Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on Monday to mourn the US airman who died after setting himself on fire in protest of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Many hoped that the death of Aaron Bushnell, 25, an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force, would spark change in U.S. President Joe Biden’s hitherto unwavering support for the war.
Leah, a Palestinian American who declined to provide her last name, told Anadolu Agency that she believed it was important for her to attend the vigil “to show solidarity and support with those who are taking extreme acts of resistance that shows their solidarity and support with Palestine and our people.”
Asked if she believed Bushnell’s death would change the course of the war, she said, “That’s the hope.”
Bushnell set himself ablaze in front of Israel’s embassy on Sunday afternoon in protest of its ongoing war in the besieged Gaza Strip and U.S. support for the offensive. He was taken to a hospital but died from the injuries he sustained.
“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,” Bushnell said in a video recording that went viral on social media.
Bushnell can repeatedly be heard shouting “Free Palestine!” as flames engulf him before he collapses to the ground.
A Secret Service officer estimated that “at its peak,” the vigil mourning his death attracted over 300 people. The gathering lasted for over three hours with an average of over 100 people there at any given point.
Josephine Guilbeau, a former Army intelligence officer, told Anadolu that she flew out from Ohio for the vigil because she believed Bushnell’s “death cannot be in vain.”
“His message needs to get out. And we also need to make sure that we are supporting anybody else that’s like Aaron, that’s having these same feelings, because how are we supposed to deal with a genocide?” she asked rhetorically.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before in our lives, and our government just expects that the American people are going to watch this unfold for five months now, and there aren’t going to be any mental issues. Of course, there’s mental issues across the board. Anybody with access to the Internet is watching a genocide unfold in the modern day,” added Guilbeau.
Jenny Rosemary, a 22-year-old resident of Annandale, Virginia, said Bushnell’s fatal protest “was an extreme act, but an act of morality.”
“I think we should all hope to be that brave,” Rosemary said. “I think to get to this point, it’s taken a lot of ignorance on behalf of the U.S. government …They can’t have missed all the videos of people suffering and the deaths, you know, but I’d like to think that one of their own kind, you know, someone who’s in the military, that hopefully will change something.”
‘Tragic event’
Earlier Monday, the Air Force confirmed the passing of Senior Airman Bushnell, 25, a cyber defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron.
“When a tragedy like this occurs, every member of the Air Force feels it,” U.S. Air Force Colonel Celina Noyes said in the statement.
“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.”
Officer Lee Lepe, a spokesperson for the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, also confirmed the death.
The Pentagon said the death was a “tragic event” and that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was following the situation.
“We express our heartfelt condolences and full solidarity with the family and friends of the American pilot Aaron Bushnell, who immortalized his name as a defender of human values and the plight of the Palestinian people, who are oppressed by the American administration and its unjust policies,” Hamas said in a post on Telegram Messenger.
The incident comes amid ongoing pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests in the U.S. following the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that killed 1,160 Israelis and seized 253 hostages.
Israeli forces then launched a military campaign on Gaza, destroying much of the coastal enclave and killing nearly 30,000 people.
Israel’s embassies have drawn continued protest against the war. In December, a woman protesting the war set herself on fire outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta.
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