Aaron Bushnell, who died last month, ‘sacrificed everything’ for Palestinians, says mayor of Jericho

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.

  • wathek@discuss.onlineEnglish
    104·
    8 months ago

    People dying because of border fuckery again, dude set himself on fire and we here unironically talking about the correct way to name a profession. Time and a place, person. this aint it.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.mlEnglish
      59·
      8 months ago

      I’m not the one that started this cringe reddit-style correction thread, as far as I’m concerned all soldiers are the same, but I’m sure as fuck not going to let shit like “airman is already the gender neutral term” go unchallenged because it very obviously isn’t.

      This is a comments section. None of this matters. This is exactly the time and place to talk about this. 🙄

      • spacesatan@lemm.eeEnglish
        31·
        8 months ago

        Except the US Airforce uses it as a gender neutral title, which is extremely relevant when the subtext is you’re talking about whether you’re misgendering an almost certainly closeted trans person by calling them “airman”.

        I should have said “as a title used by the airforce” but I figured that was implied.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.mlEnglish
          24·
          8 months ago

          I don’t think I care what the US Air Force calls people. The meaning of words is socially constructed, just like gender, and our society constructs “-man” as a gendered suffix. Male-as-default should be fought wherever it arises, even when the official government policy says otherwise.

          Maybe especially when the government says otherwise, and Bushnell being trans (the evidence is certainly compelling) just makes this more important.

          • spacesatan@lemm.eeEnglish
            41·
            8 months ago

            I don’t think I care what the US Air Force calls people.

            Then you don’t care about what’s being talked about. If Bushnell was a cis woman she would still be Airman Bushnell and it’s not misgendering.

      • wathek@discuss.onlineEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        Nobody denies that women can do professions, short of the furthest right extremists, nobody disagrees with that. And nobody takes those guys seriously.

        You know what the moderate right does take seriously? The idea that the left wants to make everything “woke” with things that negatively affect them and forces them to use “political speak”, which is precisely what pushes people into the right wing dumpsterfire.

        Like it was a cute idea 10 years ago, it backfired, please stop.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.mlEnglish
          04·
          8 months ago

          lol no one is becoming a fascist because we ask them to say mail carrier instead of mailman 🙄

          And you know what makes women feel alienated? Being called men. Do we matter?