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US Soldier Sets Himself on Fire outside Israeli Embassy in Washington to Protest Gaza War (www.news18.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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“I will no longer be complicit in genocide [in Gaza]. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” the man apparently said before setting himself alight and repeatedly shouting “Free Palestine!”

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Self immolation as a form of protest. For anyone unaware of it there was a Buddhist monk who immolated themself to protest the oppression of Buddhists by the Catholic PM of Vietnam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_Against_the_Machine_%28album%29

https://time.com/3791176/malcolm-browne-the-story-behind-the-burning-monk/

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago

"Arab Spring" started with a immolation.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

For anyone unaware - it happened at least 160 times since 2009 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_protests_by_Tibetans_in_China

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_self-immolations

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

What really shocked me about this list is that Aaron was apparently already the 23rd person to do so SINCE THE START OF 2020, meaning there's roughly been one person setting themselves on fire every other month or so, and I don't think I've even HEARD of any of the other ones.

And not all of them happened in foreign countries either. In fact, apparently someone did the very same thing in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta a mere 3 months ago and I don't even remember hearing about it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Yes, I didn't even know it happened in my own country of Poland. I would blame news and TV but I don't even watch TV, and so much article titles sounds like clickbait I usually refuse to even check them. So I guess I can blame the news for the insulting clickbait tactics.