US IMMIGRANT TO ISRAEL SETS SELF ON FIRE TO PROTEST GAZA PULLOUT

US immigrant sets himself on fire to protest Gaza pullout
A 32-year-old American immigrant set himself on fire outside his Jerusalem ulpan Wednesday, critically injuring himself, in protest over Israel's pullout from Gaza, police and rescue officials said. The victim, who was identified by his Hebrew name,Baruch Ben-Menachem but was born Bret Taback, had wrapped himself in a blanket and doused his body with gasoline in the courtyard of the city's popular Ulpan Etzion where he was studying Hebrew.

The single Jewish man, who moved to Israel lastyear, was gravely injured in the afternoonincident, suffering from first-degree burns on 70percent of his body. A security guard who first noticed smoke coming out of the courtyard of the ulpan at around 3 p.m. began putting out the flames on the man's burning body with a fire extinguisher, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

Magen David Adom paramedics who were called to thescene in the city's upscale Baka district rushed the semi-conscious man to Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital at Ein Kerem. A hospital spokeswoman said that the man was incritical condition in the hospital's intensive care unit. Paramedic Hanan Hovev said that the man, who murmured a mixture of Hebrew and English in the ambulance, was given various sedatives on the way to hospital since he had difficulty breathing from his first degree burns and was unconscious on arrival at the hospital.

Hovev said that the victim mumbled "I did it because of Gush Katif."