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Last March, he urged friends to organize and protest. Israel betrayed him and most others. Their only recourse is fighting back.
During summer 2011 protests, he participated regularly. Haifa activists got to know him. One friend said "(h)e was always trying to turn over one stone and then another to see if he could move ahead somehow."
He spent days looking for work. He fought for his rights and lost. A fellow activist said he self-immolated in protest. "It's terrible when a person has to" die to explain his plight to others.
On July 15, hundreds of Israelis rallied near Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence on his behalf. Police confronted them violently. Increasingly Jews face treatment Arabs have known for decades.
Haifa and Tel Aviv protests also erupted. They rallied under the slogan "We're all Moshe Silman - The Blood is on The Government's Hands."Activists carried signs saying "The Poor Won't Have Anything to Eat, and They'll Eat the Rich." Another read "Desperation Burns - Who's Next?" One more targeted Netanyahu saying "Bibi, you burned us too."
One rally organizer said she tried to help Silman. She asked for his forgiveness for not being able to do more. "He deserved more than the country" gave him, she added.
On July 19, Dina Kraft's Haaretz article headlined "A man has set himself on fire!" saying:
"Israel's social protest movement has renewed the unity of purpose and collective ethos that has largely disappeared from the country -- and Moshe Silman's tragic act of self-immolation, that I witnessed, may re-charge it even more."
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