Kourosh Ziabari

In the past weeks, the streets of Tel Aviv have been witness to desperate people setting themselves on fire in protest at the growing social and economic inequalities and the rising cost of living in Israel.

Almost one year after 400,000 Israelis filled Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard in protest at the increasing economic difficulties, a wave of civil unrest and upsurges is again encompassing the state. The latest victim of the protests was the 57-year-old Moshe Silman, a disabled war veteran who sustained severe injuries after setting himself ablaze at a bus stop near Tel Aviv on July 14.

The death of Silman ignited widespread anger and frustration among the Israelis who have poured into the streets of Tel Aviv en masse since early July to call on the government to meet their socioeconomic demands in the light of the unprecedented recession and economic crisis in Europe.

New York Times wrote that many people have compared Silman to the Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi whose committing suicide on January 4, 2011 became the preface to the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring which totally transformed the political equations in the Middle East. However, the chained self-immolations in the past weeks in Israel are not exceptional. Although few may remember the tragic event, back in July 2004, an Israeli citizen named Mordehai Cohen set himself on fire in protest at the rejection of work license.

Moshe Silman was formerly a businessman, working in a messenger service; however, as the media reported, his business plummeted following the Second Intifada and his being unable to pay back the debt of the National Insurance Institute caused his homelessness. Irritated and hopeless, he set himself on fire, and a few days after the doctors said that 92 percent of his body had burnt, he passed away.

Before committing suicide, Silman wrote a letter, part of which reads, "I have no money for medicine or rent. I can’t make the money after I have paid my millions in taxes I did the army, and until age 46 I did reserve duty. I refuse to be homeless; this is why I am protesting."

The other case of self-immolation in Israel took place when the 40-year-old Akiva Mafa'i who was identified as a 25 percent Israel Defense Force (IDF) veteran fired himself in an excruciating manner. The Defense Ministry denied that his self-immolation had any connection with his status as a military veteran, but his brother thinks differently. He says that IDF behaves toward the war veterans apathetically and indifferently, paying no attention to the fact that they have sacrificed themselves to "contribute to the state."

Israel's economic woes and popular protests at the deteriorating social, political and economic situation of the regime is nothing new. Financial hardships and increasing gap between the rich and poor in Israel have ignited widespread protests since last year. It can be said that Israel's reliance on the United States and EU's ailing economy has dragged it into the current crisis. EU considers Israel a "privileged partner." EU is Israel's first trade partner and in 2011, the bilateral trade between the two sides amounted to approximately € 29.4 billion.

But the economic indicators don't carry promising news for Israel. As of December 31, 2010, Israel's external debt revolved around USD 89 billion which roughly constituted 43% of Israel's total GDP.

According to New Israel Fund, 20 percent of the Israeli citizens and one in three children live below the poverty line.

On July 24, the Israeli media published a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded an increase in the taxes and a considerable cut in the budget so as to prevent Israel's economy from sliding into a more debilitating crisis.

Israel is sinking in poverty and foreign debt while its hawkish leaders spend lavishly on military equipments and buying state-of-the-art weaponry from different countries.

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPR), Israel is the 18th country of the world in terms of military expenditure. This is while it receives an annual USD 3.09 billion from the United States in military assistance. And just recently, it was reported that the U.S. President Barack Obama has signed into law a U.S. Congress bill that allows the government to gives Israel another USD 70 million in military assistance.

All in all, Israel's economy isn't experiencing delightful days. The mass protests in Tel Aviv and other cities relate the bitter story of Israel's failed economy. Perhaps it might be better for the Israeli leaders to deal with their people's problems and think of solutions to get out of the current crisis rather than pulling out all the stops to suppress a defenseless, besieged people in Gaza, kill the innocent Palestinian children and women and design malicious ploys to attack Syria and Iran.

-###-

- Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist. He has interviewed political commentator and linguist Noam Chomsky, member of New Zealand parliament Keith Locke, Australian politician Ian Cohen, member of German Parliament Ruprecht Polenz, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, former U.S. National Security Council advisor Peter D. Feaver, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry Kurt Wüthrich, Nobel Prize laureate in biology Robin Warren, famous German political prisoner Ernst Zündel, Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff, American author Stephen Kinzer, syndicated journalist Eric Margolis, former aSiddiqiistant of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, American-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud, former President of the American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sid Ganis, American international relations scholar Stephen Zunes, American singer and songwriter David Rovics, American political scientist and anthropologist William Beeman, British journalist Andy Worthington, Australian author and blogger Antony Loewenstein, Iranian geopolitics expert Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, American historian and author Michael A. Hoffman II and Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon.