Israel condemns Sweden for allowing Torah to be burned outside embassy
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Israel’s president has condemned as “pure hate” plans to burn a Jewish religious text outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm over the weekend.
Police have approved a request by a man aged in his 30s to burn either a Torah scroll or a Jewish Bible outside the embassy, according to local media reports. He also intends to burn a Christian Bible.
The stunt was described in Swedish media reports as “a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech”.
The Jewish Bible burning protest is due to take place on Saturday, but Israeli officials have lodged an official complaint, calling it a “hate crime”.
It has also drawn the ire of Israel’s president, foreign minister and minister for diaspora of affairs as well as a string of less senior Israeli politicians.
The Swedish foreign ministry has reportedly responded to Israel by saying that it cannot infringe on the free speech rights of its citizens.
In a statement on Friday, Isaac Herzog said:
I unequivocally condemn the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books. As the President of Israel, I condemned the burning of the Quran, sacred to Muslims world over, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people.
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) July 14, 2023
David Lau, Israel’s chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, said: “I call on you to do everything possible to prevent this act. Freedom of expression does not mean permitting everything… any desecration of sacred Jewish items is not freedom, but antisemitism,” he said.
The move was also condemned by Eli Cohen, the Israeli foreign minister, who called on Swedish authorities “to prevent this shameful act”.
It comes after Swedish police allowed a Quran to be burned outside a mosque in Stockholm on grounds of free speech after a Swedish court overturned a ban on burning the religious text.
