New Yorker MagazineOn Sunday afternoon [Feb. 25] outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., 25-year-old Air Force service member Aaron Bushnell placed his phone on the ground to set up a livestream.
He then stood before the embassy gates and lit himself on fire while shouting “Free Palestine” in a horrific protest against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Below is everything we know about Bushnell, who died from his wounds on Sunday night.
Aaron Bushnell’s background
Bushnell was a 25-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force stationed at the Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio and originally from Whitman, Massachusetts. He joined the Air Force as an active-duty member in May 2020 and has since worked in information technology and development operations. On his LinkedIn page, Bushnell wrote that he was looking to “transition out of the US Air Force into software engineering.” In a statement on Monday, the Air Force stated that he was a cyber-defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron.
Bushnell grew up in a religious group on Cape Cod called the Community of Jesus, whose former members have come forward alleging abuse and a rigid social structure. According to a family friend and former Community of Jesus member who spoke with the Washington Post, he was raised in a religious compound in Orleans associated with the group. The friend told the Post that young people in the Community of Jesus often join the military, moving from “one high-control group to another high-control group.”
For the balance of this article, please go here.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Just a reminder, y’all, Rachel Aliene Corrie, April 10, 1979-March 16, 2003,
crushed by an armored Israeli bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza strip.