By Pen Fang
“I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force. And I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” Aaron Bushnell, a 25 year old cyber defense operations specialist, said while walking to the Israeli embassy in a video of the incident. “I’m 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.”
Bushnell, dressed in uniform, then walked up to the driveway of the Israeli Embassy and set down the phone he was livestreaming on. He doused himself in an accelerant and lit himself on fire, shouting “Free Palestine” repeatedly as he was burning.
Bushnell was surrounded by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). One officer pointed a gun at him while others attempted to extinguish the flames. In the video of the incident, law enforcement officials can be heard telling him to get on the ground, and one says, “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers!”
The MPD, Secret Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms are working together to investigate the incident.
Bushnell was taken to a local hospital in critical condition. The Air Force confirmed his death the following day in a statement: “The individual involved in yesterday’s incident succumbed to his injuries and passed away last night.”
“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Senior Airman Bushnell. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and we ask that you respect their privacy during this difficult time.”
The Air Force also confirmed Bushnell’s position as a cyber defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland, Texas. He had been serving on active duty since May 2020.
Bushnell posted a link to a Twitch channel, a live-streaming site, onto Facebook prior to his self-immolation. In the Facebook post, he wrote: “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.”
Bushnell had also emailed a number of media outlets prior to his self-immolation announcing his plans.
His channel has since been removed from Twitch, though a video of the incident obtained by independent journalist Talia Jane has been posted to X (formerly Twitter). Jane specified that Bushnell’s loved ones gave consent for a blurred version of the video to be posted online.
According to NPR, “a housing charity that Bushnell worked with told Texas Public Radio that Bushnell planned this quite carefully. He made a will, and he specified that his savings should be donated to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and everything down to arranging that a neighbor would take care of his cat.”
This is not the first self-immolation in the US protesting the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. In December of 2023, an individual self-immolated as a protest in front of the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta, Georgia.
