U.S. Air Force servicemember, Aaron Bushnell, 25, set himself on fire in an act of protest against Israel's U.S.-backed genocide of Palestine on Sunday outside of the Israeli embassy. Bushnell died of his injuries on Sunday.
"I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I'm about to engage in a extreme act of protest. Compared to what the people in Palestine have been experiencing at the hands of their colonizers...it's not extreme at all," Bushnell said.
A video of Bushnell committing suicide in protest against the U.S. military's backing of Israel's genocide in Gaza against the Palestinians circulated the internet on Sunday. Few, if any, media outlets have covered the story as of Monday morning.
Despite the fact that Bushnell was burning alive, an armed security officer with the Israeli embassy brandished and pointed his firearm at the U.S. Air Force servicemember.
Bushnell described himself as an "aspiring software engineer with educational and work experience in software development and Linux system administration, looking for SkillBridge programs to transition out of the US Air Force into software engineering."
Bushnell's final post on social media dealt with the topic of apartheid.
"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."
Hip-hop musician, Lowkey, commented on the behavior of the Israel security agent.
"As people rushed to try and save his life, an Israeli embassy agent held a gun fixed on Aaron Bushnell following his self-immolation," Lowkey said.
A July 2o23 article by the MilitaryTimes stated that suicide statistics for the military increased, and the Army saw the highest spike in deaths.
The fallout and implications from this political act will likely compound with time, and this story is itself a tragic waypoint in American political history.