A U.S. airman died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 25 in order to protest what he called a “genocide” of Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war. Aaron Bushnell’s action is part of a long and controversial history of self-immolation as political protest. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] In the past, self-immolation has been used as an extreme form of protest against political leaders in Tunisia during the Arab Spring, the Vietnam War, and climate change.