Police said the demonstrator used petrol, and a Palestinian flag was found at the scene, outside the mission in Atlanta. The person’s gender and age remain unclear.
A security guard who attempted to intervene was also injured. According to police, the protester arrived at the facility at 12:17 local time (17:17 GMT).
“We believe this building remains safe and we do not see any threat here,” Mr Schierbaum said. “We believe this was an act of political protest.”
The guard suffered burns to their wrist and leg during the incident, Atlanta Fire Chief Roderick Smith told reporters. Both the protester and the guard were taken to a local hospital.
In a statement, the consul general of [Zionism] to the southeast US, Anata Sultan-Dadon, said that the diplomatic mission is “saddened to learn of the self-immolation at the entrance to the office building”.
“It is tragic to see the hate and incitement toward Israel expressed in such a horrific way,” she added.
“The sanctity of life is our highest value. Our prayers are with the security officer who was injured while trying to prevent this tragic act”.
These type of protests have to be the stupidest, like if youre throwing your life away at least do something that does materially benefit whatever you are protesting.
These acts have always seemed like a symptom of psychosis to me. I suspect these people likely planned to end their lives anyway, as an act of protest or not. :\
Edit: Apologies, didn’t mean to be unempathetic. I just think it’s tragic that world events have driven this much pain into person that they are driven to the point of ending their life.
It kicked off the protests in Tunisia that resulted in a radical restructuring of society, but the people of Tunisia were more empathetic to that action than Americans. So many people have absolutely dog shit takes about this act of protest, not the slightest amount of empathy for what would drive a person to this.
Agree. Some traditions like buddhist or taoist view it as acceptable (though it’s always the height of desperation and last method), and you will see it sporadically through the history in other places too.
Sometimes it even allegedly worked (like Hirate Masahide suicide in 1533), but this time it clearly did not: “It is tragic to see the hate and incitement toward Israel expressed in such a horrific way”
I wouldn’t reccomend this method of protest. Sacrificing your life for 5 minutes, at best, of news time isn’t a good trade.
Even worse, it seems clear to me that news outlets squash stories of self immolation. They did the same with the ‘activist’ who did it on earth day a few years ago, and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that major media outlets have had the same mandate to hide these stories since vietnamese monks were doing it to protest the vietnam war.
“It is tragic to see the hate and incitement toward Israel expressed in such a horrific way,” she added.
I cannot fucking take it.
Dont burn yourselves guys. It will make all your friends sad and your enemies will just call you a racist.
This one man has more courage than the entirety of western leadership. Unfortunately, this isn’t effective because they don’t have a conscience. I mean, what’s one more burned person to the empire.
