February 26, 2024

Statement on the self immolation of Aaron Bushnell

On February 25th, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25 year old active duty member of the US military, self-immolated outside the Zionist embassy in Washington, D.C. Aaron lit himself ablaze in protest of the United States’ ongoing complicity in the genocide on Gaza. In making the most extreme sacrifice a human being can in support of a moral cause — his own life — 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.

While US media is already spinning the story as one of a mentally ill, troubled youth, Aaron’s own message in the seconds prior to his act demonstrate the moral clarity and foresight with which he pondered and ultimately decided upon his act. Aaron is now the second person to self-immolate in protest of the US-backed genocide on Gaza, the first being a woman in Atlanta who lit herself on fire outside the Zionist consulate in Atlanta, Georgia.

There is perhaps no metaphor more powerful for US empire than the response of police at the scene. Instead of running to put out the flames with fire extinguishers and save Aaron’s life, cops drew their weapons and pointed them directly at Aaron as he stood burning to death. What threat did the police see in a young man on fire, incapable of doing anything but shouting “Free Palestine” until the pain prevented him from shouting any longer? They saw something alien to them, alien to the logic and machinery of US empire: self-sacrifice for a cause greater than one’s own life.

The word for martyr in Arabic, “shaheed,” translates to “witness,” or one whose final moment in life is as a witness to injustice. Aaron Bushnell is a martyr, whose final moment was spent in the heat of one naked, unflinching truth: the moral conscience of every human being, from the belly of the beast to the farthest reaches of the Earth, demands immediate attention and action to end the horrors before us.

Let Aaron’s 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.