Protest against injustice engulfs Zionist regime | ||
Protest against injustice engulfs Zionist regime Epidemic of self-immolations hits Israel A wheelchair-bound Israeli was in serious condition on July 22 after setting himself on fire just hours before the funeral of a man who had set himself alight during a social justice protest on July 14. “A man in a wheelchair set himself on fire at a bus stop near Yehud” near Tel Aviv, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “Passersby put out the flames. The man, in his late forties, was in serious condition, he was taken to the Sheba hospital in Tel HaShomer,” he said. “From what we know, he set himself on fire,” Rosenfeld said. The self-immolation, carried out by a man who is reportedly a disabled Israeli army veteran, took place just hours before the funeral of Moshe Silman. Silman died on July 20, six days after setting himself ablaze at a Tel Aviv social justice demonstration. In a letter he read out before setting himself alight, he accused the Israeli establishment of “taking from the poor and giving to the rich.” He also wrote that despite being incapable of working due to a stroke, a housing ministry committee did not find him eligible for public housing benefits. Over a thousand Israelis held vigils for Silman in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities on July 21. “Tonight, we are all Moshe Silman,” they chanted at the site where he doused himself with kerosene and set himself on fire. Many participants carried candles, a correspondent said. “By marching we honor the memory of all victims of economic duress and the anti-social policy of the Israeli government” headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the organizers said in a statement. Silman’s self-immolation set off a wave of similar incidents, with the latest incident marking the fifth such attempt, press reports said. The latest victim sustained the worst injuries since Silman, with the man sustaining burns over 80 percent of his body. In December 2010, Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi set himself ablaze. He protested in front of SidiBouzid government offices. At issue was police confiscating his merchandise for operating without a permit. He was a street vendor. He sold vegetables. An American author says the protests against social injustice in Israel show the population is under siege by the Tel Aviv regime, Press TV reports. “They (protests) mark the extent to which the population in Israel is finding itself under siege by their own [regime],” said Ralph Schoenman, political analyst and author of the Hidden History of Zionism, in an interview with Press TV. He added that the Israelis are “taking to the streets in a generalized movement of protests against the rising cost of living; the cuts in social programs and benefits; and the control of economic life in Israel by a tiny oligarchy of the rich, which has galvanized resistance throughout its very society.” Schoenman made the comments a day after 57-year-old protester Moshe Silman died of burns he had sustained after he set himself on fire in Tel Aviv. Silman self-immolated on July 14 during a demonstration held to mark the first anniversary of protests against social injustice and high cost of living that swept Israel last summer. | ||
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