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.
In America the Democrats are considered “liberal” as they adopt left policies when they become too popular to ignore. Some examples :
Black rights(MLK, Malcolm X), Vietnam war, Iraq, Afghanistan.
When they happened and you spoke out, liberals would ridicule you. “No America wouldn’t commit war crimes in Iraq they are the terrorists and we’re the heroes”!
Now the same is happening for israel which are clearly committing a Genocide yet the liberals are frantically supporting it. When you say “stop doing Nazi shit” they look at you like you’re the crazy one. Now public opinion is shifting so hard they are starting to turn and will pretend they were on the “correct side” all along
Liberals were pushing back against all of the “leftie” policies until public opinion shifted so far that they decided to jump ship for voters.
Once again, the definition in your social circles which are commonplace here on Lemmy directly contradict the actual definition of the political stance.
You can thank (American) politics for that. Where left is right and right is extreme right. Terms get hijacked by everyone until they lose their meaning.
In fact most Western countries with “liberal” parties still support israel.
What is still in line with the definition is that liberals accept policies from the progressives once they become popular enough to win votes with. Liberals are against thing until it becomes unpopular to be against thing.
Only 9 countries opposed the UN Resolution on Gaza in December:
Austria Czechia Guatemala Liberia Micronesia Nauru Papua New Guinea Paraguay USAYes because it started becoming severely unpopular. Check how many were opposing it before that.
Also many countries such as Germany and Canada are still sending israel weapons for Genocide.
Cool so we agreed you lied.
Sending weapons to a country actively committing Genocide does mean they support them.
Voting for a ceasefire full well knowing the US will veto it changes nothing.
Don’t forget marriage equality. It was Bill Clinton who championed the Defense of Marriage Act and signed it into law.
People have forgotten that Bill Clinton won his second term by championing himself as having the best aspects of the Democrats and the Republicans (basically he called himself the Hannah Montana of politics) and Hillary Clinton believed abortion was a states’ right issue (the mess we have today).