Smoke billows over the city of Khan Younis in Gaza during an IDF ground assault. Photo: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

American soldier Aaron Bushell committed suicide by setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. His Facebook video post explained that he was protesting US support for Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) immediately turned him into a Palestinian hero by unequivocally glorifying him, in a column in the official PA daily:

He put an end to his existence in order to save the conscience of the world regarding the massacres and genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

More than that, the PA daily praised him for trying to spark a movement of people around the world and to be a “turning point” in motivating others to move from mere protest to self-sacrifice actions. He wanted to:

… create a turning point in the methods and tools of the solidarity movement with the Palestinian issue in the world.

The writer was very clear that the new “methods and tools” he was talking about involved death and possibly even suicide attacks by citing the Palestinian self-sacrifice as the “example for all of humanity.” [emphasis added]

The concept of self-sacrifice for the sake of others is considered one of the noblest forms of sacrifice among human cultures throughout history, among them the Japanese culture and the Arab-Islamic culture, and this is in addition to the sacrifices made by European and other revolutions, up to the Palestinian people, who served as an example for all of humanity due to its self-sacrifice actions.

The official PA daily published cartoons two days in a row honoring him:

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 27, 2024  and  Feb. 28, 2024]

Finally, official PA TV tried to create the impression that this was part of a great wave of anti-Israel sentiment in the US:

PA TV Host: “American pilot Bushnell’s burning himself yesterday is an expression of the growing anger among the American people against the policies of their government, and this comes as a defense of humanitarian values and the justice of the Palestinian issue.

Muhammad Khaluf, a political commentator: “We see high activity in the streets and squares in several American cities, and there is a wave of activity on social networks against Biden and against his policies, and even against the reactions of the Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the Senate and the like.”

If the column in the PA daily is an indicator, the PA would like to see Bushell’s suicide as a “turning point in the methods and tools” of the anti-Israel movement worldwide. By proclaiming that “self-sacrifice for the sake of others is considered one of the noblest forms of sacrifice among human cultures throughout history,” in the context of Bushell’s suicide, the PA seems to be calling for more deaths in the international arena triggered by the anti-Israel forces.

The following is a longer excerpt from the article in the official PA daily:

The spectacle of the American soldier setting himself on fire contains a deep philosophical message, which is that the moment he set himself on fire, he put an end to his existence in order to save the conscience of the world regarding the massacres and genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

That is, he put an end to his own existence in order to preserve the existence of the Palestinian and create a turning point in the methods and tools of the solidarity movement with the Palestinian issue in the world. This is because the concept of self-sacrifice for the sake of others is considered one of the noblest forms of sacrifice among human cultures throughout history, among them the Japanese culture and the Arab-Islamic culture, and this is in addition to the sacrifices made by European and other revolutions, up to the Palestinian people, who served as an example for all of humanity due to its self-sacrifice actions.

[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 28/02/2024]

Itamar Marcus, Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.