People across the world have highlighted the bravery and sacrifice of the US active duty soldier who was protesting the genocide in Gaza<\/p>\n
On Sunday, February 25, Aaron Bushnell became the first active duty US soldier to use self-immolation to protest the actions of the military he was a part of. \u201cI\u2019m about to engage in an extreme act of protest,\u201d he said in a self-recorded livestream outside of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. \u201cBut, compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it\u2019s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.\u201d He then lit himself on fire. He later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.<\/p>\n
Before his final act of protest, Bushnell, who worked in the IT department in the US Air Force, made a post on Facebook, which read, \u201cMany of us like to ask ourselves, \u2018What 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?\u2019 The answer is, you\u2019re doing it. Right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anti-imperialist and Palestine solidarity organizations within the United States have released several statements in honor of Bushnell.<\/p>\n
Brian Becker, the Executive Director of the ANSWER Coalition, wrote in a statement released on the morning of February 26, \u201cThis was an act of martyrdom by a US service member who was outraged by the actions of a government that speaks in his name.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becker continues, \u201cAaron Bushnell\u2019s action is a reflection, an indicator, a marker, of the profound change in consciousness in the United States. The previously dominant narrative that backed the Israeli apartheid government is dramatically giving way to a narrative based on the truth: that the Palestinian people have been the victims of dispossession, ethnic cleansing, violence of all types and now a genocidal killing spree in Gaza. And people in the United States and around the world are horrified and are mobilizing on multiple fronts in support of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) also released a statement highlighting the message sent by Bushnell\u2019s protest. \u201cIn making the most extreme sacrifice a human being can in support of a moral cause \u2014 his own life \u2014 Aaron sent a message on behalf of the masses of the US and of the world, that people of conscience everywhere will refuse complicity in the unfolding genocide against the Palestinian people until our last breath,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
It concludes by saying, \u201cLet Aaron\u2019s words and last act burn brightly in our conscience, let it propel us, let it move us to continue struggling for a Free Palestine, now and until the hour of liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iraq war veteran Mike Prysner wrote a tribute to Bushnell, commenting on the crisis of conscience that many US service members face for being part of \u201can institution of killing\u201d. Prysner writes, \u201cThe torment of Israel\u2019s barbarism has been a trying time for all people with a conscience. We have all reeled for months through rage and hopelessness\u2026For Bushnell, that meant also having to put on the uniform of the institution loading the weapons\u2026providing tactical and strategic assistance to the genocide. Not only that, but one also doing the killing: conducting the air strikes on Yemen, Iraq and Syria against people we have no reason or right to kill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prysner emphasized: \u201cBushnell saw the plain truth: that he was an accomplice to all that. The truth killed him. The Pentagon brass killed him. Joe Biden and Congress killed him.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Prysner also pointed out the crucial role that soldiers and veterans have played historically in organizing against war and called on service members and veterans to take steps to protest US complicity in Israel\u2019s genocide and object to participating.<\/p>\n
No Tech for Apartheid, a campaign organized by Google and Amazon workers against the companies\u2019 contract with the Israeli government and military, released a statement highlighting the role of tech workers, like Bushnell, in opposing the genocide. \u201cArmed forces from the US to Israel employ thousands of tech workers as military operations become more and more AI-driven. These operations are also powered by tech companies like Amazon and Google, which are enabling the world\u2019s first AI-powered genocide committed by the Israeli military.\u201d The campaign called on tech workers of conscience to join the movement and refuse to be complicit in genocide.<\/p>\n
Pro-Palestine and anti-war groups have organized vigils to honor Bushnell in several cities in the US. In Washington DC, a vigil was held in front of the Israeli embassy where Bushnell carried out his action.<\/p>\n
NOW: Palestine solidarity activists hold a vigil outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC where 25 year-old U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell took his own life by self-immolation to call for an end to Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza pic.twitter.com\/MhwDD7lUXe<\/p>\n
\u2014 BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) February 26, 2024<\/p>\n
International response
\nThe weight of Bushnell\u2019s protest, the fact that an active member of the US military carried out such an extreme protest against US support of Israel\u2019s genocide, sent shockwaves around the world with \u201cWashington\u201d \u201cAaron Bushnell\u201d and his last words, \u201cFree Palestine\u201d, appearing as trending topics on X in countries across the world.<\/p>\n
Bushnell\u2019s protest was widely shared throughout Yemen, where the people have been constantly mobilizing and engaging in direct acts of solidarity with Gaza, such as the Ansar Allah movement\u2019s blockade of the Red Sea to ships linked to Israel. One X post from Yemeni doctor Ahmed Ali Alhareb reads, \u201cHe refused to be annihilated and did not stand by. Rather, he took a practical stance, ignited himself, and gave his soul to deliver the message of rejection to all corners of the globe. From his position in the American Army, he sent his message to the silent Arab and Islamic armies that the fire of this world is easier for you than the fire of the afterlife, and there is no excuse for everyone before God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leftist Palestinian resistance group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, released a statement following Bushnell\u2019s protest highlighting that it \u201cconfirms the state of anger among the American people due to the official American involvement in the zionist genocide war being waged on the Gaza Strip. It also indicates that the status of the Palestinian cause, especially in American circles, is becoming more deeply entrenched in the global conscience, and reveals the truth of the zionist entity as a cheap colonial tool in the hands of savage imperialism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many have also drawn the connection with the Israeli killing of US citizen Rachel Corrie in 2003 in Rafah when she tried to stop a bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home.<\/p>\n
At the start of Bushnell\u2019s livestream, his first words after introducing himself as an active-duty soldier are \u201cI will no longer be complicit in genocide.\u201d Many in the United States, including those who have been taking to the streets for Palestine since October 7, have come to the same conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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