WASHINGTON, (PIC)
In the American state of Massachusetts, a man set himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Boston last Wednesday, 11 September, in protest at the US support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The man was rushed to hospital with serious burns, but there is still no information about his health condition.
A video disclosing his identity was circulated on the internet on Friday.
“My name is Matt Nelson and I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he said in a clip explaining his motive.
“We are slaves to capitalism and the military industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care. The protest I’m about to engage in is a call to our government to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza, and to support the ICC indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government,” Nelson said in the video.
“A democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interests of the wealthy. Take the power back. Free Palestine,” he added.
To date, there have been three known acts of self-immolation in the US since October 7, 2023 — all in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza and the American financial and military support for what the UN calls “acts of genocide.”
In December 2023, an unnamed woman in Atlanta, Georgia, set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate while carrying a Palestinian flag.
In February of the current year, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the US Air Force, self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. His act was livestreamed on Twitch, and the widely-shared video marked a turning point that galvanized the movement calling for a ceasefire.
