Israel condemns bible burning

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Israel’s government condemned the burning of Christian bibles in an Israeli town.

“The Foreign Ministry condemns the recent burning of the New Testament in Or Yehuda and views it as contrary to the values of the State of Israel as a democratic Jewish state that grants freedom of religion and freedom of worship to all its citizens,” the ministry said Thursday in a one-sentence statement.

It was not clear why the Foreign Ministry issued a statement concerning a domestic matter.

Residents of the central Israeli town burned New Testaments last week after the mayor urged them to discard missionary literature distributed to residences.

The burnings have also been condemned by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella body for Jewish advocacy groups in the United States, as well as the Conservative movement.

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