Sweden authorizes a protest in which a Torah will be burned in front of the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm

Israel’s president “unequivocally” criticizes what he describes as a manifestation of “pure hatred”

July 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Swedish authorities have given their permission to a protest this Saturday in front of the Israeli Embassy in which a copy of the Torah will be burned, which has sparked criticism from the Israeli Government and which will take place days after the burning of a copy of the Koran provoked a wave of condemnation from Muslim countries.

According to the information collected by the Swedish newspaper ‘Expressen’, the authorization has been given by the Stockholm Police after a petition presented several days ago. Some media suggest that a copy of the Bible could also be burned.

For the moment, no further details have been disclosed about the act, which has been criticized “unequivocally” by the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, who has stressed in a statement that it is a manifestation of “pure hatred”.

“I unequivocally condemn the permission given in Sweden to burn sacred books,” he said, before stressing that he also condemns the recent burning of a copy of the Koran, “sacred for Muslims around the world.”

“It saddens me that the same fate awaits the Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people,” stressed Herzog, who stated that “allowing the desecration of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, but rather a flagrant incitement,” according to the Israeli newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.

Thus, Herzog has called on the international community to “come together to clearly condemn this repulsive act”, some criticism that has been joined by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has stressed that “Israel considers this very severely shameful decision.”

For his part, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, has revealed that he has conveyed to the Swedish Embassy in Tel Aviv “the seriousness with which Israel sees this permission by the Police to cause damage to Jewish sacred objects”. “It is a hate crime and a provocation that causes great damage to the people and to the Jewish tradition”, he has settled.

The United Nations Human Rights Council approved a resolution on Wednesday condemning the desecration of the Koran and other acts of religious hatred, despite the fact that several countries had warned that the text could undermine freedom of expression, after an urgent debate demanded by Pakistan following the burning of a copy of the Koran during a June demonstration outside a Stockholm mosque.

The body stated in its account on the social network Twitter that the vote on the resolution, entitled “Facing religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence”, had resulted in 28 votes in favor, twelve against and seven abstentions.

The text approved by the UN Human Rights Council includes a condemnation of “all advocacy and manifestations of religious hatred, including recent, public and premeditated acts, which have entailed a desecration of the Koran”, while demanding that countries approve laws to prosecute those responsible for this type of act.