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Ghoulish Media Praise ‘Humanity’ of Man Who Set Himself On Fire Outside Israeli Embassy

An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

The death of active-duty US serviceman Aaron Bushnell, who killed himself by self-immolation outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C., was met with a profoundly unsettling response.

Bushnell, 25, live-streamed his death on the broadcasting website Twitch, filming himself saying: “I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force. And I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers — it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”

Outside the embassy, he put his camera on the ground, poured an accelerant over himself, set himself ablaze, and shouted, “Free Palestine!” until he collapsed.

Bushnell was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Shortly after his identity was confirmed, details about Bushnell’s disturbing views emerged.

A review of his social media profiles found that he held extreme anarchist views and had posted numerous anti-Israel comments online, including one in which he seemingly condoned the October 7 Hamas massacre in which scores of Israeli civilians were raped, tortured, and murdered.

According to posts seen by the ADL, Bushnell posted on Reddit earlier this month: “Israel is a white supremacist, ethnonationalist, settler-colonial apartheid state … it has no right to exist.”

In October 2023, he wrote: “Can you or I really say that Indigenous people are wrong for retaliating against colonizers who are rubbing their domination in their face?”

Worryingly, however, Bushnell’s warped and antisemitic views that led him to set himself alight in front of horrified bystanders have not stopped some high-profile journalists from lionizing him.

The Guardian published an op-ed four days after Bushnell’s death — more than a day after his social media history was uncovered — in which he is described as a “person of such profound commitment and depth of feeling” who “could be much more useful to the world alive than dead.”

Written by Moira Donegan, the headline of the piece laments what she deems the “loss” to society that is Bushnell’s death.

Sickeningly, Donegan scorns commentators who rightfully questioned the state of Bushnell’s mental health before he killed himself. Such questioning, she contends, should be extended to Israel and its “insane” war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

It is insanity (apparently) to wage war against a genocidal terrorist group that slaughtered and kidnapped more than 1,200 Israelis — but, we must assume, it is not insane to douse yourself in gasoline in the middle of the street in protest of a war happening 6,000 miles away.

Even worse, Donegan states it would be wrong to question what “struggles” led to Bushnell’s suicide because it is “the wrong question to ask, a way to avoid confrontation with the stated meaning of Bushnell’s self-immolation: that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza, one that is only possible with US money and US support, and that this moral catastrophe implicates all Americans in complicity.”

Of course, the article ignores that Bushnell had defended the Hamas massacre, which presumably would make him seem less heroic.

Later in the piece, Donegan suggests that “the [political] left,” which is used as a synonym for pro-Palestinians, is a “much less violent group” than the right.

Publicly-available hate crime statistics, however, tell a different story.

Antisemitism has surged globally, with almost daily reports of Jews being physically assaulted, synagogues attacked, and antisemitic graffiti sprayed in public spaces.

The pro-Palestinian marches that have taken place in major cities all over the world have also featured antisemitism.

Donegan isn’t alone in her praise of Bushnell.

Fellow Guardian opinion writer Owen Jones, who previously cast doubt on whether Hamas terrorists carried out rapes or intentionally killed children during the October 7 invasion, posted online that Bushnell died “because he had too much humanity for a world run by people who don’t have any.”

Aaron Bushnell died because he had too much humanity for a world run by people who don’t have any https://t.co/9WcyjBUH0v

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) February 27, 2024

For the likes of Jones, it is a mark of one’s “humanity” to justify the rape and slaughter of Jews, as Bushnell did.

Others who also suggested Bushnell’s actions were in some way laudable included Hamas, which praised him as a “heroic pilot” and The Nation’s “Palestine correspondent,” Mohammed El-Kurd, who has defended violent actions such as plane hijackings and throwing Molotov cocktails.

Aaron Bushnell’s death is a tragedy — but not for the reasons the likes of Moira Donegan and Owen Jones believe.

No, the tragedy is that he was so radicalized to hate Israel that he ended up doing the unthinkable and took his own life in such a gruesome and public manner.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The post Ghoulish Media Praise ‘Humanity’ of Man Who Set Himself On Fire Outside Israeli Embassy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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