Aaron Bushnell, who died last month, ‘sacrificed everything’ for Palestinians, says mayor of Jericho
A few of the initial paragraphs for context follow - but the article is worth reading fully:
The Palestinian town of Jericho has named a street after Aaron Bushnell, the US air force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest against the war in Gaza.
The 25-year-old, who died on 25 February, “sacrificed everything” for Palestinians, said the mayor of Jericho, Abdul Karim Sidr, as the street sign was unveiled on Sunday.
“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],” the mayor told a small crowd gathered on the new Aaron Bushnell Road.
Bushnell livestreamed his self-immolation on the social media platform Twitch, declaring he would “no longer be complicit in genocide” and shouting “free Palestine” as he started the fire. Law enforcement officials put out the flames, but he died in hospital several hours later.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 31,000 people, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The war was triggered by the cross border attack on 7 October when Hamas killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 250 people.
Even as governments in Europe and the US have largely continued to back Israel’s campaign in Gaza as part of the country’s right to self-defence, Palestinians have taken heart from popular protests held from Michigan to Madrid.
You know this article pissed me off with the self-immolation bit.
Self Immolation in protest couldn’t be from preexisting mental illness. He clearly was emotionally impacted by his experience in the environment enough that his rational brain thought that by assuming such agonizing pain and stating the protest, the message would get heard a squeak louder.
Suicidal people don’t think rationally. They want the pain to end. Or they become wildly careless. They don’t sit there and go "how do I accomplish some good and end my suffering " while selecting the second worst way to die.
While I 100% agree with your interpretation in this case, I’m sure we can agree that “mentally ill person setting themselves on fire because the voices in their head told them too” is a plausible scenario. Self-immolation itself can absolutely be mental illness.
This was not mental illness.
You won’t ever know if it was or wasn’t a mental illness and stating it as fact that it wasn’t is about as misguided as the press calling it 100% a mental illness.
The thing about a mental illness is it’s not always visible, not always curable. There is a tiny red line that stands between a person killing themselves in protest, and because of a mental illness.
I agree with most of your comment, but when I was suicidal I absolutely was looking for ways to achieve something good through my death.
What’s the first worst?
Drowning by far.
I only took a small amount of marsh water in, but Jesus Christ, the panick is unbelievable. You can’t get rid of what’s in there and you use up whatever is in your blood so quickly. Also the water fucking hurts like a mother fucker. And if you survive. Like I did, I got pretty bad pneumonia from it.
Horrible.
Probably Starvation, because of the whole “body slowly eating iitself up” thing.
You know, the way Israel (with, lets never forget, the unwavering support of the US and Germany) is killing children in Gaza.