Israeli man sets himself on fire during Tel Aviv social protest

Protester in serious condition after he poured gasoline on his body and set himself on fire; in letter he left behind, he says, 'the state of Israel robbed me.'

An Israeli man set himself on fire Saturday during a Tel Aviv demonstration marking the anniversary of last summer's social protests.

As thousands marched down Kaplan street in Tel Aviv to mark one year since the start of social protests, one of the protesters poured gasoline on his body and then set himself on fire. The man was evacuated to the hospital shortly afterward.

In a letter he left at the scene, he wrote that, "The state of Israel stole from me and robbed me. It left me helpless."

Yonatan Sahar, a protester who witnessed the incident, said that he was standing next to the man, when suddenly he set himself on fire. "I saw him holding something burning," he said. When suddenly he poured gasoline on himself and immediately caught fire. "I didn't know what to do," he added.



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[link to www.haaretz.com]