Soldier's suicide in protest of Israel stirs debate, misses meaning

A U.S. soldier committed suicide Sunday outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. to protest the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Aaron Bushnell, 25, set himself on fire while live streaming, stating he was committing an “extreme form of protest” so as not to be complicit in Israel’s continued assault on citizens in Palestine.

Bushnell’s act of resistance sparked debate about suicide, mental health, and protest. 

The media coverage should put all of America to shame.

The New York Times, TIME, the Washington Post – indeed most of the pre-eminent media companies in America wrote stories and headlines evading Bushnell’s explicitly-stated intent.

While the majority of people who commit suicide may suffer from mental illness, the same argument could be made of mass shooters to dismiss their political and religious motivations. Suicide as an act of protest is viewed differently throughout the world, but most Western nations condemn the practice outright.

Protest by suicide is not a simple mental health issue. A person can be mentally ill and their suicide still a deliberate and informed act of protest. A person can be made ill and depressed by the conditions they are protesting, as well.

Valery Legasov committed suicide on the two-year anniversary of the Chernobyl incident to force the USSR to deal with its unsafe nuclear reactors. He was depressed with the world, ill from exposure to deadly levels of radiation exposure, and was being targeted for his outspokenness. However, his decision to die was a deliberate, informed act, meant to force the world to pay attention and take action. It worked.