Serviceman said he would ‘no longer be complicit in genocide’ in video shot outside Israeli embassy in Washington
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An active duty member of the US Air Force has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, a military official told media on Monday.
“My name is Aaron Bushnell. I’m an active duty member of the United States Air Force,” the man said in a video he recorded of himself just before he set himself on fire.
“I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” he said, in the video seen by media, and shared by an American journalist, Talia Jane.
As he walked towards the embassy, Mr Bushnell said he was about to engage in an “extreme act of protest” before setting his camera down, pouring a liquid substance over his head and lighting himself on fire.
In the video, first responders could be seen scrambling to put out the fire, with one officer repeatedly calling for a fire extinguisher.
Responders attended to a call reporting a man was on fire shortly before 1pm on Sunday, the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department confirmed to media.
By the time the emergency services arrived, the fire had already been put out by Secret Service officers.
Mr Bushnell was taken to a local hospital with “critical, life-threatening injuries”, a representative of the fire department said, but later succumbed to his injuries.
“It certainly is a tragic event,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder said on Monday. “We do extend our condolences to the airman’s family.”
According to a profile on LinkedIn that matched Mr Bushnell’s description, the solider was based in San Antonio, Texas, and was an “aspiring software engineer”
His profile said he had been in the Air Force since 2020.
After not posting anything on Facebook since 2018, Mr Bushnell made a post on the social media site in which he included a link to a live video feed of his protest.
“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?’” Mr Bushnell wrote in the post.
“The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”
Outside the embassy, police officers secured the area and scoured the ground for evidence hours after the incident occurred.
Officers cordoned off the scene and police vehicles blocked both entrances to the street where the embassy is located in the Cleveland Park neighbourhood.
Metropolitan Police said the bomb squad had been called to the scene “in reference to a suspicious vehicle that may be connected to the individual”.
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