Lest we forget. On 25 February last year, Aaron Bushnell, a 25 year-old active duty US serviceman, self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. His last words on this Earth, as the fire consumed him, were: “Free Palestine!”

Earlier that day, Aaron posed on X what I am sure will become a historic question re-posed for generations to come:

“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’re doing it. Right now.”

I will never forget the photos of the smiling, obviously sweet young man I looked at, in contrast to the same young man, in the combat dress of a US serviceman, dousing himself in fuel and setting himself ablaze. How do I contrast that level of commitment with the yawning indifference to genocide I have witnessed so often over the course of the past 16 months? How do I contrast that commitment with politicians calling for more defence force funding without calling for a rupture in our military engagement with Israel or the total diplomatic and economic isolation of the racist, genocidal state of Israel?

When I was a child, 82-year-old Quaker........

© Pearls and Irritations