Israeli protester who set himself alight dies in hospital Protesters in Tel Aviv chant slogans in support of Moshe Silman who set himself on fire during a demonstration the day before. Photograph: David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images A 57-year-old Israeli protester who set himself alight at a demonstration in Tel Aviv last Saturday has died from his injuries. Moshe Silman suffered 94% burns to his body after dousing himself with petrol and setting himself on fire as a protest over the high cost of living in Israel drew to a close. His death on Friday afternoon was expected. Hours after he was admitted last week, doctors at the Sheba medical centre in Tel Hashomer had warned relatives that his chances of survival were slim. On Friday morning, he was given just hours to live. Despite the tragedy of his death, friends and fellow activists insisted that Silman would not have regretted his final act of protest. "There was protest in his soul," said one friend, who had attended rallies with Silman in Haifa, the port town where he lived. "He waited for it to break out and was glad when it did," the friend added. Leaders of the popular movement, active since the "tent protests" of last summer, have stressed that they do not support or condone self-immolation. However, Silman's relatives and friends expressed little surprised that he ended his life with such a dramatic act. The details that have emerged of Silman's private life since his self-immolation have indicated a troubled existence. The son of Holocaust survivors, he never married and had no children, which is why his requests for public housing were denied repeatedly. Having earned a living from odd jobs, he set up a messenger service in 2000, which failed during the unrest of the second intifada. Two years ago, unable to afford the cost of living in Tel Aviv, he moved to Haifa where he became deeply involved in the social protest movement. Despite receiving state support for disabilities resulting from a stroke, he had become unable to pay his medical bills and rent. Silman's sister Elul said that her brother was in despair. He was mired in debt. Until the last moment we helped him but he didn't want it. Since the day he lost everything, the day they took everything - the house, his trucks, the money, my parents' house - he has been going downhill," she said. In the suicide note he distributed shortly before setting himself alight, Silman blamed Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and the finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, for his actions. "I refuse to be homeless, this is why I am protesting," he wrote. Against all the injustices done to me by the state, me and others like me. Thousands protested last Sunday in solidarity with Silman, angry that he had been driven to such desperation. It remains to be seen whether his death will invigorate the protests that have failed to garner the popular support of last year, when almost half a million Israelis took to the streets to demand social change.