- Sep 26, 2000
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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/wor...fire-at-social-protest-rally-in-tel-aviv.html
A protest in Tel-Aviv on Saturday night took an unsettling turn when an Israeli man set himself on fire. "The state of Israel stole from me and robbed me. It left me helpless," 57-year-old Moshe Silman wrote in letters left at the scene before dousing himself with gasoline.
As Silman fights for his life with third-degree burns covering at least 80% of his body, protest leaders, politicians and the public are trying to understand the act of desperation and its meaning for the calls for "social justice," the slogan of the socioeconomic protests now into their second summer in Israel.
Silman's fall began with failure to repay a small debt that ballooned and cast him into poverty, exasperating dealings with bureaucracy and ultimately, despair. "I shall not become homeless," he wrote, accusing the government of humiliating and weakening its citizens, "taking from the poor and giving to the rich." Demonstrators read his letter out loud after the incident.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended wishes for Silman's recovery and instructed Housing and Welfare ministers to examine his case, which he called "a great personal tragedy."
A protest in Tel-Aviv on Saturday night took an unsettling turn when an Israeli man set himself on fire. "The state of Israel stole from me and robbed me. It left me helpless," 57-year-old Moshe Silman wrote in letters left at the scene before dousing himself with gasoline.
As Silman fights for his life with third-degree burns covering at least 80% of his body, protest leaders, politicians and the public are trying to understand the act of desperation and its meaning for the calls for "social justice," the slogan of the socioeconomic protests now into their second summer in Israel.
Silman's fall began with failure to repay a small debt that ballooned and cast him into poverty, exasperating dealings with bureaucracy and ultimately, despair. "I shall not become homeless," he wrote, accusing the government of humiliating and weakening its citizens, "taking from the poor and giving to the rich." Demonstrators read his letter out loud after the incident.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended wishes for Silman's recovery and instructed Housing and Welfare ministers to examine his case, which he called "a great personal tragedy."
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