Aaron Bushnell

Aaron Bushnell   (USAF, activist)
Died	25 February 2024
"I will no longer be complicit in genocide."

On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, approached the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC and committed an act of self-immolation at the front gate to protest what he called the "genocide" being committed by Israel in the Israel-Hamas war. During the incident, Bushnell said he was protesting "what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers" and declared that he "will no longer be complicit in genocide" before dousing himself with a flammable liquid and lighting himself on fire. As he burned, Bushnell repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine!" while local emergency services arrived on scene.

Acts of self-immolation

The act was livestreamed on Twitch. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department responded to assist the United States Secret Service after Bushnell set himself on fire, and he was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. The Washington D.C. police confirmed Bushnell's death the following day. This was the second self-immolation protesting the war at an Israeli diplomatic station in the United States, with another protestor setting themself on fire at the Atlanta consulate in December 2023.

Reactions

Caitlin Johnstone posted on X:

I watched the uncensored video of US airman Aaron Bushnell self-immolating in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington while screaming “Free Palestine”. I hesitated to watch it because I knew once I put it into my mind it’s there for the rest of my life, but I figured I owe him that much.

I feel like I’ve been picked up and shaken, which I suppose was pretty much what Bushnell was going for. Something to shake the world awake to the reality of what’s happening. Something to snap us out of the brainwashed and distracted stupor of western dystopia and turn our gaze to Gaza.

The sounds stay with you more than the sights. The sound of his gentle, youthful, Michael Cera-like voice as he walked toward the embassy. The sound of the round metal container he stored the accelerant in getting louder as it rolls toward the camera. The sound of Bushnell saying “Free Palestine”, then screaming it, then switching to wordless screams when the pain became too overwhelming, then forcing out one more “Free Palestine” before losing his words for good. The sound of the cop screaming at him to get on the ground over and over again. The sound of a first responder telling police to stop pointing guns at Bushnell’s burning body and go get fire extinguishers.

He remained standing for an unbelievable amount of time while he was burning. I don’t know where he got the strength to do it. He remained standing long after he’d stopped vocalizing.

Bushnell was taken to the hospital, where independent reporter Talia Jane reports that he has died. It was about as horrific a death as a human being can experience, and it was designed to be.

Shortly before his final act in this world, Bushnell posted the following 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.”

Aaron Bushnell has provided his own answer to this challenge. We’re all providing our own right now.

I would never do what Bushnell did, and I would never recommend anyone else does either. That said, I also can’t deny that his action is having its intended effect: drawing attention to the horrors that are happening in Gaza.

I know this is true because everywhere I see Aaron Bushnell being discussed online I see a massive deluge of pro-Israel trolls frantically swarming the comments in a mad rush to manipulate the narrative. They all understand how destructive it is to US and Israeli information interests for people to be seeing an international news story about a member of the US Air Force self-immolating on camera while screaming “Free Palestine”, and they are doing everything they can to mitigate that damage.

As I write this, there are with absolute certainty people digging through Bushnell’s history searching for dirt that can be spun as evidence that he was a bad person, that he was mentally ill, that he was steered astray by pro-Palestine activists and dissident media — whatever they can make stick. If they find something, literally anything, the smearmeisters and propagandists will run with it as far as they can.

That’s what they’re choosing to do at this point in history. That’s what they would have done during slavery, or the Jim Crow south, or apartheid. That’s what they’re doing while their country commits genocide right now. People are showing what they would have done with their response to Gaza, and they’re showing what they would have done with their response to the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell.

I’m not going to link to the video here; watching it is a personal decision on which you should probably do your own legwork to make sure it’s really what you want. Whether you watch it or not, it happened, just like the incineration of Gaza is happening right now. We each own our personal response to that reality. This is who we are.

Honouring Aaron Bushnell

The 21st annual Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence ceremony was held on 2 November 2024 at the Busboys and Poets Restaurant event rooms, 450 K St. NW, Washington DC. The award ceremony, in memoriam to Aaron Bushnell, was in recognition of his remarkable action in taking his own life to alert the world to the terrible crime of the US-Israeli genocide of Gaza, which has now spread to the West Bank and Lebanon.

It was hoped that US and UN officials who had spoken out and/or resigned/retired as a result of their opposition to and the deceit surrounding the ongoing genocide of Palestinians would attend as honoured guests of Sam Adams Associates. The event was sponsored by the Eisenhower Media Network.

Scott Ritter made a very powerful speech at the Sam Adams Award ceremony honouring Aaron Bushnell.

Award citation

The award citation reads:

The Sam Adams Associates are pleased to announce United States Air Force Senior Airman Aaron Bushnell as the recipient of the 2024 Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence.

Bushnell was a cyber defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He was assigned to the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing at Fort Meade in Maryland.

Senior Airman (SRA) Bushnell martyred himself when he walked up to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2024, while streaming himself as he approached, and then self-immolated in protest of what Israel is doing to Palestinians, the most extreme form of protest. He was 25 years old and had been on active duty since May 2020, according to the service.

He had stated as he approached the embassy:

“My name is Aaron Bushnell, and I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force. 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 at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”

In an earlier on-line post, later identified as from SRA Bushnell, he’d written: “I have been complicit in the violent domination of the world and I will never get the blood off my hands.”

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References

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