Social Justice Demonstrator Immolates Self
- Dettagli
- Categoria: Opposizione israeliana
- Pubblicato Sabato, 18 Agosto 2012 07:30
- Scritto da Richard Silverstein
Tikun Olam, July 14, 2012
 |
| moshe silman immolation Moshe Sillman, the 52 year-old delivery company owner whose business was repossessed by the State, set himself alight today in a Tel Aviv protest (AFP) |
I’ve put together some of the tragic circumstances that led the 52 year-old man to try to take his life to protest the brutality and inhumanity of the current Israeli government.
Silman ran a trucking-delivery service and had a number of vehicles and employees working for him. He got into arrears with the Israeli agency that provides social security and insurance benefits (Bituach L’umi). They claimed that he owed them $1,000. In order to collect, they put a lien on all of the property of his company, selling trucks for half their value ($7,000 instead of $15,000). They liquidated his entire company, whose value was far more than the $1,000 he owed. As a result, he could not meet contract obligations and his clients stopped paying and ordering, leading to the disintegration of his business.
Correspondence to him was sent by the government agency to the wrong address. He ended up totally penniless, eking out a living as a cab driver.
Finally, after getting no recourse from the social security agency, and being about to lose his borrowed flat (a friend gave him a year rent-free, which was about to run out) – he was entirely unable to find a place to live. He wrote about his predicament in this comment (Hebrew). Along the way he had a stroke and was designated 100% disabled and unable to work.
Moshe Sillman’s suicide note in which he blames Bibi Netanyahu, his finance minister and government officials who stole his business and left him destitute Activists tried to help him, but failed. So he decided to self-immolate at the J14 demonstration. Throughout his protest, he has insisted in every communication that he did his military service, was a good solider, and that the state was not living up to its side of the bargain.
