by Brett Wilkins, published on Common Dreams, September 8, 2024
Editor’s Note: Just a brief introduction. Three people in the U.S. have set themselves on fire in protest toward the Israeli genocide in Gaza. This is a stunning reality. In Vietnam monks self immolated in response to the U.S. war on that country. They were in among the victims already. But, technically, we are the aggressor, the empowered nation today, as we were then. But the responses of our people tell a different story. The government is not only committing atrocities, but it is indifferent to our opinions, and in fact, suppressing contradictory assertions at every opportunity. If this is freedom, what does oppression look like. I suppose it looks like Gaza.
For the third time since Israel launched a war on Gaza for which it is currently on trial for genocide at the World Court, a person in the United States has set themself on fire to protest Israel’s killing of more than 41,000 Palestinians and U.S. complicity in the slaughter.
In an incident all but completely ignored by the U.S. corporate media, a man identified as Matt Nelson set himself alight near the Israeli Consulate in Boston at around 8:15 pm local time on Wednesday, September 11.
“My name is Matt Nelson and I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” he said in a video first uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday. “We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Based on this post below, it appears the man who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Consulate in Boston was named Matt Nelson.
pic.twitter.com/7K0ewdGiea https://t.co/JUG2VSuTHW
— Anti-Racist South |🇵🇸 #StopCopCity (@antiracistsouth) September 13, 2024
“We are slaves to capitalism and the military-industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care,” Nelson continued. “The protest I’m about to engage in is a call to our government to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza, and to support the [International Criminal Court] indictment of [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government.”
“A democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interests of the wealthy,” he added. “Take the power back. Free Palestine.”
According to NBC Boston, first responders confirmed a man suffered serious burn injuries. Nelson’s current condition has not been reported.
NBC Boston and other local media took flak from critics on social media, who noted that the outlets chose to report the incident’s location as “outside the Four Seasons Hotel” instead of by the Israeli Consulate.
Given two previous self-immolations protesting US support for Israel’s genocide, seems like mentioning the Israeli consulate is newsworthy. Yet, this story is nowhere in the media.
Aaron Bushnell got coverage because he made a video, screaming “Free Palestine” as his last words. pic.twitter.com/yjVkRi8mmP
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) September 13, 2024
Nelson is the third person known to have self-immolated in Gaza-related protests in the United States since October.
On December 1, a woman—whose identity remains unknown—carrying a Palestinian flag was hospitalized in critical condition after setting herself alight outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. Police called it an “act of extreme political protest.” Israeli Consul-General Anat Sultan-Dadon called it an act of “hate and incitement toward Israel.”