decide how to respond to this reality.

Bushnell’s shocking actions are making people sit up and take notice, challenging us to see life differently, to break through the shallow facade of self-obsession and apathy, and to embrace a sincere understanding and compassion while questioning the soporific status quo.

When Bushnell set himself on fire, he sparked more than a solitary, dead-end, asphaltic flame, but one that prompted action toward an alternative way of living.

His message will not be forgotten. We couldn’t even if we tried.

Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell.