American military Aaron Bushnell burned himself at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, shouting “Freedom Palestine!”

He spent his childhood in a conservative Christian community. And then became interested in left -handed ideas

On the evening of February 25, 25-year-old US military soldier Aaron Bushnell, dressed in the form of the Air Force, came to the Israeli embassy in Washington, doused himself with flammable liquid and set fire to the scream of “Freedom Palestine!” He broadcast self -immolation on the Twitch platform (later this video was deleted). Before setting himself up, Bushnell said that "he would no longer participate in the genocide."

Police and fire extinguishers rushed to Bushnell to bring down the fire. When they ran up, the military was still alive. Bushnella was taken to the hospital, and the next day he died.

His act of protest, Bushnell, as the story that told his story writes his story, thoroughly planned. A few hours before, he sent a letter to news agencies with the theme “Against Genocide”, in which there was a link to the site where the video later appeared. “I ask you to make sure that the footage is preserved and informed about it,” the letter said. In addition, shortly before self -immolation, Bushnell sent his friend a will about the distribution of his property.

Aaron Bushnell grew up in the Christian community in Massachusetts on the Cape Code Peninsula in the east of the state. Alain with him since childhood, Ashley Shuman, says that they attended a public school and in adolescence suffered "because of high expectations and tough restrictions imposed by the leaders of the community."

In the summer of 2016, after graduating from high school, the community students went to Israel to visit historical biblical places. They visited the western coast of Jordan and in Bethlehem, where they talked with students of the Catholic College. Schumann could not recall some significant discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to her, this trip "meant a lot for each participant."

The rules of the community in which Bushnell grew up, suggest that its members can pass a “promotion system” and subsequently achieve status, which allows to accept a vow of “life for life”. However, Bushnell, after graduation from school in 2019, decided to leave the community, and in May 2020 he entered military service in the US Air Force. He became a specialist in cyber protection operations in the 531st squadron on a military base in San Antonio in Texas.

Ashley Shuman, who also left the community, says that at first they were regularly called up. According to her, Bushnell seemed tense and said that he was spending a lot of time at the computer. She notes that he began to worry the problems of the homeless: once he told how he sent a significant amount of money to a woman from another state, who claimed that she had lost the house. He himself, according to Schuman, did not even meet with her.

Another Bushnell friend also heard complaints about his work in the Air Force due to a shift schedule and lack of sleep. In addition, according to him, Bushnell from time to time spoke of his disagreements with the US military regarding past conflicts - invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Other friends of Bushnella say that in recent years he has increasingly moved away from his conservative education and from a military career, plunging into “left activism”, and often talked about the fight against poverty and capitalism.

In November 2022, Bushnell went on a short vacation in Hawaii with his younger brother, and having returned to Texas, joined the group called "collective care of San Antonio." Members of this group organized weekly visits to camps for the homeless. Bushnella, as one of the group members, 32-year-old Lupa Barbosa, has developed “deep friendships” with people living in the camps, whom he regularly bought blankets, sweaters and snacks in the store.

He himself, according to her, told her that his political views had changed dramatically. “He said that he seemed to cross from one extreme - conservative beliefs with which he grew up to the opposite, becoming anarchist, anti -imperialist values,” says Barbosa. According to Bushnell, as Barboza recalls, this shift occurred very quickly shortly after the start of his service in the army.

However, then Bushnell told the members of the “collective care of San Antonio” that he was forced to take a break because “dealing with an injury from his past,” says Barbosa. Nevertheless, he maintained contact with many friends in the group, and, according to her, he was looking forward to the opportunity to quit the army.

At the end of 2023, Bushnell decided to move to Ohio to take part in the Skillbridge program, which allows the military, finishing service, to receive payment during training or work in private companies. His friends organized an evening for him in Karaoke. In the profile, on his page on the LinkedIn social network, Bushnell stated that “it is truly passionate about writing software” and is looking forward to the moment when he could “contribute to the implementation of innovation”. During the service in the army, as Bushnell wrote, he "succeeded in working in the team and acquired very good communicative skills."

In February, before going to the Israeli embassy, ​​Bushnell wrote a short post on Facebook. “Many of us love to ask ourselves:“ What would I do if I lived during slavery? Or [during] Jim Crowe in the south? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country made genocide? The answer is that you are doing this. Right now, ”the post said.

Lupa Barbosa, who saw the will of Bushnell after his self -immolation, says that judging by him, he "knew what he was doing." According to her, Bushnell took all the necessary steps to make sure that he has everything that he has, will take care - for example, about his cat, which he entrusted to the neighbor.

Another participant in the community in Massachusetts, 59-year-old Susan Wilkins, who lived there for more than 30 years, suggests that Aaron lacked adequate support in the process of "moving to a less structured world." “If you have grown in a rather limited environment, the anarchy has its advantages,” says Wilkins.

Pentagon spokeswoman Major General Patrick Ryder called Bushnell’s death “an unconditionally tragic event”, adding that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “monitors the situation”.