‘SACRIFICED EVERYTHING’

Palestinian Town Names Street After U.S. Soldier Who Self-Immolated

The 25-year-old U.S. soldier died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. last month.

Jericho, the West Bank city under control of the Palestinian Authority, on Sunday unveiled a road named after the U.S. soldier whose February self-immolation in protest of the war in Gaza drew international headlines. “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],” Jericho Mayor Abdul Karim Sidr said at a ceremony commemorating the new Aaron Bushnell Street, according to The Guardian, adding that the 25-year-old had “sacrificed everything.” Bushnell died on Feb. 25, about seven hours after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. Before igniting himself, Bushnell identified himself as an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force and declared he would “no longer be complicit to genocide.” He repeatedly shouted “Free Palestine!” as he burned. “He [Bushnell] sacrificed the most precious thing, whatever your beliefs,” Amani Rayan, a Jericho city council member, told The Guardian. “This man gave all his privileges for the children of Gaza.”