Media Review: US Navy pilot burned himself in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington: "I will no longer be complicit in genocide"

Aljazeera reported that the Pentagon confirmed on Monday the death of a US Navy pilot who burned himself in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington to protest the war in Gaza.

Pilot Aaron Bushnell (25 years old) died of the serious burns he sustained yesterday, Sunday. This incident comes amid mounting protests in the United States against the ongoing war in Gaza, a war the ICJ and UN experts found it to be a  genocide.

 The New York Times had previously quoted a US Air Force spokeswoman as saying that Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Sunday afternoon in an "apparent act of protest against the war in Gaza."

 The newspaper also quoted a fire department spokesman as saying that members of the US Secret Service were able to put out the fire, and the man was taken to the hospital with serious burns.

 In a video broadcast live over the Internet, Bushnell, wearing military uniform, said he would no longer be complicit in genocide genocide, before setting himself on fire while shouting, “Free Palestine.”

 The New York Times reported that the pilot repeatedly shouted, "Free Palestine," and said before setting himself on fire, "I will no longer be complicit in genocide."

Compared to the media coverage of a similar event on December 17, 2010 when a young man set himself on fire to protest government abuse in Tunisia, which resulted in the fall of the regime three weeks later, this act of protest was received with muted media response. The difference might be due to the level of normalization of genocide, making mass killings a political point of view as opposed to a human rights crime.

The level of hatred and lack of empathy in American society is alarming. While the media provided varying converage of this news story, FoxNews referred to the reported news but did not elborate on the motives. Yet, comments by readers of FoxNews online reveal shocking levels of hatred and callousness, as these comments show.

Around the world, Aaron Bushnell has become an icon, as interpreted by these composite images: