Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy

Aaron Bushnell’s Agonies

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In late February, a 25-year-old Air Force servicemember named Aaron Bushnell lit himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy, shouting “Free Palestine” as he burned to death. The act turned him into a global icon and a martyr for the antiwar movement. What led him to such extremes of devotion that he would self-immolate? New York’s Simon van Zuylen-Wood has been reporting on Bushnell’s life for months, and what he found is astonishing. He’s written a masterfully constructed profile that reveals Bushnell’s upbringing in a Cape Cod sect called the Community of Jesus and shows how it shaped his worldview. This is the definitive portrait of a thoughtful, haunted young man who was just starting to figure himself out at the moment he sacrificed his life for a cause.

—Nick Summers, features editor, New York

Aaron Bushnell’s Agonies At 25, he burned himself to death to protest the war in Gaza. What led him to such an extreme act?

Photo: Stuart Rowe
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Categories: Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Culture Wars/Current Controversies

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