Areeha,  an occupied West Bank city in Palestine, has named a street in dedication to Aaron Bushnell, the 25-year-old US Air Force member who set himself on fire on February 25 outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in protest of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. 

We share a love of freedom: Areeha mayor 

The mayor of Areeha, Abdul Karim Sidr, during the reveal of the sign on March 10, stated that Aaron has "sacrificed everything" for Palestinians.

Speaking to a group of people on Aaron Bushnell Street, he declared, “We didn’t know him, and he didn’t know us. There were no social, economic, or political ties between us. What we share is a love for freedom and a desire to stand against these attacks [on Gaza]."

As Areeha named the street two weeks after Bushnell's death, the mayor emphasized, “We made a quick decision so we would be first."

It is noteworthy that Areeha previously named a square in dedication to South Africa after the latter filed a lawsuit against "Israel" in the International Court of Justice over its ongoing genocide in Gaza. 

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“These names will focus the attention of both the locals and visitors,” Sidr added, stressing that they were following the previously set precedent, as Ramallah named a street after Rachel Corrie, following her murder by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to stop the IOF from demolishing houses of Palestinians. 

'Despite the pain, he shouted Free Palestine'

A 19-year-old Areeha city council member who has lived in Gaza but later relocated to the occupied West Bank to study, Amani Rayan, said, "He [Bushnell] sacrificed the most precious thing, whatever your beliefs. This man gave all his privileges for the children of Gaza."

As critics in the US condemned Bushnell's protest attempting to pin it on a mental illness, Rayan denounced this argument stressing, "He was a soldier who with his last breath, despite the pain, shouted ‘free Palestine’. This means he was clear to the depths of his being about why he was doing it."

Several members of Rayan's family are still stuck in Gaza with her uncle killed by an Israeli airstrike on November 26 of last year, alongside 25 others. In February, Rayan's sister was on the verge of death while delivering her baby as Israeli occupation forces directly targeted the hospital where she was giving birth. 

Considering that Aaron Bushnell Street branches off from Mahmoud Darwish Street, Rayan expressed, “Here Aaron Bushnell and Mahmoud Darwish meet. Both are powerful names in the Palestinian story.”

She further reiterated the wish of Bushnell's family visiting, “We want to thank them for raising him and giving him that moral attitude.”

Meet Aaron Bushnell

Aaron Bushnell is a 25-year-old active-duty member of the United States Air Force who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. on February 25 in protest of the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Making his way on foot toward the occupation embassy, Bushnell said, while recording himself, "My name is Aaron Bushnell. I'm an active duty member of the United States Air Force. And I will no longer be complicit in genocide."

"I'm about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it's not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal," he said, before pouring gasoline on himself.