Israeli ambassador issues 'hate' warning ahead of Torah burning in Stockholm

Man planning to set fire to Jewish holy book outside embassy in Sweden after police approve protest

Police have given a man, who plans to burn a Torah in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, permission to hold ‘a meeting' at the site. EPA

A protester’s plan to burn a Torah in Stockholm could ignite hatred of the Jewish community, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden has warned.

Ziv Nevo Kulman condemned the demonstrator’s intention, only weeks after a man set a Quran alight outside Stockholm's central mosque.

Stockholm Police told The National an application for a “meeting” outside the Israeli embassy at 1pm (12pm UK time) on Saturday had been given the go-ahead.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit out at Sweden's “shameful decision” to offer the green light to the demonstration.

Mr Kulman likened the planned protest to the Bebelplatz book burning of 1933, when Nazi-supporting students in Berlin threw about 20,000 books on to a bonfire because their ideology was at odds with their messages.

“Words don't kill but they tend to trigger reactions beyond what is spoken. The book bonfire at Bebelplatz was just the beginning,” Mr Kulman wrote in an opinion piece for Swedish newspaper Expressen.

Writing on Twitter, he said such an “act of hate and disrespect” had “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.

Carena Skagerlind, a press officer at Stockholm Police, said the force would send a team of officers to the Israeli embassy to ensure no one was hurt.

Amid international condemnation over the planned protest, she stressed the burning of any book had not been approved by police.

“It’s very important to point out that the police do not give approval to such acts,” she told The National. “We give permission to have a meeting and that’s the difference.”

Asked about the person’s plan to burn a Jewish holy script, she said: “We have given permission for one person to have a meeting in front of the embassy tomorrow, Saturday, at 1pm. But that does not mean that we say it’s OK to do that act. That’s up to the person.”

The application, which was approved on Thursday, grants permission to a person “to express an opinion” in a public place.

“We have 50 different meetings where people are expressing their opinions in Stockholm across the weekend,” she added. “That’s how it looks in Stockholm every weekend.”

She said police would attend to ensure the “meeting” passes off “without any disturbance”.

After an Iraqi-born man set pages of the Quran alight in the Swedish capital in June, Muslim worshippers and residents told The National they were in shock.

The desecration of the book close to the place of worship drew international condemnation from the UAE, Morocco, Kuwait and Iraq, among others.

Pope Francis said he felt “indignant and disgusted” by the act.

Outrage from Israeli officials poured in on Friday after it emerged police had approved a protest by a man who plans to burn a Torah.

A source in the Jewish community in the Swedish city of Malmo said the protester is also plotting to burn a Bible.

Mr Netanyahu hit out at the approved protest.

“I strongly condemn the decision of the authorities in Sweden to allow the burning of a Bible book in front of the Israeli embassy in the country,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

“The state of Israel takes very seriously this shameful decision that damages the Holy of Holies of the Jewish people. The sacred books of all religions must be respected.”

Israeli President 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 heart-broken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people.”

Rabbi Moshe David HaCohen, based in Malmo, told The National the Jewish community in Sweden was working with the Muslim community to try to stop the burning of sacred religious texts.

The Jewish teacher works with Salahuddin Barakat, an imam of Lebanese origin who is based in Sweden, to create cohesion between faith groups and said there is a “partnership of trust” between Muslims and Jews.

When Salwan Momika, an Iraqi man living in Sweden, desecrated a Quran in Stockholm last month, the Jewish community condemned him for the attack.

After a Quran was set on fire outside the Turkish embassy in January all the Jewish communities across Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden came out with a historical statement condemning it, he said.

“They were reminded of what the Nazi regime did,” Rabbi HaCohen said in an interview with The National.

“We came out in solidarity with the Muslim and now they are working with us to try to prevent this action.

“We feel that the protest right now should be against what is being allowed by the Swedish authorities.

“It must be labelled as the hate crime that it is.”

Rabbi HaCohen said his community do not plan to turn up outside the Israeli embassy to make their disapproval known, because “we are not giving that attention”.