US airman self-immolates outside Israeli embassy in Washington

Aaron Bushnell, 25, recorded and live-streamed his gruesome demise in Washington while yelling ‘free Palestine’ in a gruesome protest against US support for Israel

US Secret Service vehicles block access to a street leading to the Embassy of Israel in Washington after Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire. Picture: AFP.

An active duty US airman has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in protest against US involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Aaron Bushnell, 25, recorded and live-streamed his gruesome demise on Sunday (Monday AEDT) after pouring kerosene on himself and self-immolating while yelling “free Palestine” at the front gate of the embassy.

The harrowing video, which shows nearby security officers scrambling unsuccessfully to douse the fire that engulfed him, has since gone viral on social media.

Mr Bushnell, who was wearing his military fatigues in the video, died a few hours later in hospital, a US military spokesman confirmed on Monday.

Rest in peace, Aaron Bushnell. https://t.co/rnzNngvfDcpic.twitter.com/9hZmw2YYcg

— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) February 26, 2024

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” Bushnell said in the video as he approached the embassy, making an accusation made by some of Israel’s critics in relation to its war on Hamas in Gaza.

“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 colonisers, it’s not extreme at all,” he added.

The was the second instance of self-immolation outside an Israeli government building in the US after a man set himself alight outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta in December in what police then said was “likely an extreme act of political protest”.

Protests for and against Israel have rocked the US since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel in October, which included killing over 1,200 mainly Israelis in the south of the country and taking over 250 hostages, amid debate about the Israeli response which Palestinian officials says has killed over 29,000 people.

Rest in power Aaron Bushnell.

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. Free Palestine!”

May his sacrifice deepen our commitment to stop genocide now. pic.twitter.com/AmXUfz1SLG

— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) February 26, 2024

Supporters of Joe Biden are bracing for a backlash from voters in Michigan, a state with a large Arab population, as the swing states hosts its primary on Tuesday amid calls from some Democrats to punish the president over his support by Israel by voting “uncommitted”.

Mr Bushnell made a final dramatic post on Facebook before killing himself. “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?’” he wrote. “The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

A woman walks past the Israeli embassy, near pictures of hostages in Gaza, in Washington. Picture: AFP.

Only a handful of police cars outside the embassy in Washington’s northern suburbs on Monday provided any hint of yesterday’s horror.

Eleanor Sarkodie, 33, dressed in white and holding flowers, stood motionless across the street from the Israeli embassy where she had come to pay her respects to Mr Bushnell, she told The Australian.

“We’re just expected to keep going to work when this is happening, even something as horrible as this,” she added, choking back tears. “It’s so sad; this is the embodiment of utter helplessness”.

No staff at the Israeli embassy were injured.