A Swedish woman who had been granted permission to burn a Hebrew Bible outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Friday decided against the act.
Instead, the 50-year-old woman burned a blank sheet of paper and stated it was a “symbol of the Swedish system that is empty of content.”
This marks the second time in two weeks that a planned burning of a Hebrew Bible was eventually abandoned.
The previous activist who made such a request backed down and did not go through with the Torah burning, saying the real reason for the protest was to draw attention to the difference between freedom of speech and offending other ethnic groups.
Israeli authorities on Thursday had denounced the granting of permission to burn a Hebrew Bible for a second time in Stockholm.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said, “I’m appalled by another threat to burn a Torah in Sweden. Threats to harm holy books and Torahs must stop.”
“Soon I will speak with Sweden’s foreign minister and make clear to him that we expect the Swedish government to prevent these events, which could harm relations between our countries,” Cohen added.
Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer criticized the plans as well, saying, “I strongly condemn the intention to burn the Torah, which is so holy to the Jewish people. This is a shameful event that cheapens the sacred value of the book and critically harms the Jews in the entire world.”
“I expect that the authorities in Stockholm will take immediate action to cancel the provocative event. Harming religions is a shameful and offensive event,” added Sofer.
The plans to burn copies of the Bible follow the recent burning of a Quran in Stockholm by an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden, which caused an uproar in the Muslim world.
Last week, hundreds of rioters protesting the burning of the Quran in Sweden stormed the Swedish embassy in Iraq and set the building on fire.
Iraq later announced it would cut diplomatic ties with Sweden and expel the Swedish ambassador. Last week, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah welcomed the move and urged other countries to follow suit.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)