On 25 February, 25-year-old US airforce serviceman, Aaron Bushnell, took his own life by self-immolation outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, in protest at US imperialism’s support for the crimes being carried out by the IDF. His last words, livestreamed to the world, were: “Free Palestine!” Just days later, IDF soldiers murdered over 100 civilians at an aid convoy in Gaza, embodying the horror and injustice that inspired Bushnell’s act.

Bushnell’s ‘extreme protest’ sent shockwaves around the world, eliciting much sympathy from workers and youth feeling angry and powerless about the plight of the Palestinians, and indignant at the complicity of their imperialist governments in the slaughter.

This week’s episode of the Spectre of Communism podcast welcomes Fred Weston, a leading member of the International Marxist Tendency, for an update on Israel’s war on the Palestinians. Fred discusses the threatened all-out attack on Rafah, the prospect of a wider war or revolutionary explosion in the Middle East, as well as the powerful and tragic sacrifice of Bushnell, explaining its profound effect. An explosive mood is building everywhere and communists must understand and respond to these developments.

For more by Fred on the situation in Palestine, we recommend his recent article on Israel’s strangulation of the Palestinian economy and the situation in Rafah:

https://www.marxist.com/the-economic-strangulation-of-the-palestinian-people.htm

https://www.marxist.com/rafah-onslaught-the-spark-that-could-set-the-middle-east-alight.htm

Further reading on Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation and the mood of anger and frustration it expresses can be found here: https://www.marxist.com/aaron-bushnell-an-act-expressing-the-rage-and-frustration-of-millions.htm

Finally, you can read about the legal persecution of our Austrian comrades for their revolutionary stance on the situation in Palestine and the region here: https://www.marxist.com/hands-off-our-comrades-austrian-state-attacks-the-imt-for-palestine-solidarity-an-update.htm