Daily Times

A U.S. Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy here “in an apparent protest” against the Israeli raids on Gaza died in a hospital late Sunday.

The airman was identified by police as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell from San Antonio, Texas, and confirmed on active duty by an Air Force spokesperson Monday.

People gathered Monday evening for his vigil in front of the embassy gate with candles and posters.

According to ABC News, an account on Amazon-owned platform Twitch started a livestream around 1 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) Sunday, showing Bushnell dressed in camouflage fatigues and walking up to the embassy gate before pouring flammable liquid from a bottle and setting himself on fire.

“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 prior to setting himself on fire.

The District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Department responded to a call for fire outside the Israeli embassy in Northwestern Washington just before 1 p.m. local time Sunday, and arrived at the scene after the flames had been extinguished, according to statements from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and EMS Department.

The Israeli embassy released a statement saying the man was “unknown” to embassy staff and no embassy workers were injured in the incident.

According to The New York Times, the video was deleted from Twitch on Sunday afternoon, replaced by a message saying that the channel violated the platform’s guidelines. It is yet still available on other social media platforms including X, Facebook, and Instagram.

NBC reported a similar incident on Dec. 1, 2023, when a woman wrapped in a Palestinian flag set herself on fire in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Georgia, in what police said was “likely an extreme act of political protest.”

An Al Jazeera opinion piece published Monday criticized U.S. corporate media for a “diluted and decontextualized” report of Bushnell’s self-immolation, including framing his protest as violating U.S. military regulations.

Such titles include The New York Times’ “Man Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in Washington, Air Force Says”, Politico’s “Air Force member dies after setting himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy”, CNN’s “US airman sets himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy in Washington” (updated Sunday 9:12 p.m. EST, 0212 GMT Monday).

The Washington Post has changed their Bushnell story title from “Who was Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. airman who set himself on fire?” in the update Monday 8:16 p.m. EST (0116 GMT Tuesday) to “Airman who set self on fire grew up on religious compound, had anarchist past” two hours later.