50-year-old man in serious condition with burns over 80% of his body; 5th self-immolation comes ahead of Moshe Silman funeral.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPINCandle-light vigil for Moshe Silman in Tel Aviv 390(photo credit: Michael Omer-Man)
A 50-year-old disabled man set himself on fire in Yehud on Sunday. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the man Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.The man was in serious condition with burns on over 80 percent of his body. Israel Radio reported he was a disabled IDF veteran.Passers-by found the man burning and extinguished the flames before paramedics arrived. The attempted suicide was the fifth self-immolation to take place in Israel in the past week.The wave of self-immolations was started by Moshe Silman, a Haifa man who set himself on fire at the end of a social justice protest in Tel Aviv on July 14. Silman succumbed to his wounds on Friday. He was to be buried Sunday evening.On Saturday night, a candle-light protest vigil was held in Tel Aviv at the spot where Silman self-immolated exactly a week before. Friends and protesters read aloud his letter and chanted slogans representative of Silman's grievances.In a note he passed out to fellow protesters and passers-by before dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself alight, Silman detailed how he was denied benefits and consistently ruled again by district courts, leading to a situation where he was about to become homeless.He had no choices left but he was just not ready to live on the streets,” Rabbi Idit Lev, Manager of Rabbis for Human Rights’ Social Justice Project, who has been in close contact with Silman for more than a year attempting to help him navigate impossible bureaucracy and get the state to help him, told The Jerusalem Post.Ruth Eglash contributed to this report.
