SHAH ALAM - In a symbolic demonstration of support for US Air Force pilot Aaron Bushnell and Palestine, former soldiers of the US Army gathered in Portland to burn their official military uniforms.
In a circulating 32-second video on the internet, former US soldiers were seen discarding their military uniforms into a flaming metal trash can.
Passionately and aggressively expressing their dissatisfaction with the conflict in Gaza, they were seen repeatedly chanting 'Remember Aaron Bushnell' and 'He is not alone,' alongside other protesters in Portland.
The protest was described as a powerful display of solidarity amid the ongoing conflict, as veterans participated in burning their military attire during a protest organised by veterans against the war.
The protest was held in honour of Bushnell's spirit, outside the Zionist Consulate in Los Angeles, California.
On Feb 25, Bushnell made headlines all around the world when he self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington on a Sunday afternoon, protesting against US support for aggression against Gaza.
In the hours preceding his self-immolation, Bushnell shared a Twitch link on his Facebook page accompanied by a caption that pondered the response to historical atrocities, linking them to present-day circumstances.
"Many of us like to ask ourselves, what would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?
‘The answer is, you are doing it. Right now,” he wrote.
Shortly before 1pm on Sunday, he commenced a livestream as he made his way toward the Israeli Embassy, carrying an insulated water bottle filled with flammable liquid.
"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 colonisers, it is not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal," he said in the video.
Placing his phone on the ground, Bushnell approached the embassy gates and drenched himself in the liquid from the bottle before setting himself ablaze, shouting, "Free Palestine".
As Bushnell screamed in pain, a law-enforcement officer off-camera yells at him to "get on the ground.”
A second officer yelled at the first: "I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers.”
By the time Fire and EMS arrived on the scene, the fire had been put out and Bushnell had succumbed to his injuries.