While sitting below a tree in the area of the Boston Common and Public Garden during the day on Sept. 11, Matthew Nelson began to record himself speaking to the camera, saying he was about to “engage in an extreme act of protest.”
“The protest I’m about to engage in is a call to our government to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza, and support the [International Criminal Court] indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government,” Nelson, 45, said in the video that was posted on YouTube and has since been deleted.
At around 8:15 p.m. that day, police responded to 19 Columbus Ave to investigate an unknown person with serious burn injuries. Surveillance video shared by NBC10 Boston appears to show a man walking back and forth before setting himself on fire. The person was next to The Saunders Building at 20 Park Plaza in Boston, where the Consulate General of Israel to New England is located, police said.
He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, police said.
While the police have not publicly identified the man, The Cape Cod Times reported that friends of Nelson, who were in touch with his family, confirmed that the person who self-immolated was Nelson. He was placed on life support, they said.
According to Boston’s City Clerk Registry Division, Nelson died days later on Sept. 15. The official death certificate is pending and will not include the cause of death, according to the Clerk Registry.
A memorial and vigil Wednesday honored Nelson’s life
On Wednesday evening, the Boston chapters of Palestinian Youth Movement and Muslim Justice League held a vigil at the Boston Public Garden for Nelson.
Community members honored Nelson by placing candles and drawings of Nelson under a tree that had a Palestinian flag draped over it.
“The reason that we’re gathered here amongst trees is because we know that he took his final video under a tree somewhere nearby in the garden or the common before he walked over to the consulate and took this act, and he took it alone,” a speaker said.
The vigil also spoke about Caleb Gannon, who was shot during a pro-Israel rally in Newton on Sept. 12, as well as Israel’s ongoing strikes on Lebanon that killed 569 people Monday morning.
“Caleb, you’re in our thoughts and prayers who will keep fighting for Palestine, as you did with your body and your word,” another speaker at the vigil said. “Tonight, we stand with you and everyone who is putting their bodies on the lines for Palestine.”
The group marched toward the Israeli consulate in Boston shortly after the vigil. More than a dozen pro-Israeli counterprotesters stood next to the group, chanting “U.S.A.” and “Free us from Hamas.”
There were at least 20 police officers on bikes and several police cars at the rally, but no arrests were made.
Nelson was reportedly a Cape Cod native
Nelson lived in Centerville and Hyannis for most of his life, and attended Centerville Elementary School and Barnstable High School, the Times reported.
His mother, Anderson, raised him on the Cape, Nelson’s long-time friend Owen Flood told the Times, but he was born on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.
When Flood learned that Nelson set himself on fire, he told the Times he was shocked, saddened and confused.
“I never saw Matt as a big political person. He was nonviolent. So him doing something this extreme is surprising,” Flood said. “But him having a strong feeling about genocide happening somewhere else on the Earth that we as a country are complacent to, is not surprising at all.”
The latest extreme act of protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza
To date, there have been three known acts of self-immolation in the U.S. since Oct. 7, all in protest against the Israel-Hamas War that has caused a significant death toll in Gaza, as well as the U.S.’s ties to Israel.
In December 2023, an unnamed woman in Atlanta, Georgia, set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate while holding a Palestinian flag.
In February, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force, self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. The act was live-streamed on Twitch. Attendees at Wednesdays vigil said Nelson, a U.S. veteran, was close friends with Bushnell, a Whitman native.
