Aaron Bushnell, Gaza and the meaning of ‘no longer complicit’

The Take

Al Jazeera

News, Daily News, Politics, News Commentary

4.7 • 748 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2026

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Aaron Bushnell, a member of the US air force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, in an act of political protest over Israel’s war in Gaza. Bushnell livestreamed his death, saying he no longer wanted to be complicit in genocide. Two years later, how did his message resonate?

This is a story from the archives. This originally aired on February 28, 2024. None of the dates, titles or other references from that time have been changed.

In this episode:

Talia Jane (@taliaotg), Independent Journalist
Lupe Barboza, Friend of Aaron Bushnell
Archana Kaku, Assistant Professor, The College of William & Mary

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Tamara Khandaker. It was originally produced by Sonia Bhagat, Ashish Malhotra, Chloe K. Li, and our host Malika Bilal.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

Transcript

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0:00.0	Al Jazeera Podcasts.
0:07.0	Two years ago this week, a self-immolation shocked the world.
0:16.8	Aaron Bushnow, an active-duty U.S. Air Force servicemen, set himself a light at age 25.
0:23.2	In front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, he died shouting, free Palestine.
0:28.6	This week, activists commemorated his death in front of Israeli consulates in the United States.
0:34.7	Today, we're bringing you our episode from February 28th, 2024. All dates and references are from
0:40.9	that time. Today, a message of extreme protest over Israel's war on Gaza. I am an active duty
0:52.7	member of the United States Air Force.
0:55.3	Will it resonate?
0:56.6	I will no longer be complicit in genocide.
1:01.2	That's Aaron Bush now, speaking outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.
1:08.1	Moments later, he would set himself on fire, repeatedly yelling free Palestine.
1:17.3	I'm Malika Pilal, and this is the take.
1:38.7	My name is Talia Jane. I am an independent reporter covering social movements, protests. I also cover disinformation and propaganda.
1:45.8	Talia, thank you for joining us on the take. So on Sunday, you shared an image on social media that has since gone viral, and it was of an incident in Washington, D.C. that occurred in front of the Israeli embassy.
1:53.0	Walk me through what happened and how you learned about it.
2:13.6	On Sunday, I saw news beginning to circulate saying that a person had attempted to set themselves on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington. And I made a note that there had been a previous incident where a person had done the same in Atlanta, Georgia in December.
2:24.8	And soon after that, a reporter with the Atlanta Community Press Collective reached out and said to me, like, we received this, and it was a link to a Twitch channel,
2:38.1	and it had one video on it, very few views, I clicked on it, I watched it, and it became
2:46.7	clear to me that it was not someone tried to set themselves on fire. It was that they had in
2:54.5	totality. And I took a still from the video and I posted that still. It was a very early still.
3:11.1	Almost as soon as he stands upright, so then people could see the clear image of the what this was. And I stated that this was a person who chose to do
	...

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