As we enter Holy Week and commemorate the exemplary martyrdom, it seems that martyrdom in general – or a misplaced understanding of it – is reasserting itself.
Last month, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old US airman, doused himself with liquid and set himself on fire outside Israel’s embassy in Washington, DC. In a livestream of the event, he declared: “I will no longer be complicit in genocide”, before crying out “Free Palestine” as the flames consumed him. He was pronounced dead seven hours later.
