Radio Islam and Agencies | 15 November 2016

In protest against proposed Israeli legislation that could ban the use of loudspeakers to broadcast the Athaan in Israel/1948 Palestine, Muslim members of the Knesset on Monday chanted the words of the Muslim call to prayer within the Israeli parliament chambers.

Both MK Taleb Abu Arar and MK Ahmed Tibi of the Joint Arab List called out the Athaan before leaving the Knesset podium.

Tibi said his move was meant to protest the Israeli bill that aims to bar mosques from using loudspeakers for the call to prayer in East Jerusalem and Arab communities in Israel.

“This law reflects the fascism that grows inside the Israeli community,” Tibi told Anadolu Agency.

He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of standing behind the controversial bill.

“I cannot count the times, they are simply too numerous, that citizens have turned to me from all parts of Israeli society, from all religions, with complaints about the noise and suffering caused them by the excessive noise coming to them from the public address systems of houses of prayer,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying recently.

“Israel is a country that respects freedom of religion for all faiths. Israel is also committed to defending those who suffer from the loudness of the excessive noise of the announcements,” he added. “I support similar legislation and enforcement in the State of Israel.”

On Saturday, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved the anti-Adhan bill before it goes to the Knesset, where it then must pass three rounds of voting before becoming law.

Tibi called on Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Israel to stage disobedience against the bill.

“Palestinians and Muslims around the world must work to thwart the Israeli decision to limit the call to prayer,” he said.

Netanyahu on Sunday claimed that the bill enjoyed a wide popular support, while Palestinians have roundly condemned the move as a blatant violation of Palestinians’ freedom to worship.

In a statement, Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh warned that the Israeli bill will drag the region into a disaster.

“The Israeli actions are completely unacceptable,” he said. “The Palestinian leadership will go to the UN Security Council and to all international institutions to stop the escalating Israeli measures,” he said.

PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi released a statement on Monday saying, “With its legislation that violates freedom of worship, Israel is interfering in one of the most basic tenants of Islam. This is a direct blow to tolerance and inclusion, and it constitutes a serious provocation to all Muslims.”

Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian Authority (PA)-appointed governor of Jerusalem, told Ma’an at the time of the anti-adhan protest that the sound of the call to prayer didn’t rise above an agreed-upon decibel level, adding that Israeli settlers were not annoyed by the noise, but by the call to prayer as a reminder of Palestinian presence in Jerusalem.

Hatem Abd Al-Qader, a Fatah official in charge of Jerusalem affairs, said that Israel aimed to provoke Muslims by attempting to ban the call to prayer.

Abd al-Qader added that Israeli settler protest against the adhan came amid constant violations and raids of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem’s Old City, and demolition of Muslim graves in Jerusalem, which he said were part of a broader Israeli plan to destroy the Palestinian Muslim and Christian identities of Jerusalem and replace them with a Jewish one, turning the Israeli-Palestinian political conflict into a religious one.

In a Khutbah on Friday, Al Aqsa Masjid Imam, Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri attacked Israel’s attempt to ban the athaan, saying, “Israel has no right to intervene with the call of the muezzin, because it is contrary to freedom of worship.”

“Anyone who is angered by the call of the muezzin, should leave (the country),” he declared.

The Mufti said the call to prayer was not just a Muslim religious ritual, but an act of worship.

Sabri added that the real noise pollution was the sound of Israeli military jets hovering over the Jerusalem sky, the sound of Israeli military tanks raiding Palestinian cities and villages, and the noise of bombs fired at Palestinian citizens.

Locals said that Israeli authorities banned the dawn adhan from being projected over loudspeakers in three different mosques in the Jerusalem district town of Abu Dis earlier this month, a day after Israeli settlers protested in front of the house of Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barakat over the “noise pollution” caused by the Muslim call to prayer.