Man who set himself afire in Boston reportedly was anti-Israel protester

The man was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital with ‘severe burn wounds,’ per the police report.

By David Swindle, JNS

A man set himself ablaze in downtown Boston, not far from the Boylston Street entrance to the Public Garden shortly after 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

It wasn’t clear what the man’s motives were, but the incident occurred at 19 Columbus Avenue, according to a report that the Boston Police Department provided to JNS.

That address is in the vicinity of the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

The man was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital with “severe burn wounds,” per the police report. The report stated that the incident wasn’t a suspected hate crime.

Video that circulated on social media purported to be from the man. In the video, a man who identified himself as Matt Nelson said that he would engage in “an extreme act of protest,” and that “we are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

The man also spoke in the video of everyone being “slaves to capitalism and the military industrial complex,” and said that Washington must stop supporting the Jewish state and must back the (proposed) International Criminal Court indictment against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Free Palestine,” the man in the video added. (JNS sought comment from the Israeli consulate.)

A Boston Globe staffer with the same name as the man in the video posted that some had mistaken him for the man in the video.