The West Bank city of Jericho announced on Facebook on Monday that they had named a street after Aaron Bushnell, the US Air Force serviceman who set himself on fire as a reported act of protest for "Palestine."
"The American pilot Aaron Boshnail, who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington in solidarity with Palestine and in rejection of his country's support for Israel, had a street in Jericho named after him," the municipality wrote on Facebook in Arabic.
“We didn’t know him, and he didn’t know us. There were no social, economic or political ties between us. What we share is a love for freedom and a desire to stand against these attacks [on Gaza]...[Bushnell] wanted to light a strong spark, to reignite our cause,” Mayor Abdul Karim Sidr told a small crowd gathered at the opening, according to the Guardian.
City Council Member Amani Rayan, who is originally from Gaza, told the source “He [Bushnell] sacrificed the most precious thing, whatever your beliefs. This man gave all his privileges for the children of Gaza."
Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation
Bushnell, 25, set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC in February.
“I am an active duty member of the US Air Force,” he was recorded saying before setting himself alight, “and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people in Palestine have been experiencing at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all."
“This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal,” he added, before shouting "Free Palestine" and ignighting himself.
Bushnell, who livestreamed his immolation online, had made several extreme posts about Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL.)
“Israel is a white supremacist, ethnonationalist, settler-colonial apartheid state… it has no right to exist,” Bushnell Published on Reddit on February 3, 2024.
The ADL, while citing unofficial channels, reported that the terrorist groups Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had expressed condolences and "full solidarity" to Bushnell's family.
“The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden bears full responsibility for the death of the American military pilot Aaron Bushnell due to its policy that supported the Nazi zionist [sic] entity in the genocide war against our Palestinian people… The heroic pilot Aaron Bushnell will remain immortal in the memory of our Palestinian people and the free people of the world, and a symbol of the spirit of global humanitarian solidarity with our people and their just cause,” Hamas reportedly said.
Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei shared support for the deceased serviceman, writing on his X account, "The West’s disgraceful antihuman policies with regard to the genocide in Gaza have reached such a point that a US military officer sets himself on fire. #AaronBushnell"
The West’s disgraceful antihuman policies with regard to the genocide in Gaza have reached such a point that a US military officer sets himself on fire. #AaronBushnell
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 28, 2024
"The genocide in Gaza is even too much for that young person who was brought up in the Western culture. His conscience was hurting, and he set himself on fire. #AaronBushnell"
The genocide in Gaza is even too much for that young person who was brought up in the Western culture. His conscience was hurting and he set himself on fire. #AaronBushnell
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 28, 2024