Hundreds mourn anti-war US airman Bushnell
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.