Social Justice Activist Sets Himself on Fire During Protest in Israel (GRAPHIC)
- Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:30am by
Sharona Schwartz
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In an act reminiscent of the event that launched the so-called Arab Spring demonstrations in Tunisia, an Israeli protester set himself on fire Saturday night during a Tel Aviv rally marking the one-year anniversary of last year’s widely-attended social justice protests.
Israeli media are reporting that Moshe Silman, an unemployed man, handed out and then read a letter aloud to fellow protesters detailing a list of grievances against the government before setting himself ablaze. Eyewitnesses say he poured gasoline over himself, then ignited.
The Associated Press captured a graphic photo of the incident in which Silman is clearly seen engulfed in flames:
AP Photo
In this video taken by a bystander, a speaker complains about public transportation and then suddenly Silman is on fire, with fellow protesters scrambling to try to put it out:
According to Ynet, Silman’s note contained a list of complaints against the government:
“The State of Israel robbed me and left me with nothing,” he wrote.
Silman complained about legal proceedings he was forced to undergo. “You can’t even get rent support, two Housing Ministry committees rejected me despite the fact I had a stroke and lost ability to work. I blame Israel’s public servants: The National Insurance Institute.
“I blame the State of Israel, [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and [Finance Minister] Yuval Steinitz for the constant humiliation the citizens of Israel have to endure on a day-to-day basis. They take from the poor and give to the rich. ”
He added, “I can’t afford medication or rent. I paid millions in tax, I served in the army and in the reserves until I was 46. I won’t be homeless and that is why I am protesting against all the wrongs the state imposes on people like me.”
Eyewitness Yonatan Sahar told a Haaretz reporter that he was standing next to Silman when suddenly he saw the flames:
“I saw him holding something burning,” he said. When suddenly he poured gasoline on himself and immediately caught fire. “I didn’t know what to do,” he added.
Once he lit himself on fire, the surrounding protesters threw water on him. Israeli media report he is now in the hospital with burns on between 80 and 90 percent of his body.
Here is video from the Israel Police:
Those who know Silman say they were not surprised by his action, as he’d been threatening to do something drastic after the stroke had left him unable to work and his application for public housing was rejected.
Ynet quotes one friend saying, “The state pissed on him and was completely unwilling to help.”
Fellow social activist Ofer Barkan told Ynet, “He told us he won’t go back to being homeless and threatened to do something extreme.”
Another woman whom the paper quoted only as Yael said a group of friends had even planned to watch over him at a demonstration in the northern city of Haifa where they had expected him to appear, since that’s where he lives. But he ended up traveling to the larger Tel Aviv rally.
As The Blaze reported last month, activists trying to rekindle last summer’s cost-of-living protests clashed with Israel Police in scenes reminiscent of the more anarchical elements of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Eighty-five were arrested in June after bank windows were broken, eggs were thrown and a major highway was blocked by social protesters.
That violent outburst and now this self-immolation stand in stark contrast to last year’s largely peaceful demonstrations protesting the high cost of living in Israel. The 2012 protests appear to have adopted a more anarchist tone and will thus be unlikely to recruit the hundreds of thousands that came out for last summer’s demonstrations. Then, they enjoyed a small measure of success including the Netanyahu government’s decision to provide public education from age three on the taxpayer’s dime (or Shekel in this case).
This summer’s efforts also appear to be in disarray. Various factions were so split on where to hold their anniversary rally, they ended up holding two separate events in different locations, both on Saturday.
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Comments (115)
RJJinGadsden
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:46amAs I read the article I was wondering if OWS will pick up on this idea?
Report Post »Listen_then_think
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:15am@ individualism
Report Post »If you claim Israel is a 3rd world country, then it is because of the palestinians, hamas, and hezbolla. Israels problems with palestinian terrorists and giving them jobs are similar to Americas problem with illegals sucking money from schools, welfare, hospitals, etc.
Social Justice does NOT work, it is a recently made up word by progresssives/communists/liberals/democrats to try to confuse the stupid people they pander to. Kick out all palestinians from Israel and all illegals from America and that would be social justice because the economy would improve instantly.
The_Jerk
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 1:52pmThat’s what Hitler tried with the Jews. Are you saying that it was legit, or are you applying a double standard?
Report Post »762x51
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:52pmThe_Jerk
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 1:52pm
That’s what Hitler tried with the Jews. Are you saying that it was legit, or are you applying a double standard?
No stupid, that was NOT what Hitler tried with the Jews. In the first place, German Jews were NOT illegals, they were citizens as were non-Jewish Germans. Second, Hitler rounded up his own citizens, like Obama’s boy Bill Ayres planned to do here, and sent them to death camps for extermination, not for deportation out of the country.
You liberal morons just can’t understand even the simplest things can you? Go back to school and learn something before boring us with your stupidity again and this time I recommend you learn from someone not with the teachers union.
If you want to see Nazi’s look in the mirror.
Report Post »historyguy48
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:10amComrades what a wonderful idea! I am willing to pledge five gallons of gasoline so some of our “social activists” can protest in this fashion also!
Report Post »Heck, since I‘m being magnanimous if they prefer diesel I’m willing to donate ten gallons!
Defiant530
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:03amNow if we could just get the “Social Justice” people in this country to do the same thing what better country it would be ……and if they do ……I’ll bring the rake to put them out
Report Post »Stu D. Baker-Hawk
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:50amWhat word describes someone who would set themselves aflame? What word? STUPID. BTW, does anybody have some marshmallows?
Report Post »forthepeople
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:38amDarwin was right ! Thank God that gene pool ended .
Report Post »BonnieC3
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:39amWhat kind of person would set themselves on fire? Someone influenced and consumed by evil. “You will know them by their fruit”. What is behind something like this is pure evil.
Report Post »docgreen
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 5:27amOk, I wasn’t going to make a joke about this, until I saw Stu D comment! Anyone know where the Weany Roast is? Or better yetm any want some over done Chicken Fingers? I know, I shouldn’t of shed any light on it, but I couldn’t resist! Pray for these Souls, they have to be influenced by Demonic Forces to do this! Evil is Spreading people and what does the BIble say about the Evil about to Hit Earth? I think everyones time is about UP! The World cant go on like this anymore. I Just Pray for the Rapture, because its really going to get allot worse! Godspeed!…
Report Post »HawkEyeTx
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:19amSanity and common sense gone a-muck.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:13amSocial Justice: Not What You Think It Is http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/social-justice-not-what-you-think-it-is
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:10amThat photo is truly tragic,there’s only one dead communist.
Report Post »blanco5
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:04amHa!
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 1:50pmDo burning commies smell like pork Slayer?
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 2:22pmGonzo Yep Jimmy dean sausage!
Report Post »david3755
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 3:43pmYes, this is like a bus full of lawyers at the bottom of the ocean. It is not real good but it is a beginning.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:10amThe “Social Justice Movement” is at war with classical liberalism, which defines equality as the equality of all individuals before the law, irrespective of “class” or any other collective identity. In modern terms, the conflict between these two worldviews is similar to the conflict between “equality of opportunity” and “equality of outcome,” which can only be guaranteed and enforced by some structure of authority.
The “Social Justice Movement” endorses socialism as a means of redressing the alleged evils of capitalism and producing a programmatic equality that it acknowledges will be purchased at the price of individual liberty and require the manufacture of what totalitarian governments have called “the New Man.”
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:07amYou know what burnt communists smells like? FREEDOM
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:58amIt is the “new class” that reflects the defining contradiction of modern leftist reality: The goal of complete economic equality logically enjoins the means of complete state control, yet this means has never practically achieved that end. Smith and Jones, once “socialized,” are equally poor and equally oppressed, but now above them looms an oligarchy of not-to-be-equalized equalizers. The inescapable rise of this “new class” — privileged economically as well as politically, never quite ready to “wither away” — forever destroys the possibility of a “classless” society. Here the lesson of socialism teaches what should have been learned from the lesson of pre-liberal despotism — that state coercion is a means to no end but its own. Far from expanding equality from the political to the economic realm, the pursuit of “social justice” serves only to contract it within both. There will never be any kind of equality — or real justice — as long as a socialist elite stands behind the trigger while the rest of us kneel before the barrel.
Report Post »guz75
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:20amYes I read the article that you linked to, but what do YOU think?
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:26amCommunism has many code names and faces: Social justice, democracy, economic justice, progressivism, liberal(today’s meaning), civil rights, human rights, the “green” movement, etc
Democracy is the road to socialism. ~Karl Marx
Report Post »guz75
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:58amI don’t really understand the giant leap to communism. This is about society – and particularly government – treating people fairly.
A street sweeper doesn’t expect to become a rich man, but would expect to be able to provide for himself and to have as much say as the next man. His role in society is vital, in the same way that the roles of entrepreneurs and businessman are vital. Yet the wealthier the individual or business the greater political sway they have and as we’ve seen with banks, pharmaceutical companies etc. they’re able to effect policy to make it easier for them to grab money out of the hand of the average man and stick it in their back pocket.
Capitalism isn’t the problem, it’s the expectation that you must want to climb the ladder and grab the lions share for yourself, whilst allowing the people that do the jobs that make your life comfortable while your doing that, to slide into poverty and a form of effective disenfranchisement.
Report Post »blanco5
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:13amguz75—you are most likely european hence the “whilst” so you are probably 2nd or 3rd generation socialist. So “whilst” pointing that out, you will NEVER get the true American spirit and it is NOT relying on the government for your whole life!
Report Post »guz75
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:55amWhere in my comment do I refer to ‘relying on the government for your whole life’? You throw words like socialism around without understanding what they mean, anything that doesn’t completely fit your narrow ideology becomes socialist, communist, Marxist……. blah, blah, blah. It’s just a throwback to government created, cold war era paranoia.
If we‘re talking about ’…isms‘ I’d suggest your assumption I’m referring to America, in an article about Israel would be described as narcissism, seems to be a collective trait around here.
Report Post »TRILO
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:55amHe can stand on the corner and protest but he could not work because of a stroke. The government does not owe you anything, except freedom. You should be free to succeed or free to fail. If you fail, sorry move on and keep trying. Did any reporter try to find out?
If you are stupid enough to set yourself on fire you get what you have brought upon yourself. Sorry, no sympathy here.
Report Post »rickc34
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:06amSetting yourself on fire, wow. I took care of a man who was burned over 80 percent of his body, it was an accident that happened at work, his job was to cut down 50 gallon drums with a cutting torch and one drum still had some flammable liquid in it, He was thrown over 100 feet on fire. He told me he thought he had died and gone to hell.
Report Post »blanco5
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:49amIs it wrong not to care?
Report Post »gorgo
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:46amSo now he has a room, right?
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:27amThe communists here in America should use this as an example and follow suit,all of them should join in.
Report Post »normbal
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:33amIt’s a good start.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:55amWith gas prices as high as they are we need to set up a foundation so they can get free gas to douce themselves with. i am willing to kick in a few bucks and even will buy some matches for them….Anything to help that social justice movement protest by fire. I want to do my ‘fair share”.
Report Post »RedDirtTexas
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:58amI am going to the next OWS rally and hand out free bottles of gasoline!
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:33amyeah we don’t want our country like theirs, it just another example of the failure of that ideology.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:52amIndividual is a commie hegellan dialectic nutcase. If we do not understand how the Hegelian dialectic shapes our perceptions of the world, then we do not know how we are helping to implement the vision. When we remain locked into dialectical thinking, we cannot see out of the box.
Hegel’s dialectic is the tool which manipulates us into a frenzied circular pattern of thought and action. Every time we fight for or defend against an ideology we are playing a necessary role in Marx and Engels’ grand design to advance humanity into a dictatorship of the proletariat. The synthetic Hegelian solution to all these conflicts can’t be introduced unless we all take a side that will advance the agenda. The Marxist’s global agenda is moving along at breakneck speed. The only way to completely stop the privacy invasions, expanding domestic police powers, land grabs, insane wars against inanimate objects (and transient verbs), covert actions, and outright assaults on individual liberty, is to step outside the dialectic. This releases us from the limitations of controlled and guided thought.
Report Post »airportengineer
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:26amI highly doubt that he’s paid over a million in taxes! When someone is that upset over not receiving government handouts it‘s because they’ve spent all of their lives taking government handouts! There are 2nd and 3rd generation girls in the US that get that pissed off when their Medicaid accepting doctor is making them wait and they spend the entir time that they are waiting complaining about their section8 assistance with her mom who is teaching her what to do to get more out of the system!
Report Post »cookcountypatriot
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:25amperfect example of what happens when one WANTS goverment to be mommy and daddy…..
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:21amSocial Justice: Code for Communism http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/guides/Z-Social%20Justice-Code%20for%20Communism.htm
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:55amit already is that way in that country.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:04amHey communist hack I’ve been to Israel and no it is not. Israel is a free democratic society and this guy has no clue what real struggle is. His goal is communist revolution. He is nothing but a useful idiot. His and your God and savior are the State. You are both weak minded and pathetic “individuals”.
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:09amwho Netanyahu? true that.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:19am“who Netanyahu? true that.” <willed ignorance
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:17amGee BLAZE…why censor my bacon grease crack? Can’t have a good grease fire witthout it…
Report Post »ImMadAsHell
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:17amIdiot, what did he prove? Nothing
Report Post »stumpy68
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:42amOnly how much of an idiot child he was.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:08amYou’ll notice, that the anarchists cannot persuade others to their side intellectually, so they resort to violence. Every time.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:57am“ The 2012 protests appear to have adopted a more anarchistic tone ”…..pretty much sums up the tone of “social activists” all over the world…
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:50amAdd a little bacon grease and he will be done inno time…
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:44ammust suck to live there.
Report Post »Want our country back
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:18amWrong!!!! There is ALWAYS a different / better way. We help each other thru local organizations (not government). Well, he won’t have to worry about the government NOT taking care of him now. Desperate people do desperate things, setting yourself on fire is pretty desperate. God watch over him, can’t fathom the unimaginable pain .
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:35amno that is not the reason for what he did, but basically that country is a third world now, the prices are very high and the wages are very low so people there have a very low standard of living. No wonder people are moving away from it and not to it.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:45amThis guy is a useful idiot and the product of marxist indoctrination. You both should go move to North Korea where your ideology is in full swing. FYI 9/11 was not an inside job and if it was it was the communists in our government(left) who were involved with the radical muslims in attacking America that day. Choke on that. Alex Jones is a paid Russian shill as is David Icke.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:50amIndividualism(communist hack) truly ignorant.
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:53amNo i am not, i am talking about a communist country right now and the plane did not cause the towers to fall.
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:53amhey your the one supporting this communist country.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:05amIndividual(collectivist should be your name) you are supporting communist ideology. You need educate yourself, you fool.
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:09ami am not supporting that country you are.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:16amI stand with Israel. You stand with radical Islamists and communist revolutionaries working to destroy Israel, American, and the western way of life.
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:24amNo i stand with America, the country i live in. why don’t you do the same.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:33amINDIVIDUALISM is a collectivist commie hack hell bent on revolution, bolshevik style. Your ignorance is glaring. You are also an anti-semite. Alex Jones and David Icke have indoctrinated you well for the NWO takeover. They are both full of crap. You are a zombie fool.
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 9:37ami don’t support Romney you do.
Report Post »stealthman
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:38amProve your contention. The Israeli middle class in burgeoning. It is the US that has lost 40% of its wealth since 2007. Yes, it has its malcontents and its fools. And its left wing media bosses. So prove your contention. And do us a favor and cut off all that military aid. It is unseemly to be borrowing money from China to give foreign aid.
Report Post »HKS
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:39amOne,
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