Social protester who set himself on fire dies
Doctors unable to save Moshe Silman, who suffered third-degree burns over more than 90% of his body
Moshe Silman, the protestor who set himself on fire last Saturday night during a Tel Aviv social justice rally has died.
Silman, 57, suffered third-degree burns over 95% of his body. He was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, which houses Israel's most advanced burn unit, where doctors have been fighting for his life for the past six days.
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Despite their efforts, he succumbed to his injuries on Friday afternoon.
Moments of Silmen's desperate act
Hospital sources said that survival rates in cases involving injuries such as Silman's are very low, since the absence of the skin's protective layer makes one's body extremely susceptible to infections.
Extensive third-degree burns usually lead to system and organ failure and eventually, death, the sources explained.
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The family said that the news was "devastating." Silman will be held on Sunday.
Idit Lev of Rabbis for Human Rights released a statement on behalf of the family: "It is with a heavy heart that we announced our beloved's death. Human lives are sacred to the family and we urge those who face similar plights not to follow Moshe's path.
"What he did was grim and the family does not condone it – he was expressing his own unmet pain. We urge the government to consider this horrifying case and do everything within its power to help Israelis who are in need of (financial) assistance."
On the Monday prior to the incident, a clip of Silman talking with a member of the Haifa Front social movement surfaced in which he said he thought there needed to be "a violent revolution."
Later, he was also filmed saying that the social justice movement must avoid identifying with any political side, and gave what appeared to be a hint of his intention to harm himself.
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