“It is done to wake us up” – Matt Nelson
Sep 13, 2024
Transcript: “My name is Matt Nelson and I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We call ourselves the greatest nation in history yet we spend more on weapons of war than we do on educating our children, helping the homeless, ensuring all Americans have equal rights, and protecting the environment combined. We are slaves to capitalism and the military-industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care. 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 ICC indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government. I urge any of you who are of the same mind to call your senators and representatives and demand that they introduce and advanced legislation to achieve these goals. If sitting lawmakers won’t, vote for those who will the democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interest of the wealthy take the power back. Free Palestine.”
A man in Boston self-immolated outside the Israeli consulate around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday.
Little further information is available.
Two other people are known to have immolated themselves to protest Israel’s carnage since October in the US. There was also a self-immolation in Jordan in June.
The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh said of self-immolation: “I think we must try to understand those who have sacrificed themselves. … It is done to wake us up.” See my piece after the death of Aaron Bushnell in February: “Ignoring Immolators Lulls the Society to Sleep: Aaron Bushnell at the Israeli Embassy: ‘FREE PALESTINE!’” As I noted then: “But much is done to lull us back to sleep. Big media covered this in a limited capacity and some of it reflected the view that the immolator may have been a danger to others.”
The media “news” headline about the immolation in Boston pathetically only mentions the nearby Four Seasons hotel:
Many media similarly blurred out the image of Bushnell burning alive.
Before Aaron Bushnell, on Dec. 1, a someone immolated themself with a Palestinian flag outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. See my piece from February: “‘Jane Doe’ Who Immolated Herself at Israeli Consulate in Atlanta Last Year Is Still Alive.”
In June, the rapper and activist Lowkey reported: “A man set himself on fire outside of the Hashemite Palace in Jordan in protest against Jordan’s pro-Israel position. The guards opened fire on him as he burned.” Though Lowkey would note that his motives could not be confirmed; there’s been so little reporting on that case. The video Lowkey posted is no longer available and the account he cites has been suspended.
As I noted at the time, Bushnell got some minimally decent amount of coverage because he livestreamed it and clearly stated his motives.
“It is done to wake us up.” As people try to normalize a genocide. It’s done to wake us up — and institutions are there to deceive and put us back to sleep.
Another self-immolation 6 Oct:
A man has tried to set himself in fire outside the white house to protest the genocide of Palestine. Americans are literally setting themselves and the government ignores them. According to witnesses, he said he worked for CBS and admitted he fostered disinformation.
The man who just tried set himself on fire in front of the White House identifies himself as a journalist. x.com/svsnewsagency/…
